thumb|upright=2|முகலாய கட்டடக்கலையின் சிறந்த மற்றும் மிகவும் நுட்பமான எடுத்துக்காட்டாக விளங்கும் தாஜ் மஹால்.

கட்டிடக்கலை என்பது கட்டிடங்கள் மற்றும் அதன் உடல் கட்டமைப்புகளை வடிவமைத்தல், செயல்முறைத் திட்டமிடல், மற்றும் கட்டிடங்கள் கட்டுவதை உள்ளடக்கியதாகும். கட்டடக்கலை படைப்புகள், கட்டிடங்கள் பொருள் வடிவம், பெரும்பாலும் கலாச்சார சின்னங்களாக மற்றும் கலை படைப்புகளாக காணப்படுகின்றது. வரலாற்று நாகரிகங்கள் பெரும்பாலும் அவர்களின் கட்டிடகலை சாதனைகளின் மூலம் அடையாளம் காணப்படுகின்றன.

ஒரு விரிவான வரைவிலக்கணம், பெருமட்டத்தில், நகரத் திட்டமிடல், நகர்ப்புற வடிவமைப்பு மற்றும் நிலத்தோற்றம் முதலியவற்றையும், நுண்மட்டத்தில், தளபாடங்கள், உற்பத்திப்பொருள் முதலியவற்றை உள்ளடக்கிய, முழு உருவாக்கச் சூழலின் வடிவமைப்பைக் கட்டிடக்கலைக்குள் அடக்கும்.

மேற்படி விடயத்தில், தற்போது கிடைக்கும் மிகப் பழைய ஆக்கம், கி.பி. முதலாம் நூற்றாண்டைச் சேர்ந்த உரோமானியக் கட்டடக் கலைஞரான விட்ருவியஸ் என்பாரது "கட்டிடக்கலை தொடர்பில்", என்ற நூலாகும்.D. Rowland – T.N. Howe: Vitruvius. Ten Books on Architecture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999,  இவரது கூற்றுப்படி, நல்ல கட்டிடம், அழகு, உறுதி, பயன்பாடு ஆகியவற்றைக் கொண்டிருக்கவேண்டும்.Translated by Henry Wotton, in 1624, as "firmness, commodity and delight"   மேற்படி மூன்றும், ஒன்றின்மீதொன்று அளவுமீறி ஆதிக்கம் செலுத்தாமல், தங்களிடையே சமனிலையையும், ஒருங்கினைப்பையும் கொண்டிருத்தலே கட்டிடக்கலை என்று சொல்லலாம். ஒரு மேலான வரைவிலக்கணம், கட்டிடக்கலையைச், செயற்பாட்டு, அழகியல், உளவியல் என்பன தொடர்பான விடயங்களைக் கையாளல் என்ற விதத்தில் நோக்குகிறது. எனினும், இன்னொரு விதத்தில் பார்த்தால், செயற்பாடு என்பது, அழகியல், உளவியல் உட்பட்ட எல்லா அளபுருக்களையும் தன்னுள் அடக்குவதாகக் கொள்ளலாம்.

கட்டிடக்கலை, கணிதம், அறிவியல், கலை, தொழில்நுட்பம், சமூக அறிவியல், அரசியல், வரலாறு, தத்துவம், பொன்றவற்றுடன் தொடர்புள்ள, ஒரு பல்துறைக் களமாகும். விட்ருவியசின் சொற்களில், "கட்டிடக்கலையென்பது, வேறுபல அறிவியல் துறைகளிலிருந்து எழுவதும், பெருமளவு, பல்வேறுபட்ட அறிவுத்துறைகளினால் அலங்கரிக்கப்பட்டதுமான ஒரு அறிவியலாகும்: இதன் உதவியைக் கொண்டே பல்வேறு கலைத் துறைகளினதும் விளைவுகள் மதிப்பீடு செய்யப்படுகின்றன". மேலும் ஒரு கட்டிடக் கலைஞன், இசை, வானியல் முதலிய துறைகளிலும் நல்ல பரிச்சயமுடையவனாயிருக்க வேண்டும் என்பது விட்ருவியசின் கருத்து. தத்துவம் குறிப்பாக விருப்பத்துக்குரியது. உண்மையில், அணுகுமுறை பற்றிக் கருதும்போது, ஒவ்வொரு கட்டிடக் கலைஞனதும் தத்துவம் பற்றிக் குறிப்பிடுகிறோம். பகுத்தறிவியம், பட்டறிவியம், கட்டமைப்பியம், பின்கட்டமைப்பியம் மற்றும் தோற்றப்பாட்டியல் என்பன போன்ற போக்குகள், கட்டிடக்கலையில், தத்துவத்தின் செல்வாக்கைக் காட்டும் சில எடுதுதுக்காட்டுகளாகும்.

 கட்டிடக்கலைக் கோட்பாடுகள்

thumb|left|250px|கொலோசியம், ரோம், இத்தாலி

லியொன் பட்டிஸ்டா ஆல்பர்ட்டி என்பவர் தான் எழுதிய நூலொன்றில் விட்ருவியசின் கருத்துக்களை விரிவாக்கினார். அலங்காரங்களும் அழகுக்குப் பங்களிப்புச் செய்த போதிலும், அழகு என்பது, அளவுவிகிதம் (proportion) தொடர்பிலானது என்று இவர் எழுதினார். ஆல்பர்ட்டியின் கருத்துப்படி ஒரு முறையான உடலமைப்புக் கொண்ட மனிதனின் உடலின் அளவுவிகிதங்களைக் கட்டுப்படுத்தும் விதிகளே சிறப்பான அளவுவிகிதங்களுக்கான விதிகளாகும். அழகைப் பொருளின் தன்மைக்குப் புறம்பாக வெளியிலிருந்து கொண்டுவந்து ஒட்டவைக்க முடியாது, பொருள்களோடு அவற்றின் அழகு இயல்பாக அமைந்திருக்கிறது என்னும் கருத்தே இங்கு முக்கியமான அம்சம். கட்டிடக்கலையிலும், பிற அழகியல் கலைகளிலும் பாணி என்னும் ஒரு அம்சம் இடைக்காலத்தில் முக்கிய பங்கு வகித்தது. ஆனால், பாணி என்னும் கருத்துரு 16 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் வாசரி என்பவர் எழுதிய நூல்களினூடாகவே அறிமுகமானது.Françoise Choay, Alberti and Vitruvius, editor, Joseph Rykwert, Profile 21, Architectural Design, Vol 49 No 5-6 இந் நூல்கள் 18 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் இத்தாலிய மொழி, பிரெஞ்சு மொழி, ஸ்பானிய மொழி, ஆங்கிலம் ஆகியவற்றில் மொழிபெயர்ப்புச் செய்யப்பட்டது.

19 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் ஆங்கிலக் கலைத் திறனாய்வாளரான ஜான் ரஸ்கின் என்பவர் 1849 வெளியிட்ட "கட்டிடக்கலையின் ஏழு விளக்குகள்" என்னும் நூலில்,John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture, G. Allen (1880), reprinted Dover, (1989)  "கட்டிடக்கலை என்பது அதனைக் காண்போருக்கு உள நலத்தையும், ஆற்றலையும், இன்பத்தையும் தரக்கூடிய வகையில், அமைத்து, அலங்கரித்து உருவாக்கப்பட்ட கட்டிடங்களாகும்" என்றார். ரஸ்கினுக்கு, கட்டிடக்கலையைப் பொறுத்தவரை அழகியலே யாவற்றிலும் முக்கியமான அம்சமாக இருந்தது. மேலும், ஏதோ ஒரு வகையில் அலங்கரிக்கப்படாத கட்டிடங்கள் கட்டிடக்கலை ஆகாமாட்டா என்ற கருத்தையும் அவர் கொண்டிருந்தார்.

 கட்டிடங்களும், கட்டிடக்கலையும்

thumb|175px|right|ஐரோப்பாவின் நுழைவாயில், மட்ரிட், வேண்டுமென்றே சாய்வாகக் கட்டப்பட்ட கட்டடம்

ஒரு கட்டிடக்கலை சார்ந்த கட்டிடத்துக்கும், சாதாரண கட்டிடத்துக்கும் உள்ள வேறுபாடு பலரதும் கவனத்தை ஈர்க்கின்ற விடயமாக இருந்துவருகின்றது. இது குறித்து எழுதிய பிரபலமான பிரெஞ்சுக் கட்டிடக்கலைஞரான லெ கொபூசியே, "நீங்கள், கற்கள், மரம், காங்கிறீட்டு என்பவற்றைக் கொண்டு ஒரு வீட்டையோ மாளிகையையோ அமைக்கலாம். அது கட்டுமானம். ஆனால் ஆக்கத்திறன் சிறப்பாக அமையும்போது, அது எனது நெஞ்சைத் தொடுகிறது. நீங்கள் எனக்கு நல்லது செய்திருக்கிறீர்கள். மிகவும் அழகாக இருக்கிறது என்கிறேன் நான். அதுவே கட்டிடக்கலை." எனக் குறிப்பிடுகிறார்.Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, Dover Publications(1985).  20 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டின் ஐரோப்பிய வரலாற்றாசிரியரான "நிக்கொலஸ் பெவ்ஸ்னர்" என்பாருடைய கூற்றுப்படி, ஒரு துவிச்சக்கரவண்டிக் கொட்டகை ஒரு சாதாரண கட்டிடமும், லிங்கன் பேராலயம் ஒரு கட்டிடக்கலை சார்ந்த கட்டிடமுமாகும். தற்காலச் சிந்தனைப் போக்குகளுக்கு அமைய இத்தகைய பிரிவு அவ்வளவு தெளிவானதாக இல்லை. "பெர்னாட் ருடோவ்ஸ்கி" என்பாரது "கட்டிடக்கலைஞன் இல்லாத கட்டிடக்கலை" (Architecture without architects) என்னும் பிரபலமான நூல், சாதாரண மக்களால் கட்டப்பட்ட பல்வேறு தரத்திலான கட்டிடங்களையும், கட்டிடக்கலையின் ஆளுகைக்குள் கொண்டுவந்தது. வரலாற்றில் பின்னோக்கிச் செல்லும்போது, கட்டிடக்கலைசார் கட்டிடங்கள் எவை, அவ்வாறில்லதவை எவை என்பதிலே கருத்தொற்றுமை காணப்பட்டது. விருவியசைப் போல், நல்ல கட்டிடங்களே கட்டிடக்கலைசார்ந்த கட்டிடங்கள் என வரைவிலக்கணப்படுத்தினால், கூடாத கட்டிடக்கலைசார்ந்த கட்டிடங்கள் இல்லையா என்ற கேள்வி எழும். இப் பிரச்சினையிலிருந்து விடுபடுவதற்கு, கட்டிடக்கலைசார் கட்டிடங்கள் என்பதற்கு, கட்டிடக்கலைஞரால் வடிவமைக்கப்பட்ட கட்டிடங்கள் என்றும் வரைவிலக்கணம் கூறலாம் எனச் சிலர் கூறுகிறார்கள். இது கட்டிடக்கலைஞர் என்பதன் வரைவிலக்கணம் பற்றிய இன்னொரு சர்ச்சையை உருவாக்குவதைத் தவிர்க்க முடியாது.

 கட்டிடக்கலையின் தற்காலக் கருத்துருக்கள்

19 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டின் புகழ் பெற்ற கட்டிடக்கலைஞர் லூயிஸ் சலிவன் கட்டிடக்கலை வடிவமைப்பில் புதிய நோக்கு ஒன்றை வளர்ப்பதற்கு முயற்சித்தார். செயற்பாட்டுத் தன்மைக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் கொடுக்கும் இந்த நோக்குக்கு அமைய "செயற்பாட்டுத் தேவைகளிலிருந்தே வடிவம் உருவாகின்றது" (Form follows function) என்னும் கருத்து முன்வைக்கப்பட்டது. செயற்பாட்டு நோக்கின் அடைப்படையிலேயே அமைப்பும் அழகியலும் நோக்கப்படவேண்டும் என்னும் இக் கருத்து பரவலான ஆதரவையும் எதிர்ப்பையும் பெற்றது. செயற்பாடு என்னும் இப் புதிய கருத்துரு கட்டிடங்களின் உளவியல், அழகியல், பண்பாட்டுப் பயன்கள் உட்பட எல்லா வகையான பயன்களும் குறித்த எல்லா அளபுருக்களையும் தன்னுள் அடக்கியிருந்தது.

 கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்களும் கோட்பாடும்

பல கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள் கோட்பாட்டை ஒதுக்கித் தள்ளினாலும், செயல்முறையை (practice) வளம்படுத்துவதில் அதன் முக்கியத்துவத்தைக் குறைத்து மதிப்பிட முடியாது. விட்ருவியஸ் தொடர்ந்து சொன்னபடி, "செய்முறையும், கோட்பாடும் கட்டிடக்கலையின் பெற்றோருக்குச் சமம். செயல்முறை என்பது, கொடுக்கப்பட்ட வேலைகளை நடைமுறைப்படுத்தும் முறைகளைக் கைக்கொள்ளும்போது, அடிக்கடி நிகழும், தொடர்ச்சியான, சமநிலைப்படுத்தும் செயலை, அல்லது வெறுமனே உடற் செயல்பாட்டின்மூலம், ஒரு பொருளைச் சிறந்த பயன்படத்தக்க ஒன்றாக மாற்றுவதைக் குறிக்கும். கோட்பாடு என்பது, ஒரு பொருள், பிரேரிக்கப்பட்ட முடிவை அடையும்வகையில், மாற்றப்பட்டுள்ளது என்பதை எடுத்துக்காட்டுவதும், விளக்குவதுமான காரணத் தொடர்பாக்கத்தின் விளைவாகும். வெறுமனே செய்முறையிலூறிய கட்டிடக்கலைஞன், தான் எடுத்துக்கொண்ட வடிவுருக்களுக்கான (forms) காரணங்களை எடுத்துக்காட்ட முடிவதில்லை; கோட்பாட்டுக் கட்டிடக்கலைஞனும், பொருளை விட்டு நிழலைப் பிடிப்பதன் மூலம் தோல்வியடைகிறான். எவனொருவன் கோட்பாடு செயல்முறை இரண்டிலும் வல்லவனாக இருக்கிறானோ அவன் இரட்டைப் பலமுள்ளவன்; தன்னுடைய வடிவமைப்பின் தகுதியை நிரூபிக்கக்கூடியவனாக இருக்கின்றது மட்டுமன்றி, அதைத் திறமையாகச் செயற்படுத்தக்கூடியவனயும் இருப்பான்."

 வரலாறு

 தொல்பழங்காலமும் கட்டிடக்கலையும்

thumb|விருபக்ச கோயில், ஹம்பி, இந்தியா
கட்டிடக்கலையென்பது, ஆரம்பத்தில், தேவைகளுக்கும், (உகந்த சூழல், பாதுகாப்பு என்பன) Means (கிடைக்கக் கூடிய கட்டிடப்பொருள்கள், தொழில் நுட்பம் முதலியன) என்பவற்றுக்கிடையிலான இயக்கப்பாடுகளிலிருந்து பரிணமித்ததாகும். தொல்பழங்கால, பழங்காலக் கட்டிடங்கள் இவ்வகையைச் சேர்ந்தனவாகும். மனித முன்னேற்றத்துடன், அறிவுத்துறைகளும், வாய்மொழி மரபுகளினாலும், செயல்முறைகளினாலும், ஒழுங்கமையத் தொடங்கியபோது, கட்டிடம் கட்டுதல் ஒரு கலையாக உருவானது. இங்கே முதலில் முயன்று தெரிதல் (Trial and Error) முறையின் பயன்பாடு, பின்னர் அவற்றில் தேவைக்கேற்ற மாற்றங்கள் அல்லது வெற்றிகரமான முயற்சிகளைப் பிரதிபண்ணல் எனப் பரிணாம வளர்ச்சி நடைபெற்றது. கட்டிடக்கலைஞர் மட்டுமே இங்கு முக்கியமானவர் அல்ல. இவர்கள் பங்கு சதவீத அடிப்படையில் மிகக் குறைவே; விசேடமாக வளரும் நாடுகளில் இது 5% அளவுக்கும் குறைவே என்றும் கூறப்படுகின்றது. அவர் தொடர்ந்துவரும் கட்டிடக்கலை மரபுகளில் ஒரு பகுதியேயாவர். நாட்டார் மரபு "(Vernacular Tradition)" என்று அழைக்கப்படும் மரபுசார் கட்டிடமுறை இதற்கு ஒரு எடுத்துக் காட்டாகும். உலகின் எல்லாப் பகுதிகளிலும், பெரும்பாலான கட்டிடங்கள் இம்முறையிலேயே கட்டிடக்கலைஞர் அல்லாதவர்களால் உருவாக்கப்படுகின்றன.

முற்கால மனிதர் குடியிருப்புகள் கிராமம் சார்ந்தவையாகும். உற்பத்திப் பெருக்கம் ஏற்பட்டபோது கிராமச் சமுதாயங்கள் நகர்சார் சமுதாயங்களாக வளர்ச்சி பெறத்தொடங்கின. கட்டிடங்கள் அதிக சிக்கலானவையாக ஆனதுடன், அவற்றின் வகைகளும் அதிகரித்தன. வீதிகள், பாலங்கள் போன்ற குடிசார் கட்டுமானங்களும், பாடசாலைகள், மருத்துவமனைகள், பொழுதுபோக்கு வசதிகளுக்கான கட்டிடங்கள் எனப் புதிய கட்டிடவகைகளும் பெருகத்தொடங்கின. எனினும் சமயம் சார்ந்த கட்டிடக்கலை அதன் முதன்மையிடத்தைத் தக்கவைத்துக்கொண்டிருந்தது. பல்வேறு கட்டிடப்பாணிகளும், வளர்ச்சியடையத் தொடங்கியதுடன், கட்டிடக்கலை பற்றிய எழுத்தாக்கங்களும் உருவாகின. இவற்றிற் சில, கட்டிடங்கள் வடிவமைத்தல், கட்டுதல் தொடர்பில் பின்பற்றவேண்டிய விதிகளாக உருப்பெற்றன. இந்தியாவின் வாஸ்து சாஸ்திரம், சீனாவிலெழுந்த பெங் சுயி போன்ற கீழைத் தேச நூல்களும், மேலை நாட்டிலெழுந்த விட்ருவியசின் நூலும் இதற்கு உதாரணங்களாகும். "கிளாசிக்கல்" மற்றும் மத்திய காலங்களில், ஐரோப்பாவில், கட்டிடக்கலைத் துறையில் தனிப்பட்ட கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள் முதன்மைப்படுத்தப்படவில்லை.

 பண்டை எகிப்தியக் கட்டிடக்கலை

கட்டிடக்கலையின் வரலாற்றில் பாரிய கட்டுமானங்களைக் கட்டிய மிகப் பழைய நாகரிகங்களுள் ஆப்பிரிக்காவின் நைல் ஆற்றங்கரையில் உருவாகிச் செழித்த எகிப்திய நாகரிகம் முதன்மையானது. இம் மக்கள் மிகப் பெரிய பிரமிட்டுகளையும், கோயில்களையும் உருவாக்கினர். பல வரலாற்றாளர்களும் உலகக் கட்டிடக்கலை வரலாற்றின் தொடக்கத்தை இங்கிருந்துதான் தொடங்குகிறார்கள். ஐரோப்பாவின் தொடக்ககால நாகரிகங்களான கிரேக்க, ரோமர்காலக் கட்டிடக்கலைகளுக்கான பல அடிப்படைகளை எகிப்தியக் கட்டிடக்கலையில் அடையாளம் காண முடியும்.

 மெசொப்பொத்தேமியக் கட்டிடக்கலை

தற்கால ஈராக்கிலுள்ள யூபிரட்டீஸ், டைகிரிஸ் ஆகிய ஆறுகளுக்கு இடையேயுள்ள பகுதியில் செழித்து வளர்ந்த மெசொப்பொத்தேமிய நாகரிகம், உலகக் கட்டிடக்கலை வளர்ச்சிக்குப் பெரும் பங்களிப்புக்களைச் செய்த இன்னொரு தொன்மையான ஆசிய நாகரிகம் ஆகும். மெசொப்பொத்தேமிய ஆற்றுப்படுக்கையிலும், மேற்கு ஈரானியப் பீடபூமியிலும் கட்டப்பட்ட சிகுரட் எனப்படும் கூம்பக வடிவ கோயில் கோபுரங்கள் இதற்குச் சான்று பகர்கின்றன. இவை பல படிகளாகக் கட்டப்பட்டுள்ளன. இவ்வாறான 32 சிகுரட்கள் அறியப்பட்டுள்ளன. இவற்றுள் 28 ஈராக்கிலும், 4 ஈரானிலும் உள்ளன.

 பண்டைய கிரேக்க கட்டிடக்கலை

பண்டைக் கிரேக்க நாகரிகம் கிமு 1900 தொடக்கம் கிமு 133 வரையான காலப்பகுதியில் செழித்திருந்தது. ஆனால் இதன் தாக்கம் இன்றுவரை மேற்கு நாட்டுப் பண்பாட்டில் உணரப்பட்டு வருகிறது. கிரேக்கர்கள் உலகக் கட்டிடக்கலைக்குப் பல குறிப்பிடத்தக்க பங்களிப்புக்களைச் செய்துள்ளனர். இக்காலத்தில் கட்டப்பட்ட கட்டிடங்களுள் முதன்மையானவை கோயில்கள் ஆகும். கிரேக்கக் கோயில்கள் எகிப்தியக் கோயில்களைவிடச் சிறியவை. இவை, ஆள்பவர்களின் அதிகாரத்தைக் காட்டுவதற்காகவோ, பெருமளவிலான மக்கள் குழுமி வழிபடுவதற்காகவோ கட்டப்படவில்லை. இவை முக்கியமாகப் புற அழகுக்காகவும், சூழலில் ஏற்படுத்தக்கூடிய தாக்கங்களுக்குமாகவே வடிவமைக்கப்பட்டன.

கிரேக்கக் கட்டிடக்கலையில் ஒழுங்குகள் எனப்படும் மூன்று விதமான பாணிகள் பயன்படுத்தப்பட்டன. இவை டொரிக், அயனிக், கொறிந்தியன் என அழைக்கப்பட்டன. ஒழுங்குகள் என்பன தூண்களின் அமைப்பு, அவற்றின் அளவுவிகிதங்கள், அலங்காரங்கள், அவற்றால் தாங்கப்படும் வளைகளின் அமைப்பு அலங்காரம் முதலியவை தொடர்பானது.

 பண்டைய ரோமக் கட்டிடக்கலை

ரோமர் காலம் கிமு முதலாம் நூற்றாண்டில் இருந்து தொடங்குகிறது. ரோமர்களின் கட்டிடக்கலை ஓரளவுக்குக் கிரேக்கக் கட்டிடக்கலையின் தொடர்ச்சியே எனினும் ரோமர் காலத்தில் கட்டிடக்கலையில் பெருமளவு வளர்ச்சிகள் ஏற்பட்டன. ரோமர் புத்தாக்கத் திறனும், கட்டிடப்பொருள்கள் பற்றிய நல்ல அறிவும் கொண்டிருந்தனர். இயற்கையாகக் கிடைத்த கற்கள் முதலியவற்றை வெட்டிக் கட்டிடக் கற்களை உருவாக்கும் முறைக்குப் பதிலாகச் சுண்ணாம்பு, மணல், சிறு கற்கள் போன்றவற்றை நீருடன் கலந்து ஒருவகைக் காங்கிறீட்டுச் செய்யும் முறையை அறிமுகப்படுத்தியவர்கள் ரோமர்களே.

