Rodrigo S. Najarro Jr.

BS-ARCH 3C
History of Architecture 3 (TTH 2:30-4:00)

Answer the Following:

1. Differentiate the characteristics of different Neoclassic style

Karl Friedrich Schinkel

 Proportion façade, columns, etc.

 Frontal Column (Corinthian).
 Some structures are raised up and a stairs
leading up to the porch area surrounded
by a row of corinthian and ion columns.
 Asymmetrical Design specially on his
landscape design.
 Symmetrical distribution of spaces.
 Planar exterior design but grand and
luxurious interior design.
Sir John Soane
 Huge windows to utilize natural lighting inside the structure.
 The top or the crown of the dome has windows to let the natural light to illuminate
inside. It creates a dramatic effect specially when it’s a church just like St. Peter’s
Basilica.
 Array of spaces lit by clerestories and top lights articulated by layered wall planes and
reflected by both flat and convex mirrors.
 Ornaments are most often incised, or cut into the surface, in order to emphasize spatial
volumes.
Benjamin Henry Latorbe and Thomas Jefferson
 The use of Tobacco-leaf capitals.
 Combining Greek Ionic porticoes front and back and a central dome with oculus that
covered the monumental banking space.
 Simple Geometric plain surfaces, and minimal ornaments of a designer sometimes called
a rational classist.
 Jefferson used Ionic instead of Corinthian.
 Most buildings are raised up.
 U-shaped distribution of spaces when he designs campuses linked by colonnades and
punctuated by large pavilions serving as lecture halls and faculty residence.
 2. Research on the life and works of the following pillars of Gothic Revivalism. Focus on
the samples of their works, their philosophy and contribution to the movement:

The Gothic Revival was primarily an architectural movement that began in 1740s England.
Also termed Victorian Gothic and Neo-Gothic, the style sought to revive medieval forms, much
like the Neoclassical style sought to revive works from classical antiquity. During the 18th
century, the ruins of medieval Gothic architecture began to receive newfound appreciation
after having been relatively dismissed in the overall history of architecture. Some critics believe
there was a kind of nostalgia for an enchanted, less rational world that was linked to the
perceived superstitions of medieval Catholicism.

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879)

 He was a French architect and author who restored many prominent medieval
landmarks in France, including those which had been damaged or abandoned during the
French Revolution. His major restoration projects included Notre-Dame de Paris, the
Basilica of Saint Denis, Mont Saint-Michel, Sainte-Chapelle, and the medieval walls of
the city of Carcassonne. His later writings on the relationship between form and
function in architecture had a notable influence on a new generation of architects,
including Antoni Gaudí, Victor Horta, and Louis Sullivan.
 A polymath, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le Duc (b. 1814–d. 1879), is best-known today as
a restoration architect and champion of the Gothic style whose influential theoretical
writings on form and function collected in the ten-volume Dictionnaire raisonné de
l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle (translated loosely as The Foundations of
Architecture; 1854–1868).
 In this he followed two ideas, the desire to bring to light the authentic monument, and
the conviction that the aesthetic value of medieval art, and most especially Gothic art, is
a matter of its technical value and its architectural creativity. Some of his restoration
work closely followed the work of medieval artists, as catalogued in his treatise
Conversations on Architecture (1858-72); but he is more noted for combining historical
fact with creative modification in order to create the perfect "medieval-style" building.
 His spire was something he believed the original builders would have created if they had
the technology and the imagination. In his view it made Notre-Dame a more complete
work of gothic architecture.
 "To restore a building is not to preserve it, to repair, or rebuild it; it is to reinstate it in a
condition of completeness which could never have existed at any given time," wrote
Viollet-le-Duc in his book the Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au
XVIe siècle (Dictionary of French Architecture from 11th to 16th century).
 Viollet-le-Duc's fake spike enhanced one of Paris' most-loved buildings, and became
much loved itself. A modern design to replace Viollet-le-Duc's 19th century intervention
could do the same.
Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878)
 Scott, Sir George Gilbert ( ‘Great’) (1811–78). Prolific English Gothic Revival architect. He
was articled to James Edmeston (1791–1867) in 1827, who was better known as a writer
of hymns (‘Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us’ (1821) was one of his efforts) than as an
architect, and later joined the office of Henry Roberts in 1832, where he worked on the
new Fishmongers' Hall, London, and on a school at Camberwell (1834). Early in 1835 he
assisted Sampson Kempthorne (1809–73), Architect to the Poor Law Commissioners,
who produced several designs for workhouses and schools that were published and
widely copied in the 1830s and 1840s.
 The first real success was when Scott & Moffatt won the competition (1840) to design
the Martyrs' Memorial, Oxford (1840–2— a finely detailed version of the C13 ‘Eleanor
Crosses’). At the same time, Scott designed a new north (or Martyrs') aisle for the
nearby Church of St Mary Magdalen, the first archaeologically correct piece of C19
Gothic Revival in Oxford, demonstrating that he had acquired sufficient expertise to be
considered as a scholarly Goth in his own right. In 1842 the firm was selected to design
the Church of St Giles, Camberwell, London (consecrated 1844—which gained the
approval of Ecclesiologists). By 1841 Scott had started to immerse himself in the writings
of A. W. N. Pugin, which excited him (he declared he had been awakened from his
slumbers by their ‘thunder’), and he began to contribute to The Ecclesiologist, the
influential journal of the Cambridge Camden (later Ecclesiological) Society.
 As a church architect, Scott sometimes had his drawbacks. In his A Plea for the Faithful
Restoration of Our Ancient Churches (1850) and other writings he argued for a
sensitivity in dealing with ancient fabric he did not always show in practice. Indeed, his
work at St Mary de Castro, Leicester, was mechanical. The Society for the Protection of
Ancient Buildings (SPAB) was founded by William Morris in 1877 as a direct result of
Scott's draconian proposals for the ‘restoration’ of Tewkesbury Abbey, Glos. However,
he worked on over 300 churches and cathedrals, and often had to swallow his own
principles because of the destructive ambitions of clergy and building committees.
 Among the Cathedrals (in addition to those mentioned above) he restored were
Canterbury (1860, 1877–80), Chester (1868–75), Chichester (1861–7 and 1872), Durham
(1859, 1874–6), Exeter (1869–77), Gloucester (1854–76), Ripon (1862–74), and
Rochester (1871–4). His work on old buildings was, for the most part, firmly based on
scholarship, and he was sensitive to detail: in addition, it should be remembered that he
had to adapt them for contemporary worship, at a time when the Anglican Church was
powerful, vigorous, and permeated every corner of national life. He was a tireless
advocate of Gothic as the only style in which to build, as in his Remarks on Secular &
Domestic Architecture Present and Future (1857). His Personal and Professional
Recollections (1879) is entertaining and interesting. His Gleanings from Westminster
Abbey (1860), was scholarly, and demonstrates his great love for medieval architecture,
to the understanding of which he devoted his life,