History of Housing Architecture

                  Georgian Architecture is not my favorite style I’ve studied yet but I still admire the experimentation with rounded buildings and blocks. I enjoy learning about more modern styles, I can see the influence it has on modern architecture in my area.

                  Bath is a city of Roman foundation near thermal sources, it is a city of thermal baths, hence the name. Due to the warm baths, Bath was advertised as a holiday city. Bath is a Georgian City and was built during the 18 th century. Repetition and homogeneity are main traits of Georgian Architecture. The houses were formed in uniformed groups similar to the Medieval period, but these buildings would form curves and crescents instead of straight blocks. Bath became a model for cities built of circles and crescents.                 Every building consisted of many houses, the houses would be subleased to individual builders who would take the responsibility to form the interior of the house, but the exterior must conform to John Wood’s design. Symmetry was a priority in the design of buildings, the exterior had simple ...

 

                  I enjoyed learning about the 19 th century architecture of Paris, I admire how efficient and accessible Napoleon III wanted Paris to be. But I wonder how the people who’s buildings were destroyed to make more efficient roads were affected and if they were compensated. Hearing that reminded me of Des Moines building I-235 and how they had to destroy a lot of businesses for the construction. The architecture was very pretty and reminded me of Georgian cities.

       Paris was built from the vision of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann, they wanted to make the most modern city in the world. Napoleon III marked up plans and made instructions for Haussmann to execute through the city of Paris. The reconstruction of Paris started after the fire in London 1841, Napoleon wanted to recreate ideas from London, he instructed Haussman “Take every opportunity to organize the placement of the greatest possible number of squares in all Paris districts in order to offer generous places of recreation and leisure to all children here, rich and poor, just as they have in London.” Napoleon III drew up maps of Paris and reconstructed the streets to make travelling across the city more efficient. Some blocks had to be destroyed and cut through to make new roads, other buildings had to rebuild the front of the buildings in order to widen the roads.  Due to the new road construction the geometry of the blocks were never regular, they were...

 

  I really enjoyed learning about the Renaissance this week, it was beautiful and my favorite type of architecture yet. It made me question if I wanted to do my presentation just about the Renaissance, but I couldn’t find any courses on edx about just the Renaissance. I would definitely learn more about it on my own. I think it is a very cool period, I wonder what made them idolize art and beauty so much.

  The Renaissance was between the medieval and modern periods, it developed in Italy and influenced all of Europe. Art and math were important variables in the Renaissance; paintings were an effective tool for exploring territories and for depicting a new way of thinking about space and urban projects were guided by masters of geometry. According to Alberti the essential features for building a city were beauty and orderliness, beauty meaning being based on geometrical and mathematical principles and orderliness meaning control and proportion.                 Palazzos are one of the main housing types from the Renaissance, they are large multi-story buildings, made up of three main parts, they would house a large variety of members from important families. The main floor was used as shopping arcades and warehouses. The first floor of the house was the “piano nobile”, it contained the principle rooms for a ...

 

                  I never realized how long the medieval period was, that was interesting to learn, I wonder what makes it all the medieval period, was there seriously not enough change for ten centuries where a new period couldn’t be named. Learning and seeing how the houses were designed in groups makes me wonder if places like San Fransico and other areas were influenced by medieval cities.

                  Medieval is a broad expression referencing the period from the end of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance (5 th Century – 15 th Century).   There are common characteristics between medieval cities but since the period was ten centuries many features differ based on geography and the timing of the city. The Bastides will be used as an example of a medieval city. The Bastides are a series of medieval cities located in the southern part of France, starting around the 13 th century. The cities of the Bastides never had a formal plan, but similar patterns emerged from all of them.                 At the entrance of every Bastide was a square, squares were used for commercial transactions and markets. The Squares ranged from sizes of 40x40 to 70x70 meters and the size of the squares were not base...