கட்டிடக்கலை ஒழுங்குகளைப் பொறுத்தவரை ரோமர் மேலும் இரண்டு ஒழுங்குகளைப் பயன்படுத்தினர். இவை கூட்டு ஒழுங்கு, டஸ்கன் ஒழுங்கு என்பவையாகும்.

 மறுமலர்ச்சிக்காலமும் கட்டிடக்கலைஞரும்

thumbnail|left|தாஜ் மஹால், ஆக்ரா, இந்தியா
"ரெனசான்ஸ்" என்று அழைக்கப்பட்ட, மறுமலர்ச்சிக் காலகட்டத் தொடக்கத்துடன், சமயத்தைவிட மனிதசமுதாயமும், தனிப்பட்டவர்களும், முதன்மை பெறத் தொடங்கியமையும், அக்காலத்திலேற்பட்ட முன்னேற்றமும், அதன் பெறுபேறுகளும், கட்டிடக்கலைத்துறையில் புதிய அத்தியாயமொன்றுக்கு அடிகோலின. கட்டிடக்கலை தொடர்பில், தனிப்பட்ட கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள் பெருமைப்படுத்தப்பட்டனர். மைக்கலாஞ்சலோ, லியொனார்டோ டா வின்சி, புரூணலெஸ்ச்சி போன்றவர்களை உதாரணமாகக் காட்டலாம். அக்காலத்தில், சிற்பி, கட்டிடக் கலைஞன், பொறியியலாளன் எனத் தொழிற்பிரிவுகள் இருக்கவில்லை. ஒரு சிற்பியே (சிற்பம் செய்பவன்) பாலமொன்றை வடிவமைத்துக் கட்டக்கூடிய நிலை இருந்தது. அதற்குத் தேவையான கணித அறிவும்கூடப் பொதுமை அறிவின் பாற்பட்டதாகவேயிருந்தது. இந்தியாவிலும், சிற்பக் கலைஞர்களே கட்டிடங்களையும் வடிவமைத்துக் கட்டினார்கள். கட்டிடக்கலை, பொறியியல் அனைத்தும் இச் சிற்பக் கலைக்கு உள்ளேயே அடங்கியிருந்தன.

கட்டிடம் சார்ந்த தேவைகளின் அதிகரிப்பு, அவை தொடர்பான பெருமளவு அறிவு வளர்ச்சி என்பவற்றோடு, புதிய கட்டிடப்பொருட்களின் அறிமுகம், தொழில்நுட்பங்களின் வளர்ச்சி என்பனவும் சேர்ந்து கட்டிடத்துறையினுள் பல்வேறு தொழிற்பிரிவுகள் உருவாக வழி சமைத்தன. கூடிய தொழில் நுட்ப அம்சங்களை எடுத்துக்கொண்டு பல்வேறு பொறியியற் துறைகள் பிரிந்துபோகக் கட்டிடக்கலை அழகியல் அம்சங்களையும், இடவெளி(space)வடிவமைப்புத் தொடர்பான பொறுப்புக்களையும் உள்ளடக்கி, வளர்ச்சியடைந்தது. "சீமான் கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்" என்று அழைக்கப்பட்ட ஒரு பிரிவினர் உருவாகினர். பொதுவாகப் பெரும் பணக்காரர்களை வாடிக்கையாளராகக் கொண்டிருந்த இவர்கள், தோற்றம் சார்ந்த அம்சங்களிலேயே கூடிய கவனம் செலுத்தினர். அதுவும் பெரும்பாலும், வரலாற்றுக் கட்டிட மாதிரிகளையே பின்பற்றிவந்தனர். 19 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் பிரான்சிலிருந்த இக்கோல் டெஸ் பியூக்ஸ் ஆர்ட்ஸ் (Ecole des Beaux Arts) என்னும் நிறுவனம், சூழ்நிலை சார்ந்த அம்சங்களுக்கு முக்கியத்துவம் கொடாது, அழகிய வரைபடங்களை உள்ளடக்கிய விரைவான திட்டங்களை உருவாக்குவதற்கே பயிற்சி கொடுத்துவந்தது.

இதற்கிடையில், தொழிற்புரட்சி தொகையான நுகர்வுக்கான பாதையைத் திறந்துவிட்டதுடன், ஒருகாலத்தில் விலையுயர்ந்த கைவினைத்திறனோடு சம்பந்தப்பட்டிருந்த அலங்காரப் பொருட்கள், இயந்திர உற்பத்தியின் கீழ் மலிந்ததன் காரணமாக, அழகியல் மத்தியதர மக்கள் மட்டத்திலும் எதிர்பார்க்கப்படும் ஒன்றாக மாறியது. எனினும், உற்பத்தி வழிமுறைகளின் வெளிப்பாடுகளோடு இயைந்த நேர்மையும், அழகும் இவ்வுற்பத்திப் பொருட்களிற் குறைவாகவே காணப்பட்டன.

 நவீனத்துவமும் கட்டிடக்கலையும்

thumbnail|100px|கிறிஸ்லர் கட்டிடம், நியூ யோர்க் நகரம், ஐக்கிய அமெரிக்கா

இவ்வாறான ஒரு பொதுவான நிலைமையினால் உருவான திருப்தியின்மை, 20 ஆம் நூற்றாண்டின் தொடக்கத்தில் பல புதிய சிந்தனைப் பாதைகளுக்கு வித்திட்டது. கட்டிடக்கலையைப் பொறுத்தவரை இது நவீன கட்டிடக்கலைக்கு முன்னோடியாக அமைந்ததெனலாம். சிறந்த தரத்தையுடைய இயந்திர உற்பத்திப் பொருட்களை உற்பத்திசெய்வதற்காக உருவாக்கப்பட்ட டொய்ச் வேர்க்பண்ட் (Deutshe Werkbund) இவற்றுள் குறிப்பிடத்தக்கதாகும். கைத்தொழில் வடிவமைப்புத் துறை இங்கேதான் ஆரம்பமானதாகப் பொதுவாகக் கருதப்படுகிறது. இதைத் தொடர்ந்து, 1919 ல், ஜெர்மனியில் ஆரம்பிக்கப்பட்ட பௌஹவுஸ் (Bauhaus) பாடசாலை வரலாற்றை நிராகரித்துவிட்டு, கட்டிடக்கலை என்பது கலை, கைவினை மற்றும் தொழில்நுட்பத்தின் ஒரு தொகுப்பு என்ற கருத்தைக் கொண்டிருந்தது.

முதன்முதலில் நவீன கட்டிடக்கலை பயிலப்படத் தொடங்கியபோது, அது, தார்மீக, தத்துவ, அழகியல் அடிப்படைகளிலமைந்த, ஒரு முன்னோடி இயக்கமாக இருந்தது. வரலாற்றை நிராகரித்து, வடிவத்தை உருவாக்கும் காரணியாகச் செயற்பாட்டை (function), கருதியதுமூலம் உண்மையைத் தேட முயற்சிக்கப்பட்டது. கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள் பிரபலமனார்கள். பின்னர், நவீன கட்டிடக்கலை, பொருளாதார நோக்கத்தையும், எளிமையையும் கருத்தில் கொண்டு, பெரும்படி உற்பத்திமுறையை நோக்கிச் சென்றது.

நவீனத்துவக் கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள், கட்டிடங்களை அவற்றின் அடிப்படையான வடிவங்களுக்கு எளிமையாக்க முயன்றனர். இவர்கள் கட்டிடங்களில் அலங்காரங்களை நீக்கிவிட்டனர். உருக்குத் தூண்கள், வளைகள், காங்கிறீற்று மேற்பரப்புக்கள் போன்ற தங்கள் உண்மையான அமைப்புக்களை வெளிப்படுத்தும் கட்டிடங்கள் அலங்காரங்கள் இன்றித் தம்மளவிலேயே அழகானவையாகக் கருதப்பட்டன. மீஸ் வான் டெர் ரோ போன்ற கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள், கட்டிடப்பொருட்கள், கட்டுமான நுட்பங்கள் என்பவற்றின் உள்ளார்ந்த அழகியல் இயல்புகளைப் பயன்படுத்திக் கட்டிடங்களை அழகாக்க முயன்றனர். இவர்கள் மரபுவழியான வரலாற்று வடிவங்களுக்குப் பதிலாக எளிமையான வடிவவியல் வடிவங்களை உருவாக்கினர்.

எனினும், நவீன கட்டிடக்கலையில் ஒரு தரக்குறைவு ஏற்பட்டிருப்பதை, 1960களிலிருந்து, பொதுமக்கள் உணர ஆரம்பித்தனர். கருத்தின்மை, வரட்சித்தனம், அழகின்மை, ஒருசீர்த்தன்மை மற்றும் உளவியற் தாக்கங்கள் என்பன இந்நிலைக்குக் காரணமாகக் காட்டப்பட்ட சில விடயங்களாகும்.

கட்டிடக்கலையில் இருக்கவேண்டிய ஆழத்தைத் தியாகம் செய்துவிட்டு, வெளித்தோற்ற அளவில் பொதுமக்களைக் கவரக்கூடிய கட்டிடங்களைக் கொடுக்கும் பாதையொன்றைக் கைக்கொள்வதுமூலம், மேற்கூறிய நிலைமைக்குப் பதிலளிக்கக் கட்டிடக்கலைத் துறை முயன்றது. இது பின்நவீனத்துவம் (Postmodernism) என அழைக்கப்பட்டது. உள்ளே செயல்பாடுகளுக்கு உகந்தபடியான வடிவமைப்பையும், வெளியில் அலங்கரிக்கப்பட்டதுமான கொட்டகை; உள்ளும், புறமும் ஒரே நேரத்தில் சிந்தித்து வடிவமைக்கமுயன்று, கவர்ச்சியற்ற கட்டிடத்தைக் கட்டுவதிலும் சிறந்தது என்ற தொனிகொண்ட, ராபர்ட் வெஞ்சூரி என்னும் கட்டிடக்கலைஞரது கருத்து, இந்த அணுகுமுறையின் நோக்கத்தை விளக்குகிறது.

 கட்டிடக்கலை இன்று

200px|thumb|சிட்னி ஒப்பேரா மாளிகை,அட்ஸனால் வடிவமைக்கப்பட்டது.

கட்டிடக்கலைத் துறையின் இன்னொரு பகுதியினரும், கட்டிடக்கலைஞரல்லாதோர் சிலரும், பிரச்சினையின் அடிப்படை என்று அவர்கள் கருதிய விடயங்களுக்குத் தீர்வுகாண்பதன் மூலம் இப் பிரச்சினையை அணுக முயன்றனர். கட்டிடக்கலையென்பது, தனிப்பட்ட கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்கள் தங்கள் விருப்பங்கள், தத்துவங்கள் அல்லது அழகியல் நோக்கங்களை அடைவதற்கான ஒன்றல்லவென்றும், மாறாக மக்களுடைய நாளாந்தத் தேவைகளைக் கருத்திற்கொண்டு, தொழில்நுட்பங்களை உபயோகப்படுத்தி , வாழ்வுக்குகந்த சூழலை வழங்குவதாக இருக்கவேண்டுமென அவர்கள் கருதினர். சிறந்த உற்பத்திகளை உருவாக்குவதற்கு வழிசமைக்கக் கூடிய, புதிய வடிவமைப்பு வழிமுறையைக் கண்டுபிடிக்கும் நோக்கில், கிறிஸ் ஜோன்ஸ், கிறிஸ்தோபர் அலெக்ஸாண்டர் போன்றவர்களைக் கொண்ட வடிவமைப்பு வழிமுறைகள் இயக்கம் (Design Methodology Movement) ஆரம்பிக்கப்பட்டது. நடத்தை, சூழல் மற்றும் சமூக அறிவியல் சார்ந்த விடயங்களில் விரிவான ஆராய்ச்சிகள் செய்யப்பட்டு, வடிவமைப்பு வழிமுறைகளுக்கு உதவக்கூடிய தகவல்கள் பெறப்பட்டன.

thumb|200px|left|Gare do Oriente புகையிரத நிலையம், லிஸ்பன், உருவாக்கியவர் சந்தியாகோ கலற்றாவா

