History of the Built Environm 4-1

LAURENTINUM

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger

One of the most well-known Villa Marittimas belonged to the wealthy landowner Pliny the Younger. Pliny owned both a Villa Marittima (Laurentinum) and a Villa Urbana (Tusci).

Pliny wrote extensively about Laurentinum, which was only a short distance outside of Rome.

Heliocaminus

His favorite spot in the villa was the heliocaminus, a heated sunroom in which he was able to sunbathe even on a cold winter's day. It was adjacent to a series of private rooms in which he could rest and enjoy views of the ocean from every corner.

From descriptions such as these, you can really appreciate the spa/resort-like nature of the Villa Marittima.

Villa Laurentinum: Pliny the Younger's Villa Marittima on the outskirts of Rome

By now you should be more attuned to the ways light and shade have been

used in architecture and landscapes both for functional means and for

symbolic effect. Specifically, the two primary benefits of

clerestories—admitting light from above, and movement of fresh air—are what

originally made it valuable, and it has since evolved into a key element of

architectural integration.

Symbolically, light pouring down from above was a useful expression for most

sacred cultures; spirits, deities, heavens, etc. were believed to be in an upper

realm according to many cosmologies, and the light coming down from that

realm and illuminating the darkness of our mortal world emphasized the

experience of sacred architectures. Once fenestration (building openings) was

filled with glass, the clerestory took on another dimension of symbolic

expression in the form of window shapes, the shadows they cast, and the

colored (stained) art in the glass itself. Landscape design has utilized

topography and all sizes of planted elements to further sculpt light and

shadow, blurring the lines between inside and outside while transforming and

ordering our paths through each.

Continue to ask good questions of the clerestory architectures in this module:

● What are the effects to the lighting of the interior? Can light have form?

● What are the effects to the movement of air? Why does air need to

move?

● Can a clerestory embellish spiritual or sacred symbolism?

● What materials and structural techniques were used to achieve the

sculpting of light and shadow?

● How is light and shadow used in outdoor spaces?

● Which techniques for the sculpting of light and shade do architecture

and landscape architecture share?

Module Coursework Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes

and Exams areas included in this module.

Plato's Timaeus

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Plato's Academy, Mosaic from Pompeii (Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus), Second style. Early first century

BCE.

Philosophical thought is one of the Greeks' biggest gifts to the world. Plato, the great philosopher, mathematician, and student of Socrates, lived from roughly 424 to 348 BCE. His ideas had enormous impact on how the landscapes and buildings during his time were organized. In one of his most famous dialogues, The Timaeus, Plato describes the physical manifestation of material things in the landscape:

Plato

"For material things to exist within the platonic cosmos, there must be regions of occupancy—chora—within the Receptacle, the fertile primary ground for world being, in which particular places—topoi—are located. The Demiurge's task (creator of the universe) is the fitting of forms, which are based upon abstract, geometrically determined, ideal forms, into topos—in other words, the location of pattern-based matter in place within regional space, or chora."

In Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers explains Plato's view of the cosmos in a more easily digestible form:

"Plato's cosmology has physical counterpart in the ordering of urban landscape space. This is evident from the earliest development of the Greek city-state beginning in the eighth century BCE when the center and the outlying environs were conceived as the complementary components of chora, or regional space."

Greek Relationship to the Land

Previously, we've talked about two different types of relationships with the land: I-it and I-thou. Based on the two descriptions quoted above, what kind of a relationship did the Greeks of Plato's time have to the land? It seems apparent that the Greeks had an I-thou relationship. They were, after all, extremely cognizant of the placement of physical elements in the landscape. However, as they began to shape and harness the land, they were also engaged in an I-it relationship to some degree.

It is not until we see built examples of Greek polis and its sub-urban counter parts that we can fully understand the meaning behind Plato's dialogue. However, before we delve into specific sites, let's first explore the cultural needs and principles of the time leading up to the creation of sites like Delphi, the Acropolis, and the Agora.

MDL- 4

Introduction INTRODUCTION

It can be easy to forget that light (and shadow) are substantial elements in the built environment, not unlike wood or stone. Not only does light serve the more utilitarian functions of letting us see what we're doing and warming a space, but it also performs symbolically to condition meaningful experiences. This module is about some of the ways light and shadow have been used in the built environment. The sites you will see come from an array of places and times in history, so be sure to remain aware of the historical context and keep your attention on the use of light and shade, even if it is not always covered in detail.

A fundamental architectural strategy for admitting light is the clerestory. A clerestory (also spelled clearstory) is an empty volume of space in an upper level of a structure. It is literally a cleared story (floor) of a building; it is helpful to think of it as a removed floor, since that is what allows light and air to pass to other lower stories. These two primary benefits—admitting light from above, and movement of fresh air—are what originally made the clerestory valuable, and it has since evolved into a key element of architectural integration.

