Architecture
June 3, 2009 by blogtopia
Filed under Definitions
The term architecture (from Greek word αρχιτεκτονική,pronounced architektonike) can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.
As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and constructing buildings and other physical structures primarily to provide shelter. A wider definition often includes the design of the total built environment, from the macro level of how a building integrates with its surrounding landscape (see town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture) to the micro level of architectural or construction details and, sometimes, furniture. Wider still, architecture is the activity of designing any kind of system.
Vienna Secession
May 30, 2009 by blogtopia
Filed under Architectural style
The Vienna Secession (also known as the Union of Austrian Artists, or Vereiningung Bildender Künstler Österreichs) was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus.This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects. The first president of the Secession was Gustav Klimt, and Rudolf von Alt was made honorary president.
The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, and others. Although Otto Wagner is widely recognised as a fundamental member of the Vienna Secession he was not a founding member. The Secession artists objected to the prevailing conservatism of the Vienna Künstlerhaus with its traditional orientation toward Historicism.The Berlin and Munich Secession movements preceded the Vienna Secession, which held its first exhibition in 1898.
Victorian architecture
May 30, 2009 by blogtopia
Filed under Architectural style
The term Victorian architecture can refer to one of a number of architectural styles predominantly employed during the Victorian era. As with the latter, the period of building that it covers may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria after whom it is named. There are also Folk and Shingle Style Victorian Houses. Many homes combined the elements of several different styles and are not easily distinguishable as one particular style or another. In the USA, Highly decorated houses are sometimes called gingerbread houses.
Notable Victorian era cities include London, Toronto, Boston, Richmond, Saint Paul, St. Louis, Louisville, Galena, IL, Galveston, San Francisco, Chicago, Detroit, Glasgow, Nelson, Sydney, Melbourne, Manchester, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pittsburgh, Philidelphia, Grand Rapids, and New Orleans.
Usonian
May 30, 2009 by blogtopia
Filed under Architectural style
Usonia is a word used by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright to refer to his vision for the landscape of the United States, including the planning of cities and the architecture of buildings. Wright proposed the use of the adjective Usonian in place of American to describe the particular New World character of the American landscape as distinct and free of previous architectural conventions.
Although rarely used in the sense of “U.S. citizen”, Usonian is more common than the alternatives. Variants of the Jacobs House design are still in existence today and do not look overly dated. The Usonian design is considered among the aesthetic origins of the popular “ranch” tract home popular in the American west of the 1950s.
Ukrainian Baroque
May 30, 2009 by blogtopia
Filed under Architectural style
Ukrainian Baroque or Cossack Baroque is an architectural style that emerged in Ukraine during the Hetmanate era, in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Ukrainian Baroque is distinct from the Western European Baroque in having more moderate ornamentation and simpler forms, and as such was considered more constructivist. Many Ukrainian Baroque buildings have been preserved, including several buildings in Kiev Pechersk Lavra and the Vydubychi Monastery in Kiev.