மேலும் பல பிரச்சினைகள் அடையாளம் காணப்படத் தொடங்கியபோது, கட்டிடச் சேவைகள் போன்ற அம்சங்கள் தொடர்பில், கட்டிடங்களின் சிக்கல்தன்மை அதிகரித்து, கட்டிடக்கலை, எப்பொழுதுமில்லாதபடி பல்துறைசார்ந்த ஒன்றாக ஆனது. இதனால், கட்டிடக்கலை சார்ந்த கட்டிடங்களின் உருவாக்கத்துக்கு, பல உயர்தொழில் நிபுணர்களைக் கொண்ட ஒரு குழு தேவைப்பட்டது. ஆரம்பத்தில் இக்குழுவுக்குக் கட்டிடக் கலைஞரே தலைவராக விளங்கினார். தற்காலத்தில் இத் தலைமைப் பொறுப்புக்கும், பல சிறப்புப் பயிற்சிகள் தேவைப்பட்ட காரணத்தினால், திட்ட முகாமைத்துவம் போன்ற புதிய துறைகள் தோன்றிக் கட்டிடக்கலைத் துறையின் தலைமை நிலையையும் பிடித்துக்கொள்ள ஆரம்பித்துவிட்டன. எனினும், கட்டிடங்களின் வடிவமைப்பு அம்சங்களைப் பொறுத்தவரை, கட்டிடக்கலைத்துறை இன்னும் பலமாகவேயிருந்து வருகின்றது. விசேடமாக, பண்பாட்டுச் சின்னங்களாகக் கருதப்படக்கூடிய கட்டிடவகைகளில், கட்டிடக்கலைப் பாணி சார்ந்த பரிசோதனைகள் இன்னும் நிகழக்கூடிய நிலையுள்ளதுடன் அவை மேற்படி பரிசோதனைகளின் காட்சியகங்களாகவும் விளங்குகின்றன.

மனித இனத்தின் உற்பத்திகளிலே, எக்காலத்திலும், மிகக் கூடிய அளவு பார்வைக்குத் தெரிகின்றவை கட்டிடங்களேயாகும். இருந்தும், அவற்றுட் பெரும்பாலானவை, சாதாரண மக்களினாலேயோ அல்லது வளரும் நாடுகளிலுள்ளதுபோல், கொத்தனார்களாலேயோ கட்டப்படுகின்றன. வளர்ந்த நாடுகளிலே தரப்படுத்தப்பட்ட (standardised) உற்பத்திமுறைகள் மூலம் பெருமளவு கட்டிடங்கள் உருவாகின்றன. கட்டிட உற்பத்தியின் மிகக் குறைவான வீதமே கட்டிடக்கலைஞரின் ஈடுபாட்டைக் கொண்டுள்ளன. சிக்கலான கட்டிட வகைகளிலும், பண்பாட்டு, மற்றும் அரசியற் சின்னங்களாக விளங்கக்கூடிய கட்டிடங்களில் மட்டுமே கட்டிடக்கலைஞரின் திறமை பெரும்பாலும் வேண்டப்படுகின்றது. இவற்றைத்தான் பொதுமக்களும், கட்டிடக்கலை சார்ந்த கட்டிடங்களாகக் கருதுகிறார்கள். சமூகத்துக்கும், கட்டிடக்கலைஞருக்குமிடையே எப்பொழுதும் ஒரு கருத்துப்பரிமாற்றம் நடந்துகொண்டுதான் வருகிறது. இப் பரிமாற்றத்தின் விளைவுகள்தான் கட்டிடக்கலையும், அதன் உற்பத்திப்பொருட்களுமாகும் என்று சொல்லலாம்.

 இவற்றையும் பார்க்கவும்
 கட்டிடக் கலைஞர்
 கட்டிடக்கலை வரலாறு
 கட்டிடக்கலைப் பாணி
 கட்டிடங்களின் பட்டியல்
 கட்டிடக்கலையில் வடிவங்கள் (Forms)
 குறிப்பிடத்தக்க கட்டிடக்கலைஞர்களின் பட்டியல்
 வானளாவி (Skyscraper)
 இடவெளித் தொகுப்பு (Space Syntax)
 தாங்குதிறன் வடிவமைப்பு (Sustainable Design)
 உருப்படிம மொழி (Pattern Language)
 கணிதமும், கட்டிடக்கலையும்
 கட்டிட வரைபடங்கள்
 கட்டிடக்கலைசார் அழகியல்
 பசுமைக் கட்டிடங்கள் (Green Buildings)
 கட்டிடக்கலை மானிடவியல் (Architectural Anthropology)

 வெளி இணைப்புகள்
 Famous architects - Biographies of well-known architects, almost all of the Modern Movement.
 Dravidian Temple Architecture
 Vitruvius' "Ten Books of Architecture" online
 Skyscrapers.com database on skyscrapers and tall structures
 Royal Institute of British Architects
 American Institute of Architects
 Institute for Architectural Theory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich
 What is New Urbanism? - Congress for the New Urbanism
 What is Landscape Architecture? - American Society of Landscape Architects
 Architecture and Urban Research Laboratory
 Canadian Centre for Architecture - International Research Centre and Museum devoted to Architecture
 http://www.architexturez.net
 http://www.pritzkerprize.com/
 http://www.vitruvio.ch/

மேற்கோள்கள்

It is specifically desirable.

