Carlos Bethencourt

Unit Summary. Alternatives.

The first unit in class was about the foundations of architecture and how did technology, power, firmness, hierarchy, influence, delight, commodity, etc affect architecture in its foundations so that later there could be new alternatives. The alternatives I refer to were the new architectural ideals such as, the Renaissance, Gothic, and Baroque. These architectural ideals emerged from the basic foundations of the classical.

All these architectural ideals emerged from what we call the “Dark Ages”. Since the Roman Empire had been basically the biggest and strongest empire in the world, when the Roman Empire collapses there was no one to look up too. But many people think that the Roman Empire had collapsed suddenly on a particular day, but the reality was that, Roth says, “It was more a gradual transformation, occurring over more than a century, making the change from a pagan empire to a Christian Empire”(Roth 275). Therefore, when the Roman Empire falls there is a switch of authority indirectly given to the only standing out “authority” left that was Christianity. From here every architectural structure build was surrounded by the Christian faith. Temples that were dedicated for the Gods and basilicas were even transformed into a Christian living space, Roth says, “ The basilica had originally been devised for public gatherings… It was a simple matter to replace the small altar devoted to the emperor with one at which the Eucharist, or ritual communal mean, could be celebrated” (Roth 280). From this idea of Christianity, the Gothic and Renaissance emerged. 

The Gothic style was a style that was subsequent to the Dark Age and a complete opposite of what the Carolingian Renaissance consisted in. The Renaissance was built majorly to recapture the Roman models rather than creating something bazaar like the Gothic’s did. The idea of the Gothic churches was to create a lighter and more visual transparent architecture. Roth says, “Gothic architecture was also the physical expression of a new, assertive, and positive outlook on life here and now, as contrasted to the emphatic focus of the Romanesque period on a life in the hereafter”(Roth 324) What Roth says is very important because he points out the difference of peoples interpretation in Christianity and how does that affect the architecture. So one can observer that the Gothic cathedrals are more barbarous, decorative, detailed and with less universal norms, an architecture adaptable to any situation. The renaissance is more about reviving the classical world following a basic set of norms. This architecture was all about balance of vertical and horizontal elements in forms reflecting human proportions, a proportional system. Vitruvius was a strong believer of this, Roth says, “Ideal system of proportion, he observed, can be found in the perfect proportions of the human body (Roth 359). Also the integration of the manipulation of the landscape came to consideration in the Renaissance. 

Renaissance was in theory trying to write down the rules of architecture. These rules were somehow exaggerated and taken in different interpretations. This characteristic ideal we call it the Baroque. Roth describes the Baroque architecture as deliberately complex, he says, “instead of clarity, there was ambiguity; instead of uniformity of elements and overall effect, there was studied variety; instead of regularity, contrast”(Roth 398). The idea of being complex is based in many reasons. One of them is because they believed that the classical world was transformed into a more visually and plastically complex Hellenistic architecture. The baroque was an emotional architecture, were you could see life and meaning in an exaggerated way, almost uncontrollable.

The uncontrollable interpretation of architecture made many things possible. The Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture were big major alternatives that emerged from a same foundation. Each architecture ideal became one unique idea overall. Today we see all these ideas of space, light, movement, perspective, duality, and many other components as one whole idea. We have gathered all the information and applied it in our own interest. Therefore, this unit leads us to reflection over these architectural ideals emerged from our basic foundations.