Essay? ?Question
For? ?understandable? ?reasons,? ?religious? ?or? ?spiritual? ?buildings? ?became? ?the? ?focus? ?of? ?various cultures'? ?manifestation of? values? through? architecture.?
Name? ?two? ?exception? ?examples? ?of? ?this? ?sort? of? ??architecture,? ?that? ?have? ?been? ?studied? in?? ?this class,? from? any? of? the? ?following categories? ?( one? ?building ?per category):?
Imperial? ?Rome,? ?Byzantine? ?Empire,? ?Carolingian? ?Empire,? ?Islamic? ?Empire,? ?&? ?The? ?Americas
(Meso-America)
Next,? ?explain? ?the? ?purpose? ?of? ?the? ?building and? describe? the? physical? elements? of? each? ?that express? ?and? ?reinforce? ?that? ?purpose? ?and? its'? significance.?
Draw ?a? ?simple? ?diagram? ?for ?each? ?building? ?including? ?as? ?much? ?information? ?as? ?possible.
For clarification:
Pick a religious/spiritual building (prominent/iconic church, mosque or other religious structure) from any of the categories.
Explain why it goes beyond being just a "functional" building. i.e. The great pyramids aren't just a place to house a dead body, a simple hole in the ground with a tombstone would do. Why the massive pyramid? This speaks to the ritual aspect of the culture and how the pharaoh represented a transcendent possibility of something like heave in the afterlife.....
You all should try to tie the actual architecture to the idea that it attempts to physically express that quality. Ex. Pantheon with the full spherical volume and the oculus to and from heaven, rising masses, axial dominance, highly articulated elements, attempts at the sublime through sheer size, allusions to nature with form - mountains,etc.....
Simply draw the buildings you chose to write about from memory as best as possible in diagrammatic form.
Include more building examples from the other classifications (Imperial Rome, Byzantine Empire....) but limit to one buildings per category.