Landscape HISTORY & THEORY: History, Theory, Sustainability, Books, Vitruvius, Landscape Architecture, Manifesto, Lanship, Mimesis, Professional Oath, Landscape Architecture History and Theory CD, Definitions,
Vitruvius The Ten Books on Architecture
(Translated by Morris Hicky Morgan, in 1914, edited by Tom Turner in 2000).
This is the first and most famous text in the history of western landscape architecture, architecture, enginering and town planning. In Roman times the architect was, from the word’s Greek etymology, a ‘chief technician’. The Ten Books' Contents list reveals that most aspects of engineering, including harbours, site planning, clocks, aqueducts, pumps and siege engines, come with the author's technical scope. Only a tiny proportion of these subjects come within the twenty-first century scope of ‘architecture’. Vitruvius Pollio’s treatise De Architectura, was written circa 27 BC and is the only book of its kind to survive from antiquity. These online extracts from Vitruvius comprise the first Book and his comments on what we would now classify as garden design.
Ian Thompson re-interpreted Vitruvius for modern landscape architecture in his book on Ecology, Community and Delight: sources of value in landcape architecture (1999). He argued that Delight is still a useful name for the aesthetic aspect of landscape design but that it makes sense to interpret Firmness as Ecology and Commodity as Community.
With regard to the design methods appropriate to landscape architecture, Tom Turner has suggested a 'simple approach', also deriving from Vitruvius, based on an understanding of Natural Patterns, Social Patterns, Cultural Patterns and Aesthetic Patterns.
The Ten Books on Architecture
Book 1 The Preface is used by the author as an opportunity to fawn on his emperor. Chapter 1 deals with education, which includes a broader range of subjects than the syllabus of today’s design schools, and Chapter 2 with the five fundamental principles of design (Order, Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and Economy). Chapter 3 contains the most famous section in the book, making the case for Commodity, Firmness and Delight. Chapter 4 and Chapter 6, on for planning a site in relation to climate, lay down the basis for landscape architecture. Chapter 5 may seem obsolete but modern cities are being re-fortified in response to fears of crime and terrorism. Chapter 7 has fascinating commentary on the placing of important buildings. Book 1 is followed by books on materials and on different types of building. Roman towns had little space was available for what we would now call gardens. But some land was allocated to outdoor rooms and Vitruvius comments on the treatment of this land are quoted, from his section on Colonades and walks (Book 5, Chapter 10) and on the Palaestra (Book 5, Chapter 11), which was a gymnasium.
The subjects of Vitruvius Ten Books, using modern terminology, are:
Book 1 Landscape ArchitecturePreface
Book 2 MaterialsIntroduction Top
Book 3 Temples (Part 1)Introduction Top
Book 4 Temples (Part 2)Introduction Top
Book 5 Public places: forum, basicila, theatres, walks, palaestra, harboursIntroduction Top
Book 6 Private housesIntroduction Top
Book 7 Finishes and coloursIntroduction Top
Book 8 WaterIntroduction Top
Book 9 Sundials and clocksIntroduction Top
Book 10 Mechanical engineeringIntroduction Top
BOOK I
1. While your divine intelligence and will, Imperator Caesar, were engaged in acquiring the right to command the world, and while your fellow citizens, when all their enemies bad been laid low by your invincible valour, were glorying in your triumph and victory, - while all foreign nations were in subjection awaiting your beck and call, and the Roman people and senate, released from their alarm, were beginning to be guided by your most noble conceptions and policies, I hardly dared, in view of your serious employments, to publish my writings and long considered ideas on architecture, for fear of subjecting myself to your displeasure by an unseasonable interruption.
2. But when I saw that you were giving your attention not only to the welfare of society in general and to the establishment of public order, but also to the providing of public buildings intended for utilitarian purposes, so that not only should the state have been enriched with provinces by your means, but that the greatness of its power might likewise be attended with distinguished authority in its public buildings, I thought that I ought to take the first opportunity to lay before you my writings on this theme. For in the first place it was this subject which made me known to your father, to whom I was devoted on account of his great qualities. After the council of heaven gave him a place in the dwellings of immortal life and transferred your father’s power to your hands, my devotion continuing unchanged as I remembered him inclined me to support you. And so with Marcus Aurelius, Publius Minidius, and Gnaeus Cornelius, I was ready to supply and repair ballistae, scorpiones, and other artillery, and I have received rewards for good service with them. After your first bestowal of these upon me, you continued to renew them on the recommendation of your sister.
3. Owing to this favour I need have no fear of want to the end of my life, and being thus laid under obligation I began to write this work for you, because I saw that you have built and are now building extensively, and that in future also you will take care that our public and private buildings shall be worthy to go down to posterity by the side of your other splendid achievements. I have drawn up definite rules to enable you, by observing them, to have personal knowledge of the quality both of existing buildings and of those which are yet to be constructed. For in the following books I have disclosed all the principles of the art.
THE EDUCATION OF THE ARCHITECT Top
1. The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to test. This knowledge is the child of practice and theory. Practice is the continuous and regular exercise of employment where manual work is done with any necessary material according to the design of a drawing. Theory, on the other hand, is the ability to demonstrate and explain the productions of dexterity on the principles of proportion.
2. It follows, therefore, that architects who have aimed at acquiring manual skill without scholarship have never been able to reach a position of authority to correspond to their pains, while those who relied only upon theories and scholarship were obviously hunting the shadow, not the substance. But those who have a thorough knowledge of both, like men armed at all points, have the sooner attained their object and carried authority with them.
3. In all matters, but particularly in architecture, there are these two points:- the thing signified, and that which gives it its significance. That which is signified is the subject of which we may be speaking; and that which gives significance is a demonstration on scientific principles. It appears, then, that one who professes himself an architect should be well versed in both directions. He ought, therefore, to be both naturally gifted and amenable to instruction. Neither natural ability without instruction nor instruction without natural ability can make the perfect artist. Let him be educated, skilful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed the philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinions of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens.
4. The reasons for all this are as follows. An architect ought to be an educated man so as to leave a more lasting remembrance in his treatises. Secondly, he must have a knowledge of drawing so that he can readily make sketches to show the appearance of the work which he proposes. Geometry, also, is of much assistance in architecture, and in particular it teaches us the use of the rule and compasses, by which especially we acquire readiness in making plans for buildings in their grounds, and rightly apply the square, the level, and the plummet. By means of optics, again, the light in buildings can be drawn from fixed quarters of the sky. It is true that it is by arithmetic that the total cost of buildings is calculated and measurements are computed, but difficult questions involving symmetry are solved by means of geometrical theories and methods.
5. A wide knowledge of history is requisite because, among the ornamental parts of an architect’s design for a work, there are many the underlying idea of whose employment he should be able to explain to inquirers. For instance, suppose him to set up the marble statues of women in long robes, called Caryatides, to take the place of columns, with the mutules and coronas placed directly above their heads, be will give the following explanation to his questioners. Caryae, a state in Peloponnesus, sided with the Persian enemies against Greece; later the Greeks, having gloriously won their freedom by victory in the war, made common cause and declared war against the people of Caryae. They took the town, killed the men, abandoned the State to desolation, and carried off their wives into slavery, without permitting them, however, to lay aside the long robes and other marks of their rank as married women, so that they might be obliged not only to march in the triumph but to appear forever after as a type of slavery, burdened with the weight of their shame and so making atonement for their State. Hence, the architects of the time designed for public buildings statues of these women, placed so as to carry a load, in order that the sin and the punishment of the people of Caryae might be known and handed down even to posterity.
6. Likewise the Lacedaemonians under the leadership of Pausanias, son of Agesipolis, after conquering the Persian armies, infinite in number, with a small force at the battle of Plataea, celebrated a glorious triumph with the spoils and booty, and with the money obtained from the sale thereof built the Persian Porch, to be a monument to the renown and valour of the people and a trophy of victory for posterity. And there they set effigies of the prisoners arrayed in barbarian costume and holding up the roof, their pride punished by this deserved affront, that enemies might tremble for fear of the effects of their courage, and that their own people, looking upon this ensample of their valour and encouraged by the glory of it, might be ready to defend their independence. So from that time on, many have put up statues of Persians supporting entablatures and their ornaments, and thus from that motive have greatly enriched the diversity of their works. There are other stories of the same kind which architects ought to know.
7. As for philosophy, it makes an architect high-minded and not self-assuming, but rather renders him courteous, just, and honest without avariciousness. This is very important, for no work can be rightly done without honesty and incorruptibility. Let him not be grasping nor have his mind preoccupied with the idea of receiving perquisites, but let him with dignity keep up his position by cherishing a good reputation. These are among the precepts of philosophy. Furthermore philosophy treats of physics where a more careful knowledge is required because the problems which come under this head are numerous and of very different kinds; as, for example, in the case of the conducting of water. For at points of intake and at curves, and at places where it is raised to a level, currents of air naturally form in one way or another; and nobody who has not learned the fundamental principles of physics from philosophy will be able to provide against the damage which they do. So the reader of Ctesibius or Archimedes and the other writers of treatises of the same class will not be able to appreciate them unless he has been trained in these subjects by the philosophers.
8. Music, also, the architect ought to understand so that he may have knowledge of the canonical and mathematical theory, and besides be able to tune ballistae, catapultae, and scorpiones to the proper key. For to the right and left in the beams are the holes in the frames through which the strings of twisted sinew are stretched by means of windlasses and bars, and these strings must not be clamped and made fast until they give the same correct note to the ear of the skilled workman. For the arms thrust through those stretched strings must, on being let go, strike their blow together at the same moment; but if they are not in unison, they will prevent the course of projectiles from being straight.
9. In theatres, likewise, there are the bronze vessels which are placed in niches under the seats in accordance with the musical intervals on mathematical principles. These vessels are arranged with a view to musical concords or harmony, and apportioned in the compass of the fourth, the fifth, and the octave, and so on up to the double octave, in such a way that when the voice of an actor falls in unison with any of them its power is increased, and it reaches the ears of the audience with greater clearness and sweetness. Water organs, too, and the other instruments which resemble them cannot be made by one who is without the principles of music.
10. The architect should also have a knowledge of the study of medicine on account of the questions of climates air, the healthiness and unhealthiness of sites, and the use of different waters. For without these considerations, the healthiness of a dwelling cannot be assured. And as for principles of law, he should know those which are necessary in the case of buildings having party walls, with regard to water dripping from the eaves, and also the laws about drains, windows, and water supply. And other things of this sort should be known to architects, so that, before they begin upon buildings, they may be careful not to leave disputed points for the householders to settle after the works are finished, and so that in drawing up contracts the interests of both employer and contractor may be wisely safe-guarded. For if a contract is skillfully drawn, each may obtain a release from the other without disadvantage. From astronomy we find the east, west, south, and north, as well as the theory of the heavens, the equinox, solstice, and courses of the stars. If one has no knowledge of these matters, he will not be able to have any comprehension of the theory of sundials.
11. Consequently, since this study is so vast in extent, embellished and enriched as it is with many different kinds of learning, I think that men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without having climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of the holy ground of architecture.
12. But perhaps to the inexperienced it will seem a marvel that human nature can comprehend such a great number of studies and keep them in the memory. Still, the observation that all studies have a common bond of union and intercourse with one another, will lead to the belief that this can easily be realized. For a liberal education forms, as it were, a single body made up of these members. Those, therefore, who from tender years receive instruction in the various forms of learning, recognize the same stamp on all the arts, and an intercourse between all studies, and so they more readily comprehend them all. This is what led one of the ancient architects, Pytheos, the celebrated builder of the temple of Minerva at Priene, to say in his Commentaries that an architect ought to be able to accomplish much more in all the arts and sciences than the men who, by their own particular kinds of work and the practice of it, have brought each a single subject to the highest perfection. But this is in point of fact not realized.
13. For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like Aristoxenus, though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelles, though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was Myron or Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor again a physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor in the other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be unskilful in them. For, in the midst of all this great variety of subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories of them.
14. Still, it is not architects alone that cannot in all matters reach perfection, but even men who individually practise specialties in the arts do not all attain to the highest point of merit. Therefore, if among artists working each in a single field not all, but only a few in an entire generation acquire fame, and that with difficulty, how. can an architect, who has to be skilful in many arts, accomplish not merely the feat — in itself a great marvel —of being deficient in none of them, but also that of surpassing all those artists who have devoted themselves with unremitting industry to single fields?
15. It appears, then, that Pytheos made a mistake by not observing that the arts are each composed of two things, the actual work and the theory of it. One of these, the doing of the work, is proper to men trained in the individual subject, while the other, the theory, is common to all scholars: for example, to physicians and musicians the rhythmical beat of the pulse and its metrical movement. But if there is a wound to be healed or a sick man to be saved from danger, the musician will not call, for the business will be appropriate to the physician. So in the case of a musical instrument, not the physician but the musician will be the man to tune it so that the ears may find their due pleasure in its strains.
16. Astronomers likewise have a common ground for discussion with musicians in the harmony of the stars and musical concords in tetrads and triads of the fourth and the fifth, and with geometricians in the subject of vision; and in all other sciences many points, perhaps all, are common so far as the discussion of them is concerned. But the actual undertaking of works which are brought to perfection by the hand and its manipulation is the function of those who have been specially trained to deal with a single art. It appears, therefore, that he has done enough and to spare who in each subject possesses a fairly good knowledge of those parts, with their principles, which are indispensable for architecture, so that if he is required to pass judgement and to express approval in the case of those things or arts, he may not be found wanting. As for men upon whom nature has bestowed so much ingenuity, acuteness, and memory that they are able to have a thorough knowledge of geometry, astronomy, music, and the other arts, they go beyond the functions of architects and become pure mathematicians. Hence they can readily take up positions against those arts because many are the artistic weapons with which they are armed. Such men, however, are rarely found, but there have been such at times; for example, Aristarchus of Samos, Philolaus and Archytas of Tarentum, Apollonius of Perga, Eratosthenes of Cyrene, and among Syracusans Archimedes and Scopinas, who through mathematics and natural philosophy discovered, expounded, and left to posterity many things in connexion with mechanics and with sundials.
17. Since, therefore, the possession of such talents due to natural capacity is not vouchsafed at random to entire nations, but only to a few great men; since, moreover, the function of the architect requires a training in all the departments of learning; and finally, since reason, on account of the wide extent of the subject, concedes that he may possess not the highest but not even necessarily a moderate knowledge of the subjects of study, I request, Caesar, both of you and of those who may read the said books, that if anything is set forth with too little regard for grammatical rule, it may be pardoned. For it is not as a very great philosopher, nor as an eloquent rhetorician, nor as a grammarian trained in the highest principles of his art, that I have striven to write this work, but as an architect who has had only a dip into those studies. Still, as regards the efficacy of the art and the theories of it, I promise and expect that in these volumes I shall undoubtedly show myself of very considerable importance not only to builders but also to all scholars.
