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architecture

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the art of building in which human requirements and construction materials are related so as to furnish practical use as well as an aesthetic solution, thus differing from the pure utility of engineering construction. As an art, architecture is essentially abstract and nonrepresentational and involves the manipulation of the relationships of spaces, volumes, planes, masses, and voids. Time is also an important factor in architecture, since a building is usually comprehended in a succession of experiences rather than all at once. In most architecture there is no one vantage point from which the whole structure can be understood. The use of light and shadow, as well as surface decoration, can greatly enhance a structure. The analysis of building types provides an insight into past cultures and eras. Behind each of the greater styles lies not a casual trend nor a vogue, but a period of serious and urgent experimentation directed toward answering the needs of a specific way of life. …
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Full text Article architecture

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Art and science of designing permanent buildings for human use. Architecture can express aesthetic ideas from the most restrained utilitarianism to extravagantly ornate decoration. The difference between 'architecture' and 'building' is a subject that has exercised theorists since the discipline was…
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Architecture
Traditionally, the term architecture has tended to be associated with those buildings considered to represent great works of art, like the Parthenon or the Taj Mahal. However, the practice of architecture in the 19–20c increasingly involved a greater number of varied skills, including technical and…
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'Burj al-Arab, Dubai: the use of iconic designs...
The study of buildings and their social meanings has been a popular academic pastime. Architectural history, in particular, has a long history within universities and usually seeks to explain the motivations of particular architectural movements and building types, through a careful consideration of…
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Full text Article architecture

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the art of building in which human requirements and construction materials are related so as to furnish practical use as well as an aesthetic solution, thus differing from the pure utility of engineering construction. As an art, architecture is essentially abstract and nonrepresentational and…
| 1,152 words
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Full text Article ARCHITECTURE

From Dictionary of Visual Discourse: A Dialectical Lexicon of Terms
Architecture, L. architectus , Gk architekton (arche, tekton , a builder, from techne , craft, art). Hence the art of building edifices or constructions of any kind. After sculpture, the most visible and non-dualistic of all art forms, answering to the demands of human dwelling and embodied…
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Full text Article ARCHITECTURE

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
Architecture is easy: you just stare at the paper until droplets of blood appear on your forehead. Source undetermined. English lawyer, statesman, and essayist He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. In Vickers, Brian (ed.) Francis Bacon Essays of Buildings (p. …
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Full text Article ARCHITECTURAL

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
English writer, art critic, and social reformer Our object, let it always be remembered, is not the attainment of architectural data, but the formation of taste. The Poetry of Architecture: Cottage, Villa, Etc . The Cottage (p. 29 ) John Wiley & Sons. New York New York USA . 1877. Architectural…
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Full text Article Architecture

From Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
©JACK GUEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Dome of the Rock in...
Islamic architecture is a relatively recent term that denotes the architecture of all Islamic states and communities from Islam's foundational moment in seventh-century CE Arabia to the present. This definition encompasses vast geographies, numerous cultures, and a variety of polities with their own…
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Full text Article ARCHITECTURE

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
Houses are built to live in and not to look on; therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. BACON, Francis Essays (1625). Sir Christopher WrenSaid,‘I am going to dine with some men.If anybody callsSay I am designing St Paul’s.’ BENTLEY, Edmund Clerihew Biography…
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Full text Article architecture.

From The Oxford Companion to British History
British architecture has a strongly national character, often nurturing indigenous traditions while at the same time developing distinctive, and occasionally imitative, versions of European or international styles. Scottish architecture tended to develop independently (to some extent even after the…
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