As you will see in this module, before the invention of glass panels, the clerestory was as much a function of natural ventilation as it was of natural light. Symbolically, light pouring down from above was a useful expression for most sacred cultures; spirits, deities, heavens, etc. were believed to be in an upper realm according to many cosmologies, and the light coming down from that realm and illuminating the darkness of our mortal world emphasized the experience of sacred places. Once fenestration (building openings) was filled with glass, the clerestory took on another dimension of symbolic expression in the form of window shapes, the shadows they cast, and the colored (stained) art in the glass itself. By the time of Gothic architecture in the 13th and 14th centuries CE, clerestories were polychromatic interfaces rendering the light of the sun a kaleidoscopic burst, turning the stone interiors of churches into

colorful theaters for both worship and public gathering. Furthermore, landscape environments have utilized a variety of different strategies to achieve similar effects while using natural features, such as arcades of tree canopies shading a path in a garden.

Be curious and ask good questions of the uses of light and shade in this module:

● What are the effects to the lighting of the interior? Can light have form?

● What are the effects to the movement of air? Why does air need to move?

● Can a clerestory embellish spiritual or sacred symbolism? ● What materials and structural techniques were used to

achieve the sculpting of light and shadow? ● How is light and shadow used in outdoor spaces? ● Which techniques for the sculpting of light and shade do

architecture and landscape architecture share?

Module Learning Objectives ● Explore a diverse range of clerestory architectures across

cultures, places, and times. ● Articulate the benefits of clerestories as seen in different

locations. ● Articulate material and structural strategies employed for

clerestory construction. ● Compare different sacred symbolisms for clerestory

architectures.

Readings ● A Global History of Architecture, 38–40, 64–69, 367,

441–444 ● World Architecture, 52–53 (section 2.2), 357–364 (section

9.2)

Module Coursework ● Read and view all module content and media in the pages

that follow. ● Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other

Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.

TEMPLE OF AMON AT KARNAK

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Karnak: Hypostyle Hall Lotus Column

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Karnak ground plan

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Karnak: Temple of Amon isometric

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Karnak: Hypostyle Hall Lotus Column

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Karnak ground plan

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The temple of Karnak covers roughly a square mile with gates, courts, temples, and other buildings. At its center is the great temple of the god Amun ("the Hidden One"). Three areas are to be distinguished: the Precinct of Amun, the Precinct of Montu (the hawk-headed Theban war god) in the north, and the Precinct of Mut in the south. The main temple was accessed through a canal coming from the river. Through the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, one would reach the first pylon marking the entrance. These pylons, one on each side of the central entry, were left unfinished and would have reached enormous proportions.

In the middle of the temple complex is a grand hypostyle hall (space with grid or other array of many columns). The central portion of the hall is raised and supports the clerestory. The images below show how different orders of columns were used for different heights in the hypostyle hall. The rectangular openings in the clerestory—filled with stone "screens" in the drawing—would have admitted light into the space while letting hot air escape. Light would bounce off the many columns and their painted hieroglyphics. This is thus a space where one would spend much time meandering and circulating while reading the images depicted on the column shafts.

KING DJOSER'S (ZOSER'S) FUNERARY COMPLEX

King Djoser funerary complex, 2630 BCE

Saqqara, Lower Egypt

Let us look at the entry hall to the complex. It is the rectangular volume furthest left in the image above (there is an opening at its bottom you can almost see). The images shown help to reveal the approach sequence. First, notice how small the entry is relative to the rest of the site in the site plan (the entry hall is at the bottom-left). Looking at the plan, photos, and drawings, we can see and feel the ebb and flow of the entry hall. Note how columns appear at regular spacing, creating a rhythm, and they are not free-standing but, rather, engaged to walls (they are called "engaged columns"). As those engaged columns compress toward the center and then recede back to the boundary walls, a repetitive contraction-and-expansion of space is felt, like exhaling and inhaling with our lungs. The hall is mostly symmetrical, so this rhythm is the dominant effect of the sequence. Also felt is the symbolic entrance of light from above; it enters from a clerestory (empty volume at the top of the structure), which also allows hot air to escape while being replaced by cooler shaded air. One would not be able to resist noticing and interacting with the many engaged columns, and we can see how their fluting (the vertical carvings) is convex (pushes outward); this is the inverse of what we will see in Greek columns, which have concave (pulling inward) fluting. The Egyptian use of convex fluting is a representation in stone of the way the columns were

made out of branches bundled together into one "column" of many round verticals.

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Detail of existing columns, King Djoser Mortuary Complex (2780-2680 BCE, by Imhotep)

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King Djoser Mortuary Complex, site plan, Entry Hall at #10 (2780-2680 BCE, by Imhotep)

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King Djoser Mortuary Complex (2780-2680 BCE, by Imhotep)

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Detail of existing columns, King Djoser Mortuary Complex (2780-2680 BCE, by Imhotep)

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King Djoser Mortuary Complex, site plan, Entry Hall at #10 (2780-2680 BCE, by Imhotep)

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The clerestory is an essential component in this architectural sequence. The long entry hall would be extremely dark without it, and our eyes would not be able to discern the contours of the fluted columns. The rhythmic penetration of light augments the anatomical metaphor of the expansion-and-contraction spatial sequence. With special spiritual importance given to the sun, the fact that it illuminates the space from high above, crossing through the tops of the columns, heightens the sacred experience. Simultaneously, the hot air rises and is allowed to escape out the clerestory, while the cooler shaded air is more than willing to replace it, creating a natural cycle of ventilation.