THE FIVE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF ARCHITECTURE
1. Architecture depends on Order, Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety, and Economy.
2. Order gives due measure to the members of a work considered separately, and symmetrical agreement to the proportions of the whole. It is an adjustment according to quantity. By this I mean the selection of modules from the members of the work itself and, starting from these individual parts of members, constructing the whole work to correspond. Arrangement includes the putting of things in their proper places and the elegance of effect which is due to adjustments appropriate to the character of the work. Its forms of expression are these: groundplan, elevation, and perspective. A groundplan is made by the proper successive use of compasses and rule, through which we get outlines for the plane surfaces of buildings. An elevation is a picture of the front of a building, set upright and properly drawn in the proportions of the contemplated work. Perspective is the method of sketching a front with the sides withdrawing into the background, the lines all meeting in the centre of a circle. All three come of reflexion and invention. Reflexion is careful and laborious thought, and watchful attention directed to the agreeable effect of one’s plan. Invention, on the other hand, is the solving of intricate problems and the discovery of new principles by means of brilliancy and versatility. These are the departments belonging under Arrangement.
3. Eurythmy is beauty and fitness in the adjustments of the members. This is found when the members of a work are of a height suited to their breadth, of a breadth suited to their length, and, in a word, when they all correspond symmetrically.
4. Symmetry is a proper agreement between the members of the work itself, and relation between the different parts and the whole general scheme, in accordance with a certain part selected as standard. Thus in the human body there is a kind of symmetrical harmony between forearm, foot, palm, finger, and other small parts; and so it is with perfect buildings. In the case of temples, symmetry may be calculated from the thickness of a column, from a triglyph, or even from a module; in the ballista, from the hole; in a ship, from the space between the tholepins; and in other things, from various members.
5. Propriety is that perfection of style which comes when a work is authoritatively constructed on approved principles. It arises from prescription, from usage, or from nature. From prescription, in the case of hypaethral edifices, open to the sky, in honour of Jupiter Lightning, the Heaven, the Sun, or the Moon: for these are gods whose semblances and manifestations we behold before our very eyes in the sky when it is cloudless and bright. The temples of Minerva, Mars, and Hercules, will be Doric, since the virile strength of these gods makes daintiness entirely inappropriate to their houses. In temples to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, Spring-Water, and the Nymphs, the Corinthian order will be found to have peculiar significance, because these are delicate divinities and so its rather slender outlines, its flowers, leaves, and ornamental volutes will lend propriety where it is due. The construction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana, Father Bacchus, and the other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with the middle position which they hold; for the building of such will be an appropriate combination of the severity of the Doric and the delicacy of the Corinthian.
6. Propriety arises from usage when buildings having magnificent interiors are provided with elegant entrance-courts to correspond; for there will be no propriety in the spectacle of an elegant interior approached by a low, mean entrance. Or, if dentils be carved in the cornice of the Doric entablature or triglyphs represented in the Ionic entablature over the cushion-shaped capitals of the columns, the effect will be spoilt by the transfer of the peculiarities of the one order of building to the other, the usage in each class having been fixed long ago.
7. Finally, propriety will be due to natural causes if, for example, in the case of all sacred precincts we select very healthy neighbourhoods with suitable springs of water in the places where the fanes are to be built, particularly in the case of those to Aesculapius and to Health, gods by whose healing powers great numbers of the sick are apparently cured. For when their diseased bodies are transferred from an unhealthy to a healthy spot, and treated with waters from health-giving springs, they will the more speedily grow well. The result will be that the divinity will stand in higher esteem and find his dignity increased, all owing to the nature of his site. There will also be natural propriety in using an eastern light for bedrooms and libraries, a western light in winter for baths and winter apartments, and a northern light for picture galleries and other places in which a steady light is needed; for that quarter of the sky grows neither light nor dark with the course of the sun, but remains steady and unshifting all day long.
8. Economy denotes the proper management of materials and of site, as well as a thrifty balancing of cost and common sense in the construction of works. This will be observed if, in the first place, the architect does not demand things which cannot be found or made ready without great expense. For example: it is not everywhere that there is plenty of pitsand, rubble, fir, clear fir, and marble, since they are produced in different places and to assemble them is difficult and costly. Where there is no pitsand, we must use the kinds washed up by rivers or by the sea; the lack of fir and clear fir may be evaded by using cypress, poplar, elm, or pine; and other problems we must solve in similar ways.
9. A second stage in Economy is reached when we have to plan the different kinds of dwellings suitable for ordinary householders, for great wealth, or for the high position of the statesman. A house in town obviously calls for one form of construction; that into which stream the products of country estates requires another; this will not be the same in the case of money-lenders and still different for the opulent and luxurious; for the powers under whose deliberations the commonwealth is guided dwellings are to be provided according to their special needs: and, in a word, the proper form of economy must be observed in building houses for each and every class.
THE DEPARTMENTS OF ARCHITECTURE
1. There are three departments of architecture: the art of building, the making of time-pieces, and the construction of machinery. Building is, in its turn, divided into two parts, of which the first is the construction of fortified towns and of works for general use in public places, and the second is the putting up of structures for private individuals. There are three classes of public buildings: the first for defensive, the second for religious, and the third for utilitarian purposes. Under defence comes the planning of walls towers, and gates, permanent devices for resistance against hostile attacks; under religion, the erection of fanes and temples to the immortal gods; under utility, the provision of meeting places for public use, such as harbours, markets, colonnades, baths, theatres, promenades, and all other similar arrangements in public places.
2. All these must be built with due reference to durability, convenience, and beauty.[Note: the better-known translation of these values 'Commodity, Firmness and Delight', comes Henry Wotton's 1624 Principles of Architecture) Durability will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected; convenience, when the arrangement of the apartments is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure; and beauty, when the appearance of the work is pleasing and in good taste, and when its members are in due pro~ portion according to correct principles of symmetry.
THE SITE OF A CITY
1. For fortified towns the following general principles are to be observed. First comes the choice of a very healthy site. Such a site will be high, neither misty nor frosty, and in a climate neither hot nor cold, but temperate; further, without marshes in the neighbourhood. For when the morning breezes blow toward the town at sunrise, if they bring with them mists from marshes and, mingled with the mist, the poisonous breath of the creatures of the marshes to be wafted into the bodies of the inhabitants, they will make the site unhealthy. Again, if the town is on the coast with a southern or western exposure, it will not be healthy, because in summer the southern sky grows hot at sunrise and is fiery at noon, while a western exposure grows warm after sunrise, is hot at noon, and at evening all aglow.
2. These variations in heat and the subsequent cooling off are harmful to the people living on such sites. The same conclusion may be reached in the case of inanimate things. For instance, nobody draws the light for covered wine rooms from the south or west, but rather from the north, since that quarter is never subject to change but is always constant and unshifting. So it is with granaries: grain exposed to the sun’s course soon loses its good quality, and provisions and fruit, unless stored in a place unexposed to the sun’s course, do not keep long.
3. For heat is a universal solvent, melting out of things their power of resistance, and sucking away and removing their natural strength with its fiery exhalations so that they grow soft, and hence weak, under its glow. We see this in the case of iron which, however hard it may naturally be, yet when heated thoroughly in a furnace fire can be easily worked into any kind of shape, and still, if cooled while it is soft and white hot, it hardens again with a mere dip into cold water and takes on its former quality.
4. We may also recognize the truth of this from the fact that in summer the heat makes everybody weak, not only in unhealthy but even in healthy places, and that in winter even the most unhealthy districts are much healthier because they are given a solidity by the cooling off. Similarly, persons removed from cold countries to hot cannot endure it but waste away; whereas those who pass from hot places to the cold regions of the north, not only do not suffer in health from the change of residence but even gain by it.
5. It appears, then, that in founding towns we must beware of districts from which hot winds can spread abroad over the inhabitants. For while all bodies are composed of the four elements, that is, of heat, moisture, the earthy, and air, yet there are mixtures according to natural temperament which make up the natures of all the different animals of the world, each after its kind.
6. Therefore, if one of these elements, heat, becomes predominant in any body whatsoever, it destroys and dissolves all the others with its violence. This defect may be due to violent heat from certain quarters of the sky, pouring into the open pores in too great proportion to admit of a mixture suited to the natural temperament of the body in question. Again, if too much moisture enters the channels of a body, and thus introduces disproportion, the other elements, adulterated by the liquid, are impaired, and the virtues of the mixture dissolved. This defect, in turn, may arise from the cooling properties of moist winds and breezes blowing upon the body. In the same way, increase or diminution of the proportion of air or of the earthy which is natural to the body may enfeeble the other elements; the predominance of the earthy being due to overmuch food, that of air to a heavy atmosphere.
7. If one wishes a more accurate understanding of all this, he need only consider and observe the natures of birds, fishes, and land animals, and be will thus come to reflect upon distinctions of temperament. One form of mixture is proper to birds, another to fishes, and a far different form to land animals. Winged creatures have less of the earthy, less moisture, heat in moderation, air in large amount. Being made up, therefore, of the lighter elements, they can more readily soar away into the air. Fish, with their aquatic nature, being moderately supplied with heat and made up in great part of air and the earthy, with as little of moisture as possible, can more easily exist in moisture for the very reason that they have less of it than of the other elements in their bodies; and so, when they are drawn to land, they leave life and water at the same moment. Similarly, the land animals, being moderately supplied with the elements of air and beat, and having less of the earthy and a great deal of moisture, cannot long continue alive in the water, because their portion of moisture is already abundant.
8. Therefore, if all this is as we have explained, our reason showing us that the bodies of animals are made up of the elements, and these bodies, as we believe, giving way and breaking up as a result of excess or deficiency in this or that element, we cannot but believe that we must take great care to select a very temperate climate for the site of our city, since healthfulness is, as we have said, the first requisite.
9. I cannot too strongly insist upon the need of a return to the method of old times. Our ancestors, when about to build a town or an army post, sacrificed some of the cattle that were wont to feed on the site proposed and examined their livers. If the livers of the first victims were dark-coloured or abnormal, they sacrificed others, to see whether the fault was due to disease or their food. They never began to build defensive works in a place until after they had made many such trials and satisfied themselves that good water and food had made the liver sound and firm. If they continued to find it abnormal, they argued from this that the food and water supply found in such a place would be just as unhealthy for man, and so they moved away and changed to another neighbourhood, healthfulness being their chief object.
10. That pasturage and food may indicate the healthful qualities of a site is a fact which can be observed and investigated in the case of certain pastures in Crete, on each side of the river Pothereus, which separates the two Cretan states of Gnosus and Gortyna. There are cattle at pasture on the right and left banks of that river, but while the cattle that feed near Gnosus have the usual spleen, those on the other side near Gortyna have no perceptible spleen. On investigating the subject, physicians discovered on this side a kind of herb which the cattle chew and thus make their spleen small. The herb is therefore gathered and used as a medicine for the cure of splenetic people. From food and water, then, we may learn whether sites are naturally unhealthy or healthy.
11. If the walled town is built among the marshes themselves, provided they are by the sea, with a northern or north-eastern exposure, and are above the level of the seashore, the site will be reasonable enough. For ditches can be dug to let out the water to the shore, and also in times of storms the sea swells and comes backing up into the marshes, where its bitter blend prevents the reproductions of the usual marsh creatures, while any that swim down from the higher levels to the shore are killed at once by the saltness to which they are unused. An instance of this may be found in the Gallic marshes surrounding Altino, Ravenna, Aquileia, and other towns in places of the kind, close by marshes. They are marvellously healthy, for the reasons which I have given.
12. But marshes that are stagnant and have no outlets either by rivers or ditches, like the Pomptine marshes, merely putrefy as they stand, emitting heavy, unhealthy vapours. A case of a town built in such a spot was Old Salpia in Apulia, founded by Diomede on his way back from Troy, or, according to some writers, by Elpias of Rhodes. Year after year there was sickness, until finally the suffering inhabitants came with a public petition to Marcus Hostilius and got him to agree to seek and find them a proper place to which to remove their city. Without delay he made the most skilful investigations, and at once purchased an estate near the sea in a healthy place, and asked the Senate and Roman people for permission to remove the town. He constructed the walls and laid out the house lots, granting one to each citizen for a mere trifle. This done, he cut an opening from a lake into the sea, and thus made of the lake a harbour for the town. The result is that now the people of Salpia live on a healthy site and at a distance of only four miles from the old town.
THE CITY WALLS
1. After insuring on these principles the healthfulness of the future city, and selecting a neighbourhood that can supply plenty of food stuffs to maintain the community, with good roads or else convenient rivers or seaports affording easy means of transport to the city, the next thing to do is to lay the foundations for the towers and walls. Dig down to solid bottom, if it can be found, and lay them therein, going as deep as the magnitude of the proposed work seems to require. They should be much thicker than the part of the walls that will appear above ground, and their structure should be as solid as it can possibly be laid.
2. The towers must be projected beyond the line of wall, so that an enemy wishing to approach the wall to carry it by assault may be exposed to the fire of missiles on his open flank from the towers on his right and left. Special pains should be taken that there be no easy avenue by which to storm the wall. The roads should be encompassed at steep points, and planned so as to approach the gates, not in a straight line, but from the right to the left; for as a result of this, the right hand side of the assailants, unprotected by their shields, will be next the wall. Towns should be laid out not as an exact square nor with salient angles, but in circular form, to give a view of the enemy from many points. Defense is difficult where there are salient angles, because the angle protects the enemy rather than the inhabitants.
8. The thickness of the wall should, in my opinion, be such that armed men meeting on top of it may pass one another without interference. In the thickness there should be set a very close succession of ties made of charred olive wood, binding the two faces of the wall together like pins, to give it lasting endurance. For that is a material which neither decay, nor the weather, nor time can harm, but even though buried in the earth or set in the water it keeps sound and useful forever. And so not only city walls but substructures in general and all walls that require a thickness like that of a city wall, will be long in falling to decay if tied in this manner.
4. The towers should be set at intervals of not more than a bowshot apart, so that in case of an assault upon any one of them, the enemy may be repulsed with scorpiones and other means of hurling missiles from the towers to the right and left. Opposite the inner side of every tower the wall should be interrupted for a space the width of the tower, and have only a wooden flooring across, leading to the interior of the tower but not firmly nailed. This is to be cut away by the defenders in case the enemy gets possession of any portion of the wall; and if the work is quickly done, the enemy will not be able to make his way to the other towers and the rest of the wall unless he is ready to face a fall.
5. The towers themselves must be either round or polygonal. Square towers are sooner shattered by military engines, for the battering rams pound their angles to pieces; but in the case of round towers they can do no harm, being engaged, as it were, in driving wedges to their centre. The system of fortification by wall and towers may be made safest by the addition of earthen ramparts, for neither rams, nor mining, nor other engineering devices can do them any harm.
