Imperial Architecture Research Articles

Byzantine Octagon Domed Churches of the 11th Century and the Roman Imperial Architecture

Summing up both the archaeological and textual evidence, it is possible to suggest that octagon domed churches did not appear out of nowhere. After the Iconoclasm era the centralized architectural designs were still the important loci for staging certain distinguished events of the imperial cult of both the living and the deceased emperors. So investigation of the Roman imperial mausolea and palatial aulae used for official ceremonies as the predecessors of the Byzantine architectural designs may yield some significant results. Renewed functioning of the complex of the Holy Apostles and the aulae of the Great Palace confirm that the centralized design and especially the octagonal one, were not only actual for the Byzantine architecture in the 9th–11th centuries, but this pattern was still able to convey a very special content, that of the idea of basilea as the sacral power and status of a Byzantine emperor. Being a viable architectural pattern, the octagonal type may have been seen as a fruitful area for construction and design experiments, and the necessary impulse for them may have been provided by the building activity under Basil I, when his architects had to restore a significant number of the Early Byzantine edifices in Constantinople and its suburbs. Thus, it may be suggested that the extant octagon domed churches of the 11th century, seen from this angle, may be considered as the result of blending the two types of design: cross-in-square church, being a symbol of monastic communities who were gathering strength, and octagonal church still closely linked to imperial/metropolitan commission.

The late imperial site of Inca-Caranqui, northern highland Ecuador: at the end of empire

This article reports on recent investigations at the late imperial site of Inca-Caranqui located at the northernmost edge of Tawantinsuyu. The interdisciplinary research conducted at this site since 2008 has been aimed at exploring the role of imperial architecture as a material strategy of Inca statecraft and the extent to which such strategies may have evolved as a function of time and distance from the imperial capital of Cuzco. Investigations at the site have involved the use of a variety of methodological techniques as well as controlled excavations and ethnohistoric research. An overview of the ethnohistoric context of the site together with some of the preliminary results of our fieldwork are presented in this article.

Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Leiden/Boston: E. J. Brill, 2004). Pp. 326. $164.00 cloth.

Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and 17th Centuries (Leiden/Boston: E. J. Brill, 2004). Pp. 326. $164.00 cloth. - Volume 40 Issue 1

Review: The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and 17th Centuries, by Heghnar Watenpaugh and Planning Middle Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope in a Globalizing World, by Yasser Elsheshtawy

Review: <i>The Image of an Ottoman City: Imperial Architecture and Urban Experience in Aleppo in the 16th and 17th Centuries</i>, by Heghnar Watenpaugh and <i>Planning Middle Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope in a Globalizing World</i>, by Yasser Elsheshtawy

Stone use in Roman towns: Resources, transport, products and clients: Case study Sirmium: First report

The project work in 2006 season included the analysis of stone monuments held at the Museum of Srem as well as their documentation. For limestone used at Sirmium at least two sources were established: Lithotypes I and III came from the Dardagani quarry along the Drina River, while Lithotype II most probably came from the wider area of Pannonia along the Danube. White marble was coming to Sirmium from the 1st to the 3rd century predominantly from the Eastern Alps (Gummern, Pohorje), from the end of the 3rd century also from the Mediterranean (Luni, Paros, Dokimeion, Proconnesos), while colored marble, tied to the imperial architecture at Sirmium, was being imported from imperial and other quarries across the Mediterranean (North Africa Italy, Asia Minor, Greece).

J.B.フィッシャー・フォン・エルラッハの空間構成の研究 : 「縦長楕円形と矩形」組合せモチーフの平面構成分析

This paper is an attempt to interpret Fischer's architectural system, which built up the "imperial architecture" in Austria. In this study, the mixture of motif in "longitudinally oval + rectangle" used in his ground plans and some another related works, is analyzed by a systematic interpretation, namely by an analysis of the architectural process, the basic ground motif and the synthetic element of the geometrical form from the comprehensive viewpoint. The results of the analysis as follows: 1) The motif of "longitudinally oval + rectangle" in Fischer' s plans is exemplified by the plan of Rancy castle (designed by Le Vau). Engelhartstetten castle, a projekt of LustgebSude (plesure house) and LustgartengebSude (plesure house with garden) are other examples that are almost based directly on this motif. However, Hofbibliothek (Royal Library) in Vienna is developed into one united space without any partition walls. 2) Engelhartstetten and LustgebSude are using the similar fundamental composition of space. 3) LustgebSude built up the basis in the motif of "longitudinally oval + rectangle" and the motif of a concave fasade. This is added to other motifs, e.g. "an arrangement of three rectangle spaces on the same side of the fasade". 4) The device of the outside fasade of Hofbibliothek, which hides the inner oval sight, is derived from Turny casle (designed by Jean Marrot).

