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Architecture facts for kids

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Santuario de Las Lajas, Ipiales, Colombia, 2015-07-21, DD 21-23 HDR-Edit
Santuario de Las Lajas, Ipiales, Colombia
Parthenon
The Parthenon in Greece uses columns all made in stone

Architecture is all about designing and building structures. These can be anything from houses and churches to big office buildings. It's also the job of an architect, who is a professional designer.

To become an architect, you need to study at a university. Architecture can involve small projects, like designing a garage. It can also be about huge projects, like planning a whole city. Architects often work closely with civil engineers, who design things like roads and bridges.

History of Architecture

Saint Leonardo vault
A Romanesque groin vault, a type of arched ceiling.

Long ago, people built simple huts and wooden houses. These protected them from the weather. For safety, these early homes were often built close together.

Great civilizations, like the Ancient Egyptians, built huge temples and structures. A famous example is the Great Pyramids of Giza. The Ancient Greeks and Romans created what we call "Classical Architecture."

The Romans, over 2000 years ago, learned about the arch from the Etruscans. The Etruscans had learned it from the Mesopotamians. Stone columns, which still support many important buildings like the Parthenon in Athens, were first copied from early wooden posts.

Classical Architecture

Former post office in Nemti
A simpler building in Hungary.

Classical Architecture followed strict rules. It used symmetry, which means everything was balanced. It also used proportion, meaning shapes were kept in certain ways.

One important rule was the Golden Mean. Simply put, if you were designing a room, the long side would be about 1.6 times longer than the short side. This made the design look pleasing. These rules came from thousands of years of experience. They are still useful today.

In other parts of the world, like India, architecture is known for its detailed carvings on temples and palaces. Different styles also developed in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Africa, Mexico, and Central and South America.

Medieval and Renaissance Architecture

Later, in Western Europe, during the Middle Ages, people developed new styles. These included Romanesque architecture and then Gothic architecture. Gothic buildings are known for their tall, pointed windows and arches. Many churches were built in the Gothic style. Castles were also common during this time. In Eastern Europe, churches often featured domes. People added their own ideas and decoration to the older Classical styles. The Renaissance period then brought back many classical ideas.

Modern Architecture

NYC - Guggenheim Museum
Architecture can have many styles, like the curved Guggenheim Museum in New York City.

In the late 1700s, the Industrial Revolution began. This led to new machines that could make things quickly and cheaply. Many factories and mills were built during this time.

Even decades later, in the Victorian era, architects still used the Gothic style for new churches. For a long time, buildings were limited in size by the strength of wood and masonry (stone or brick). Gothic cathedrals were very large because their arches and buttresses allowed stone buildings to be built taller. For example, the cathedral in Ulm, Germany, is over 500 feet tall. However, building with stone had its limits. Trying to build too tall could cause a collapse, as seen with the Beauvais Cathedral, which was never finished.

Sears Tower ss
New technology allows new kinds of buildings, like the Willis Tower in Chicago.

Towards the end of the 1800s, during a second Industrial Revolution, steel became much cheaper. Architects started using new inventions like metal girders and reinforced concrete. The Eiffel Tower in Paris is an early example.

These new materials allowed buildings to be built taller than ever before. We now call these very tall buildings skyscrapers. This new technology freed architects from old limits. Many traditional building methods and ideas about style changed or were replaced. Soon, cheap, strong glass also became available. This led to buildings with transparent outer walls, especially for office buildings.

Modernism is the name for the architectural style that grew from these new building technologies. It began around 1890. Modernism also refers to a specific group of architects and buildings from the early to mid-20th century. Buildings built after this period are sometimes called "post-modern."

Many of the world's most famous structures were designed by modern architects. These include Frank Lloyd Wright, I. M. Pei, Adrian Smith, Edward Durell Stone, Fazlur Khan, and Bruce Graham.

See Also

Images for kids

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Arquitectura para niños

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