6. The rampart form of defense, however, is not required in all places, but only where outside the wall there is high ground from which an assault on the fortifications may be made over a level space lying between. En places of this kind we must first make very wide, deep ditches; next sink foundations for a wall in the bed of the ditch and build them thick enough to support an earthwork with ease.
7. Then within this substructure lay a second foundation, far enough inside the first to leave ample room for cohorts in line of battle to take position on the broad top of the rampart for its defense. Having laid these two foundations at this distance from one another, build cross walls between them, uniting the outer and inner foundation, in a comb-like arrangement, set like the teeth of a saw. With this form of construction, the enormous burden of earth will be distributed into small bodies, and will not lie with all its weight in one crushing mass so as to thrust out the substructures.
8. With regard to the material of which the actual wall should be constructed or finished, there can be no definite prescription, because we cannot obtain in all places the supplies that we desire. Dimension stone, flint, rubble, burnt or unburnt brick, - use them as you find them. For it is not every neighbourhood or particular locality that can have a wall built of burnt brick like that at Babylon, where there was plenty of asphalt to take the place of lime and sand, and yet possibly each may be provided with materials of equal usefulness so that out of them a faultless wall may be built to last forever.
THE DIRECTIONS OF THE STREETS; WITH REMARKS ON THE WINDS
1. The town being fortified, the next step is the apportionment of house lots within the wall and the laying out of streets and alleys with regard to climatic conditions. They will be properly laid out if foresight is employed to exclude the winds from the alleys. Cold winds are disagreeable, hot winds enervating, moist winds unhealthy. We must, therefore, avoid mistakes in this matter and beware of the common experience of many communities. For example, Mytilene in the island of Lesbos is a town built with magnificence and good taste, but its position shows a lack of foresight. In that community when the wind is south, the people fall ill; when it is northwest, it sets them coughing; with a north wind they do indeed recover but cannot stand about in the alleys and streets, owing to the severe cold.
2. Wind is a flowing wave of air, moving hither and thither indefinitely. It is produced when heat meets moisture, the rush of heat generating a mighty current of air. That this is the fact we may learn from bronze eolipiles, and thus by means of a scientific invention discover a divine truth lurking in the laws of the heavens. Eolipiles are hollow bronze balls, with a very small opening through which water is poured into them. Set before a fire, not a breath issues from them before they get warm; but as soon as they begin to boil, out comes a strong blast due to the fire. Thus from this slight and very short experiment we may understand and judge of the mighty and wonderful laws of the heavens and the nature of winds.
3. By shutting out the winds from our dwellings, therefore, we shall not only make the place healthful for people who are well, but also in the case of diseases due perhaps to unfavourable situations elsewhere, the patients, who in other healthy places might be cured by a different form of treatment, will here be more quickly cured by the mildness that comes from the shutting out of the winds. The diseases which are hard to cure in neighbourhoods such as those to which I have referred above are catarrh, hoarseness, coughs, pleurisy, consumption, spitting of blood, and all others that are cured not by lowering the system but by building it up. They are hard to cure, first, because they are originally due to chills; secondly, because the patient’s system being already exhausted by disease, the air there, which is in constant agitation owing to winds and therefore deteriorated, takes all the sap of life out of their diseased bodies and leaves them more meagre every day. On the other hand, a mild, thick air, without draughts and not constantly blowing back and forth, builds up their frames by its unwavering steadiness, and so strengthens and restores people who are afflicted with these diseases.
4. Some have held that there are only four winds: Solanus from due east; Auster from the south; Favonius from due west; Septentrio from the north. But more careful investigators tell us that there are eight. Chief among such was Andronicus of Cyrrhus who in proof built the marble octagonal tower in Athens. On the several sides of the octagon he executed reliefs representing the several winds, each facing the point from which it blows; and on top of the tower he set a conical shaped piece of marble and on this a bronze Triton with a rod outstretched in its right band. It was so contrived as to go round with the wind, always stopping to face the breeze and holding its rod as a pointer directly over the representation of the wind that was blowing.
5. Thus Eurus is placed to the southeast between Solanus and Auster: Africus to the southwest between Auster and Favonius; Caurus, or, as many call it, Corus, between Favonius and Septentrio; and Aquilo between Septentrio and Solanus. Such, then, appears to have been his device, including the numbers and names of the wind and indicating the directions from which particular winds blow. These facts being thus determined, to find the directions and quarters of the winds your method of procedure should be as follows.
6. In the middle of the city place a marble amussium, laying it true by the level, or else let the spot be made so true by means of rule and level that no amussium is necessary. In the very centre of that spot set up a bronze gnomon or "shadow tracker". At about the fifth hour in the morning, take the end of the shadow cast by this gnomon, and mark it with a point. Then, opening your compasses to this point which marks the length of the gnomon’s shadow, describe a circle from the centre. In the afternoon watch the shadow of your gnomon as it lengthens, and when it once more touches the circumference of this circle and the shadow in the afternoon is equal in length to that of the morning, mark it with a point.
7. From these two points describe with your compasses intersecting arcs, and through their intersection and the centre let a line be drawn to the circumference of the circle to give us the quarters of south and north. Then, using a sixteenth part of the entire circumference of the circle as a diameter, describe a circle with its centre on the line to the south, at the point where it crosses the circumference, and put points to the right and left on the circumference on the south side, repeating the process on the north side. From the four points thus obtained draw lines intersecting the centre from one side of the circumference to the other. Thus we shall have an eighth part of the circumference set out for Auster and another for Septentrio. The rest of the entire circumference is then to be divided into three equal parts on each side, and thus we have designed a figure equally apportioned among the eight winds. Then let the directions of your streets and alleys be laid down on the lines of division between the quarters of two winds.
8. On this principle of arrangement the disagreeable force of the winds will be shut out from dwellings and lines of houses. For if the streets run full in the face of the winds, their constant blasts rushing in from the open country, and then confined by narrow alleys, will sweep through them with great violence. The lines of houses must therefore be directed away from the quarters from which the winds blow, so that as they come in they may strike against the angles of the blocks and their force thus be broken and dispersed.
9. Those who know names for very many winds will perhaps be surprised at our setting forth that there are only eight. Remembering, however, that Eratosthenes of Cyrene, employing mathematical theories and geometrical methods, discovered from the course of the sun, the shadows cast by an equinoctial gnomon, and the inclination of the heaven that the circumference of the earth is two hundred and fifty-two thousand stadia, that is, thirty-one million five hundred thousand paces, and observing that an eighth part of this, occupied by a wind, is three million nine hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred paces, they should not be surprised to find that a single wind, ranging over so wide a field, is subject to shifts this way and that, leading to a variety of breezes.
10. So we often have Leuconotus and Altanus blowing respectively to the right and left of Auster; Libonotus and Subvesperus to the right and left of Africus; Argestes, and at certain periods the Etesiae, on either side of Favonius; Circias and Corus on the sides of Caurus; Thracias and Gallicus on either side of Septentrio; Supernas and Caecias to the right and left of Aquilo; Carbas, and at a certain period the Ornithiae, on either side of Solanus; while Eurocircias and Volturnus blow on the flanks of Eurus which is between them. There are also many other names for winds derived from localities or from the squalls which sweep from rivers or down mountains.
11. Then, too, there are the breezes of early morning; for the sun on emerging from beneath the earth strikes humid air as he returns, and as he goes climbing up the sky he spreads it out before him, extracting breezes from the vapour that was there before the dawn. Those that still blow on after sunrise are classed with Eurus, and hence appears to come the Greek name for the child of the breezes, and the word for "to-morrow," named from the early morning breezes. Some people do indeed I say that Eratosthenes could not have inferred the true measure of the earth. Whether true or untrue, it cannot affect the truth of what I have written on the fixing of the quarters from which the different winds blow.
12. If he was wrong, the only result will be that the individual winds may blow, not with the scope expected from his measurement, but with powers either more or less widely extended. For the readier understanding of these topics, since I have treated them with brevity, it has seemed best to me to give two figures, at the end of this book: one designed to show the precise quarters from which the winds arise; the other, how by turning the directions of the rows of houses and the streets away from their full force, we may avoid unhealthy blasts. Let A be the centre of a plane surface, and B the point to which the shadow of the gnomon reaches in the morning. Taking A as the centre, open the compasses to the point B, which marks the shadow, and describe a circle. Put the gnomon back where it was before and wait for the shadow to lessen and grow again until in the afternoon it is equal to its length in the morning, touching the circumference at the point C. Then from the points B and C describe with the compasses two arcs intersecting at D. Next draw a line from the point of intersection D through the centre of the circle to the circumference and call it E F. This line will show where the south and north lie.
18. Then find with the compasses a sixteenth part of the entire circumference; then centre the compasses on the point E where the line to the south touches the circumference, and set off the points G and H to the right and left of E. Likewise on the north side, centre the compasses on the circumference at the point F on the line to the north, and set off the points I and K to the right and left; then draw lines through the centre from G to K and from H to I. Thus the space from G to H will belong to Auster and the south, and the space from I to K will be that of Septentrio. The rest of the circumference is to be divided equally into three parts on the right and three on the left, those to the east at the points L and M, those to the west at the points N and 0.
Finally, intersecting lines are to be drawn from M to 0 and from L to N. Thus we shall have the circumference divided into eight equal spaces for the winds. The figure being finished, we shall have at the eight different divisions, beginning at the south, the letter G between Eurus and Auster, H between Auster and Africus, N between Africus and Favonius, 0 between Favonius and Caurus, K between Caurus and Septentrio, I between Septentrio and Aquilo, L between Aquilo and Solanus, and M between Solanus and Eurus. This done, apply a gnomon to these eight divisions and thus fix the directions of the different alleys.
THE SITES FOR PUBLIC BUILDINGS
1. Having laid out the alleys and determined the streets, we have next to treat of the choice of building sites for temples, the forum, and all other public places, with a view to general convenience and utility. If the city is on the sea, we should choose ground close to the harbor as the place where the forum is to be built; but if inland, in the middle of the town. For the temples, the sites for those of the gods under whose particular protection the state is thought to rest and for Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, should be on the very highest point commanding a view of the greater part of the city. Mercury should be in the forum, or, like Isis and Serapis, in the emporium: Apollo and Father Bacchus near the theatre: Hercules at the circus in communities which have no gymnasia nor amphitheatres; Mars outside the city but at the training ground, and so Venus, but at the harbor. It is moreover shown by the Etruscan diviners in treatises on their science that the fanes of Venus, Vulcan, and Mars should be situated outside the walls, in order that the young men and married women may not become habituated in the city to the temptations incident to the worship of Venus, and that buildings may be free from the terror of fires through the religious rites and sacrifices which call the power of Vulcan beyond the walls. As for Mars, when that divinity is enshrined outside the walls, the citizens will never take up arms against each other, and he will defend the city from its enemies and save it from danger in war.
2. Ceres also should be outside the city in a place to which people need never go except for the purpose of sacrifice. That place should be under the protection of religion, purity, and good morals. Proper sites should be set apart for the precincts of the other gods according to the nature of the sacrifices offered to them.
The principle governing the actual construction of temples and their symmetry I shall explain in my third and fourth books. In the second I have thought it best to give an account of the materials used in buildings with their good qualities and advantages, and then in the succeeding books to describe and explain the proportions of buildings, their arrangements, and the different forms of symmetry.
Excerpt from Book 5 Chapter 10 Top
COLONNADES AND WALKS
5. The space in the middle, between the colonnades and open to the sky, ought to be embellished with green things; for walking in the open air is very healthy, particularly for the eyes, since the refined and rarefied air that comes from green things, finding its way in because of the physical exercise, gives a clean-cut image, and, by clearing away the gross humours from the eyes, leaves the sight keen and the image distinct. Besides, as the body gets warm with exercise in walking, this air, by sucking out the bumours from the frame, diminishes their superabundance, and disperses and thus reduces that superfluity which is more than the body can bear.
6. That this is so may be seen from the fact that misty vapours never arise from springs of water which are under cover, nor even from watery marshes which are underground; but in uncovered places which are open to the sky, when the rising sun begins to act upon the world with its heat, it brings out the vapour from damp and watery spots, and rolls it in masses upwards. Therefore, if it appears that in places open to the sky the more noxious humours are sucked out of the body by the air, as they obviously are from the earth in the form of mists, I think there is no doubt that cities should be provided with the roomiest and most ornamented walks, laid out under the free and open sky.
7. That they may be always dry and not muddy, the following is to be done. Let them be dug down and cleared out to the lowest possible depth. At the right and left construct covered drains, and in their walls, which are directed towards the walks, lay earthen pipes with their lower ends inclined into the drains. Having finished these, fill up the place with charcoal, and then strew sand over the walks and level them off. Hence, on account of the porous nature of the charcoal and the insertion of the pipes into the drains, quantities of water will be conducted away, and the walks will thus be rendered perfectly dry and without moisture.
8. Furthermore, our ancestors in establishing these works provided cities with storehouses for an indispensable material. The fact is that in sieges everything else is easier to procure than is wood. Salt can easily be brought in beforehand; corn can be got together quickly by the State or by individuals, and if it gives out, the defence may be maintained on cabbage, meat, or beans; water can be had by digging wells, or when there are sudden falls of rain, by collecting it from the tiles. But a stock of wood, which is absolutely necessary for cooking food, is a difficult and troublesome thing to provide; for it is slow to gather and a good deal is consumed.
9. On such occasions, therefore, these walks are thrown open, and a definite allowance granted to each inhabitant according to tribes. Thus these uncovered walks insure two excellent things: first, health in time of peace; secondly, safety in time of war. Hence, walks that are developed on these principles, and built not only behind the "scaena" of theatres, but also at the temples of all the gods, will be capable of being of great use to cities.
Excerpt from Book 5 Chapter 11 Top
THE PALAESTRA
4. This kind of colonnade is called among the Greeks xystus because athletes during the winter season exercise in covered running tracks. Next to this xystus and to the double colonnade should be laid out the uncovered walks into which, in fair weather during the winter, the athletes come out from the xystus for exercise. The xysta ought to be so constructed that there may be plantations between the two colonnades, or groves of plane trees, with walks laid out in them among the trees and resting places there, made of "opus signinum." Behind the xystus a stadium, so designed that great numbers of people may have plenty of room to look on at the contests between the athletes.
I have now described all that seemed necessary for the proper arrangement of things within the city walls [Note this includes most aspects of the 'built environment', because cities had to be fortified]
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Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1999, as stated, good building, beauty, accuracy, and use should be given. Translated by Henry Wotton, in 1624, as "firmness, commodity and delight" the triangle, we can say that it is unlikely to be constructed without a single-dimensional explanation, with a single-dimensional line, with a single-dimensional line. A high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line, a high-dimensional line. However, if you look at another section, the work is to identify all the dimensions of the beauty, the architecture, the science, the art, the technology, the social science, the politics, the history, the architecture, the responsibility, and a multi-screen. In the words of the Wikipedia, "the architecture, the writing from different scientific chambers, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the majority, the major In addition, a building artist, a music, and a heavenly first room should be a good reward in the opinion of the Vietnamese. It is specifically desirable.