Modernism in Italian architecture, 1890-1940

Part 1 Modernism before World War I: the first Italian exposition of architecture arte nuova - Turin 1902 Sant'Elia - from arte nuova to futurism contextualism and the reasoned picturesque a modern vernacular architecture. Part 2 Modernism between the wars: decorative novecento architecture the birth of Italian rationalism rationalist architecture - a contextual avant-garde geometric novecento architecture. Part 3 Modernism and fascism: the rationalist discovery of fascism imperial architecture for the fascist revolution - Rome 1924-1934 the Casa del Fascio, Como the Eposizione Universale of 1942 the Danteum, Rome Italian rationalism and anti-semitism.

"Light Sorrow": Siegfried Kracauer as Literary Critic

To study a well-known author within a lesser-known discipline is not to diminish his accomplishments or stature. Historians of modem thought are well aware that Siegfried Kracauer was first an architect, then a sociologist, ajournalist, and a novelist, and finally a historian and a theorist of film and historiography. But are we thus obligated to maintain that he approached his Sociology as Science scientifically, his novels literarily, The White-Collar Workers sociologically, Jacques Offenbach musically, film cinematically, and history historically, as his critics in the various disciplines have traditionally argued? In other words, did his object determine his methods, or did his methods determine his objects? To be sure, the architect used buildings to critique imperial architecture; the novelist wrote Ginster and Georg to critique New Objectivity; the sociologist used montage imagery to critique The White-Collar Workers; the chronicler of the Second Empire used its internal tendencies toward Bonapartism to critique the Kaiserreich; the film historian put fascism on trial; the philosopher of history Kracauer's last role critiqued the privileging of linear time. Using existing conditions as his raw material, this author managed to propose countermodels for these same conditions for always implicit in his critique was an emphatic belief in the perfectability of the basic social contract. As Kracauer developed from a critic of his day into a historiographer of his time, the energy driving him, already apparent in his work at the Frankfurter Zeitung, was later channeled into deeply meditative books that took decades to write. There is no question that the exile experience was damaging to every aspect of the exiles' lives, and Kracauer was no exception. Still, the trace left by this transition in the fabric of

Some Formal Correspondences between the Imperial Architecture of the Wari and Chimu Cultures of Ancient Peru

The degree and nature of the influence of the Middle Horizon Wari empire (ca. A.D. 540-900) on the culture history of Peru's north coast has been a topic of much heated debate over the past two decades. The arguments have tended to polarize around the issue of whether or not there was a Wari invasion of the north coast. Those arguing against the invasion hypothesis have claimed that there was no direct Wari influence on north coast cultural history. Those arguing in favor of the invasion hypothesis have attributed nearly all changes evident in the archaeological record to the results of a Wari military conquest. An attempt is made here to decouple the issues of Wari influence and Wari invasion. In an analysis of the architecture of the Wari imperial administrative sites and the ciudadela architecture of Chan Chan, capital of the north coastal Chimu empire, some remarkable similarities are seen. The shift from the pre-Middle Horizon Moche (ca. 100 B.C.-A.D. 650) pattern of pyramid-dominated ceremonial centers to the Late Intermediate period (ca. A.D. 900-1476) ciudadela form of the Chimu is seen as a result of conscious imitation of the prestige Wari imperial style. It is argued that this imitation is a likely result regardless of whether or not there was a Wari invasion.

A Rereading of the Interior Elevation of Hadrian's Rotunda

The Pantheon, in particular the interior of the Rotunda, has posed a paradox: unrestrained praise for its overall effect; severe criticism for its interior elevation. The criticisms were rooted in a Renaissance perception of Roman imperial architecture, a perception based too heavily on a Vitruvian view of Hellenistic trabeate architectural design, largely irrelevant to the Rotunda. This view of the critiques of San Gallo the Younger, Michelangelo, Desgodetz, and Viollet-le-Duc leads one to the Roman aims of the Roman architect who designed this interior. I wish to show how the Hadrianic state of the Rotunda may be taken as a projection of the Roman idea of the templum mundi.

