Global Architectural History: From Prehistory to Modernity AR2022

ESSAY QUESTIONS


PALEOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC

1.Examine the relationship between form, function and structure in one architecture of the Paleolithic or Neolithic society.

Mark Jarzombek,Architecture of First Societies

2.Compare and contrast two different historical understandings of the creation of Stonehenge.

Mike Parker Pearson,Researching Stonehenge: Theories Past and Present

GREECE

3.Discuss the emergence of the Greek temple using two temples of your choice.

Margaret Miles,A Companion to Greek Architecture

4.Illustrate the relationship between Doric and Ionic order in the architecture of the Parthenon.

Margaret Miles,A Companion to Greek Architecture

5.Examine the urban structure of the Greek polis in light of two civic spaces of your choice.

Margaret Miles,A Companion to Greek Architecture

ROME

6.Review some of the major innovations in engineering of the ancient Romans in light of two buildings of your choice.

Roger Ulrich and Caroline Quenemoen,A Companion to Roman Architecture

7.Discuss the main features of Roman domestic architecture, analysing it in the different contexts of town and country.

J.B. Perkins,Roman Imperial Architecture

8.Use the development of Londinium to illustrate the main features of an ancient Roman civic spaces.

J.B. Perkins,Roman Imperial ArchitectureandDominic Perring,Roman London

MIDDLE AGES

9.Compare and contrast two church buildings of your choice to illustrate the transition between Romanesque and Gothic.

Roger Stalley,Early Medieval ArchitectureandNicola Coldstream,Medieval Architecture

10.Examine the relationship between form, function and structure in the architecture of one French Gothic cathedral.

Nicola Coldstream,Medieval Architecture

11.Discuss the figure of the architect in the Middle Ages, using at least a building site as an example.

Roger Stalley,Early Medieval Architectureand/orNicola Coldstream,Medieval Architecture

ISLAM

12.Using two buildings of your choice, discuss the differences between mosques built during different caliphates.

Robert Hillenbrandt,Islamic Art and Architecture

13.Illustrate the relationship between Christian and Islamic architecture in light of either the Dome of the Rock or the Mosque of Cordoba.

Richard Ettinghausen, Oleg Grabar, Marilyn Jenkins-Madina,Islamic Art and Architecture 650-1250

RENAISSANCE

14.Present the importance of the architectural orders in the context of Italian Renaissance architecture.

John Summerson,The Classical Language of Architecture

15.Compare and contrast two Italian Renaissance residential buildings of your choice.

Peter Murray,The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance

16.Examine the arrival of the Italian Renaissance in light of the architecture of Inigo Jones.

John Summerson,Inigo Jones

BAROQUE

17.Compare and contrast a two church buildings of your choice to illustrate the transition between Renaissance and Baroque.

Peter Murray,The Architecture of the Italian RenaissanceandRudolf Wittkower,Art and architecture in Italy 1600-1750

18.Using the gardens of Versailles, discuss the impact of the Baroque on landscape architecture.

Kenneth Woodbridge,Princely Gardens

MODERN LONDON

19.Review the main features of a Georgian terrace in light of one of Londons residential estates.

John Summerson,Georgian London

20.Present the formation and the evolution of the London garden square.

Elizabeth McKellar,The birth of modern London

COLONISATION

21.Using 16th-centuryMexico City as an example, discuss how Aztec architecture and city were reconfigured to assert Spanish colonial power.

Barbara Mundy,The Death of Aztec Tenochtitlan, the Life of Mexico City

22.Discuss how the spatial design of the Dutch colonial settlement Batavia regulated the citys diverse population and ensured Dutch supremacy.

Marsely Kehoe,Dutch Batavia: Exposing the Hierarchy of the Dutch Colonial City

23.Using two buildings of your choice, discuss how and why British colonial architecture in India used neoclassical styles to display its imperial power.

Swati Chattopadhyay,Blurring Boundaries: The Limits of White Town in Colonial Calcutta

INDUSTRIALISATION

24.Review some of the major innovations in 19th-century engineering, using two cast-iron buildings of your choice.

John Gloag and Derek Bridgwate,A History of Cast-Iron Architecture

25.Discuss the main features of 19th-century urbanisation, using at least one urban plan of the period.

Leonardo Benevolo,History of Modern Architecture, Vol. 1