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This webpage contains text in accented Greek, using a burned-in font.
"Mausoleum": engraving by C. Holdenwang, 1800
Frontispiece to the Latin edition of the de Architectura by Augustus Rode, meant as a reconstruction of the mausoleum of Halicarnassus. A caption refers the reader to the Preface to Book VII of Vitruvius and to Pliny, NH 36.iv § 9. (For some much more recent reconstructions and a good critical discussion of what is involved, see the article by W. R. Lethaby.)
Another orphan text that no one wanted to enter, but that many nevertheless will be glad to see online. (Why is it that the self-aggrandizements of Cicero, the lecheries and whining of Ovid and the blatherings of that debauched old goose Seneca made it onto the Net before the works that give us solid technical information about what Rome was really good at, viz. the construction of her great buildings and works of engineering?)
As always, I retyped the text rather than scanning it: not only to minimize errors prior to proofing, but as an opportunity for me to become intimately familiar with the work, an exercise which I heartily recommend. (Well-meaning attempts to get me to scan text, if successful, would merely turn me into some kind of machine: gambit declined.)
Anyway, the text has been thoroughly proofed, and I believe it to be free of errors (but if there are errors, please report them). I've already provided a very few preliminary annotations, but much other material remains to be added, first and foremost among which are the drawings.
If you are looking for information about the architecture of amphitheatres or circuses, or about the engineering of bridges or roads, this is not the place for it, surprisingly: Vitruvius never so much as mentions a bridge of any type, and as for his references to the others, they are very infrequent and utterly incidental. These links will take you to these unsatisfactory references in another window:
|Book||Subject|
Dedication to the Emperor; branches of knowledge that an architect must be acquainted with; the factors involved in siting a town and designing its walls, including a rather odd extended explanation of the various winds.
A story about Dinocrates, architect to Alexander the Great, serves as prologue. Second prologue, on the origins of architecture; but most of the book is about materials: bricks, sand, lime, pozzolan concrete; kinds of stone and types of stone masonry; timber.
Some comments on the chance nature of fame in the arts serve as a rather irrelevant prologue: it seems clear Vitruvius felt he had to have one. The book then proceeds to temples, setting forth some basic definitions, then describing a canon for the construction of temples of the Ionic order.
Corinthian and Doric temples; temple doors and altars; the Tuscan order, which Vitruvius seems to find primitive.
In which the author warns you that architecture is highly technical, then proves it in spades in his exposition of civil public spaces: the forum, the basilica, the theatre and its porticos, the palaestra and the baths; harbors. Vitruvius takes particular delight in the acoustics of the theatre about which he seems to know much, much more than he has allowed himself to tell us for fear of boring us: it's a pity.
Prologue: poor but honest makes a good architect. A second sort of prologue on the diversity of mankind from climate to climate, easing into the topic of private houses: their construction should depend on the climate as well. Layout of the Roman house and the Greek house; considerations of weather, function of the rooms, social position of the owner.
Long prologue on the importance of sharing knowledge, and, conversely, not plagiarizing. True to his word, Vitruvius then shares with us his recipes for interior decoration: the preparation and execution of wall paintings: lime, stucco, plaster, pigments.
Water: how to find it, where it comes from, types of water, how to judge its quality; how to transport it (aqueducts). A disappointing book though, since most of it is given over to anecdotal material, cribbed from other authors, about the effects of waters from various sources.
Prologue: architects deserve more honour than wrestlers. Useful technical achievements of architects: a method of doubling a square, a method of constructing a right triangle, Archimedes and the crown. Sundials and water-clocks, preceded by a long section on the planets and the constellations.
Prologue: a proposal on how to deal with cost overruns. The book then details many kinds of machines used in civil and military engineering: pulley-based machines for lifting and transporting weights; the principle of the lever; machines that convert rotary to linear motion and vice-versa, including the water-screw. The hydraulic organ. An odometer of sorts. Catapults, scorpions, balistae, tortoises and how to defend against them.
Additional material on Vitruvius will eventually appear here, but I'm not about to let that delay anything: I'm getting the texts online first.
The Latin text is that of the Teubner edition of 1899 by Valentin Rose. I examined the Augustus Rode text (Berlin, 1800) only to reject it as obviously inferior; and I looked at the Teubner edition of 1867. (The Loeb text, by the way, was published in 1931: it may or may not be in the public domain, depending on whether U.S. copyright was renewed in 1959. Now that I've entered the Teubner edition, I hope to collate it with the Loeb text and see just what differences there might be: this will wait, however, until the drawings are added.)
I know of 5 complete English translations:
• Vitruvius: Ten Books on Architecture, apparently translated by committee, edited by Ingrid D. Rowland and Thomas Noble Howe; Cambridge University Press, 1999.
• Vitruvius: De Architectura, translated by Frank Granger; Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1931.
• Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan; Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1914.
• The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, translated by Joseph Gwilt, London: Priestley and Weale, 1826.
• The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, translated from the original Latin by W. Newton, Architect, London: Dodsley, 1771 and 1791 (of which Gwilt says: "This Edition exhibits such a mixture of ignorance of the original in the translation of the text, with so much intelligence in some of the notes, that it is difficult to believe they are from the same hand.")
The most recent one comes recommended to me by a reader: I have not looked at it, since it is under copyright; see the Bryn Mawr Classical Review; which by the way points out both the necessity of illustrating the work and the difficulties involved.
I did examine the next three translations, and chose to enter the Gwilt translation of 1826. Although it is based on a Latin text much earlier than Valentin Rose's careful Teubner edition (the textual differences are in fact rather minor) I feel, based on spot comparisons of various passages, that on technical grounds it is the best, if only marginally. Where on closer inspection newer or better Latin readings lead to different translations, I'll insert them myself as footnotes.
I should point out that in general, the more technical the subject, the more the translations diverge. Those of you used to relying on the commonly available Loeb edition will find some of its obscurities and mistakes rectified here (and almost certainly vice versa, unfortunately).
Although for the English text I used the Gwilt edition — without following later editors in the very occasional transposition of small passages — I followed the numbering found in the Loeb edition, since that makes this online edition easier to refer to. This affects several books.
Chapter headings will eventually be inserted. A reminder that they are of doubtful authority since appearing in few manuscripts, and those late.
Section numbers also serve as links to the Latin text of that section, which open in another window. The sections of the Latin text are in turn linked back to the other languages.
The unaccented Greek in the Latin text is in font Symbol, which most people should have. The English translation uses accented Greek: on these pages it is given in font SPIonic, which few people have, but which I burned in. Users of Netscape, up to version 4 inclusive, will read the Greek whether you have the font or not; as will users of Camino, iCab, Mozilla, Opera, and Safari. Users of MSIE will see gook, because the Microsoft product, typically, does not follow standard coding. And I am sorry to say that Netscape actually removed this functionality in versions 5+.
I have no plans to put an apparatus criticus online, except for a very small section of Book X involving numbers.
On the other hand, the subject matter is such that a bare text is often very difficult to follow; and even where it is clear, the interest of the work is enhanced if examples can be shown.
I am therefore committed to providing the ample illustration required. Fortunately there is no shortage of figures and architectural drawings in any number of editions of the De Architectura: it should be a matter of using the clearest ones possible, consistent with a uniform look, and presenting them systematically. Also by good fortune, it turns out I've taken quite a few photographs that can illustrate a number of Vitruvius' points: little by little, they'll be popped in as well.
Similarly, this is a text that generally speaking cries out for annotation, and has already been subjected to it at the hands of many. Vitruvius fails for example to define many of his technical terms, some of which must have been obscure to the layperson in his time, let alone now. An explanatory glossary and/or some kind of running notes are thus essential. It will be interesting to see what I can come up with.
In this regard, Auguste Choisy's notes to his own translation are sometimes very valuable: I have added them or will be adding them, translated into English of course, to Gwilt's text.
As of Apr 00, an unspecified edition of Vitruvius, Latin text only, can now be found at the
Latin Library. In the summer or fall of 2000, it had been joined at Perseus by the 1912 Teubner edition of the
Latin text
and the 1914 English translation
by Morris Hicky Morgan.
Numerous copies of my own work have now appeared at other Web addresses; as far as I know, never of the Latin text, always only of Gwilt's English translation. Some of them pirate my notes, and all of them introduce various errors, usually by failing to understand the text.
Those many looking for "commodity, firmness and delight" will not find it in the Gwilt translation on this site. The phrase is a rendering of a passage of Vitruvius by Henry Wotton in his 1624 treatise, The Elements of Architecture — which as far as I can tell is by modern standards a paraphrase, rather than a translation of the Roman architect's work, if often hewing fairly close. In Wotton's context:
The end is to build well. Well building hath three conditions: firmness, commodity, and delight.
I would not go so far as the webpage that reads (my italics)
Vitruvius claimed architecture was composed of the triple essence: strength, utility, and aesthetic effect. Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) quaintly changed this to, 'commodity, firmness and delight.'
since Wotton's translation was excellent in the language of his time, was not quaint, and changed nothing; but it's a definite indication that this piece of nearly 400-year-old English is felt by many to be superseded or to need explanation; and indeed, a quick survey of webpages out there shows several misunderstandings of the principles that are due to a misunderstanding of English and a failure to return to the source. The author of at least one webpage, for example, presumably led astray by a modern meaning of "commodity" as in financial markets, misunderstands the word as having something to do with cost-effectiveness: thus pointing out the mistakes that are so easy to make in reading older English; we see the same problem with Shakespeare and the Bible.
So although Wotton's writings rode the rise of the English language to gain widespread currency, I hope that the student of our own time seeking the authority of Vitruvius, or wishing to understand his approach to architecture, will take the time to read for themselves what Vitruvius actually says and the context in which he says it (in Book I); certainly this antiquated catchprase has at best only a borrowed authority. It may be a potted fix to quote an ancient-sounding tag, but no understanding is gained by it. . . .
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