Building Construction before Mechanization by John Fitchen

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 677 this case most of the social history is lacking. On the other hand, the clear value that the author has gained from his urban perspective may stimulate other scholars to look more closely at social, economic, and—especially—demographic history. Indeed, it is a disappointment in this second volume, in contrast to the first, to find so little com­ parative material in the all but minimal notes. A more technological approach would have added depth to some of the research findings. One would like to see an investigation of the relationship among the widespread fondness for terraces and urban irrigation, water supply, and dispersal. On the basis of a strong claim for the functional and practical nature of Roman architecture, some consideration of exactly how the engineering and technological ex­ pertise of the empire was diffused and managed throughout the prov­ inces is critical to understanding the vast linkage of the urban systems described. We must endeavor to understand the mechanism of how architectural techniques and style were transmitted if we are to un­ derstand at all what the Romans did and finally achieved in the cities they conquered. What, precisely, emanated from the capital? Above all, we must know what urban systems were really operative before the Roman occupation of a given site or region. These are questions difficult to answer but stimulated by the author’s Roman urban per­ spective. And, despite the fact that important dimensions remain unexplored, MacDonald’s An Urban Appraisal makes a valuable con­ tribution in the articulation of fundamental questions about the broader “content” of Roman imperial architecture. Lynn T. Courtenay Dr. Courtenay teaches in the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin— Whitewater. Building Construction before Mechanization. ByJohn Fitchen. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986. Pp. xvii + 326; illustrations, notes, bibli­ ography, indexes. $25.00. John Fitchen is the author of The Construction of Gothic Cathedrals (1961) and The New World Dutch Barn (1968). In Building Construction before Mechanization, he focuses on the practical problems of builders in a past uncomplicated by the special qualities of new materials, unburdened by the development of metal fatigue. To this end he draws information from structures as ancient as the pyramids and as modern as the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, from 18th- and 19th-century manuals ofadvice for builders, and from contemporary but traditional native practices in putting up shelter by the Hottentots of South Af­ rica, the Hopi of Arizona, the Dyaks of Borneo, and the Haida of British Columbia. It is an extraordinarily far-ranging book, a mine of fascinating information. Before the modern era, builders were 678 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE restricted for permanent construction to such naturally occurring ma­ terials as stone, timber, cement, mud, and earth, as for example in pise; and for temporary shelter to such materials as skins, felt, bark, saplings, and the like. Fitchen considers the properties of building materials and the way in which builders capitalized on their special strengths and attempted to circumvent their weaknesses. He attributes “the close professional collaboration” of the master mason and master carpenter in the construction of the Gothic cathedrals to “the fun­ damentally different nature and properties of the two major building materials of the time, timber and stone” (p. 147), the one providing resistance to compression, the other to tensile forces. The book gives capsule information on factors such as stresses, dead and live loads, oscillation, and wind. Fitchen explains some of the advantages and disadvantages of var­ ious machines and contrivances used to raise or move loads. The Egyptians avoided the use of rollers to raise their sixty-ton stone lintels to rest on top of columns as much as sixty feet above ground. Instead, they preferred to bring in earth to raise the level of the ground as the columns rose. In this way they could avoid problems with “rollers which need a good deal of attention to avoid jamming or running sideways [particularly because] they are slightly thicker in the middle than at the ends . . .” (p. 79, n. 25). It was of the first importance to minimize the possibility of any damage to the huge lintels. This de­ scription...

The Small Baths at Hadrian's Villa

The building is something of a minor celebrity because of its unorthodox plan and the unusual, undulating form of one of its vaults, but it has not been published in any detail. Its fabric, quite well preserved, has now been studied thoroughly with a view to obtaining a reliable base for analysis and for restoration studies. Here the building is described, its plan and interior dispositions analyzed, and its decor and technology reported. Details of chronology, and of the physical state of the building, are given in appendices, drawings, and tables. The artistic nature and historical position of the design are discussed against the background of the architectural principles of the Villa as a whole and within the framework of Roman imperial architecture. Although the Baths are usually regarded in the literature as something of a dead end-interesting, perhaps, but of little significance in the history of architecture-they can be said to be an outstanding example of that experimental strain in Roman architecture which in a sense reached maturity only when certain of its principles were absorbed into the work of postRenaissance, anti-regole masters.

Structure and Design in Ancient Ostia: A Contribution to the Study of Roman Imperial Architecture

Structure and Design in Ancient Ostia: A Contribution to the Study of Roman Imperial Architecture