Aeolic capital, Archaeological Museum of Mytilene in Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece
The Aeolic order is a style of ancient Greek architecture thought to be the prototype of the Ionic order. The Aeolic style, which appears in the 6th century BCE, probably originated with the Phoenicians because there are similarities between the Aeolic column capitals and … Continue reading
Zaha Hadid, MAXXI, 2009, Rome.
Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid died last week at the age of 65. A recipient of the Prizker Architecture Prize, Dame Hadid enjoyed a series of prestigious commissions as well as a career teaching at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Universities. … Continue reading
Mihrab (prayer niche), Iran, Isfahan, Ilkhanid period (1206–1353), mosaic of polychrome–glazed cut tiles on stonepaste body; set into mortar; 135 1/16 x 113 11/16 in., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Photo via The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mihrab (noun) A mihrab is a niche in an Islamic mosque that indicates the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca toward which all Muslims should face when they pray.
Frank Gehry, MIT's Stata Center, 2006, Cambridge, MA, Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
“Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.” – Frank Gehry
Antoni Gaudí, Detail of the Nativity Façade (east façade), 1894-1930, Church of the Holy Family, Barcelona, photo by Enfo via Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Façade A façade is the face of a building. Often an architect embellishes a façade with a special architectural or ornamental treatment. The Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí created perhaps the world’s most elaborate Art Nouveau façade, the Nativity Façade, for … Continue reading
Sainte-Chapelle, 1241-1248, Île de la Cité, Paris, Photo by Didier B, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Generic via Wikipedia.
Built by French King Louis IX, a.k.a. St. Louis, in the mid-13th century, Sainte-Chapelle almost itself is a reliquary rather than a chapel to house reliquaries. The space is connected to the Royal Palace so that the royal family could simply walk into … Continue reading
Vault and colored ceiling of the Iwan of an Imamzadeh at the tomb of Omar Khayyam, 1962, Photo by By dynamosquito via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
Iwan (noun) An iwan is a vaulted room open on one side, usually onto a courtyard in an Islamic mosque. The iwan in Omar Khayyam’s tomb in Neishabour, Iran is decorated with characteristic Islamic geometric and vegetal motifs.
Philip Johnson, The Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1945 - 1949, Photo by Staib via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
The Art Minute University: This post was written by Ryan Maler, a student at Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX. The Glass House, designed by architect Philip Johnson, is set in a rural landscape in New Canaan, Connecticut. The modern home has … Continue reading
Luis Barragán, San Cristóbal Stables, Mexico City, 1968, Photo by Steve Silvermas via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License.
“I don’t divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one.” Luis Barragán
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Ambulatory (noun) A place for walking, usually an aisle in a church around the apse. In Santa Costanza in Rome, the mausoleum for the Roman Emperor Constantine’s daughter Constantina, the ambulatory is circular and goes around a space where the … Continue reading
© 2013 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Even the Vanderbilts had to stretch their legs in the summertime and when brother Cornelius did he headed to Newport, RI to his 70-room, 65,000 sq. ft. summer mansion, The Breakers, set on cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. (All of … Continue reading
Interior of San Vitale, 526-547 CE, Ravenna, Italy, Photo by sjmcdonoughvia Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 ShareAlike License. 2
San Vitale is one of the first examples of Byzantine art and architecture in Western civilization. In the 6th century, under the reign of Justinian, Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) became the political and religious center of the Christian Byzantine Empire and … Continue reading