Historical Architecture.. Where do I begin? There is so much behind what you see on the façades of an ancient classical building than meets the eye, and this is where we start to dig deep into this subject. To start off we began learning about the different styles of historical architecture throughout BC and AD such as classical architecture, Roman architecture, Roma forum and Pompeii.

So far we have been discussing the style of architecture used back in those times and how it was constructed such as the hard labour put into it, the use of materials such as bronze clamps holding the stone together on columns, the level of detail that had to be put into carving out with statues placed around the top edges of the buildings etc.

The first building we looked at was the Parthenon, The Acropolis c.438-432 BC Athens, and was described as a dominant, power statement due to the columns and size of this temple. Columns have 3 orders depending on the level of detail which are (from least to most detail): Doric order, Ionic order and Corinthian Order, so this building is classed under Doric order and as its the most important surviving building in Athens Greece, they have been carrying out a programme to restore and reconstruct to ensure the stability of the ruined sculpture, however its not only happening on the Acropolis, but worldwide to help keep monumental historical buildings stable. But its not just the most important buildings they are reconstructing to keep the history alive, but all over Greece and Rome from houses, columns, arches and buildings. What I find amazing is that with the Roma Forum, they are constantly restoring and preserving what has been left there as they want to keep history and Ancient Architecture alive and to have the layout how archaeologists presume it was back in the day to give people a brief understanding of how it may of looked.

Now in all honesty, for an Architectural Technologist student who is suppose to admire all aspects of architecture, I am not the biggest fan of historical architecture as my hearts set with the more modern architecture but I do have to admit, as we go more into this subject I did begin to admire the level of detail that was within them and made me want to learn more.

Moving on, the next topic of discussion was about arches used in architecture with the different types are: Arch, Barrel Vault, Groin Vault, Wagon vault and a Round Arch, however there a different style of these as it can just be the one layer of bricks creating this arch or it could travel back to create an arched tunnel. Insula, town house, Ostia in Rome was a good example we was shown of a Barrel Vault Arch as they are the more known you would usually see throughout Roman architecture, but in more Gothic architecture, the arches are more “light”.

Before tile covered concrete came along, the Romans used marble to construct but as time went on they found out that concrete is quicker and cheaper to make so which it then became their primary building material . 273 BC was the first use of concrete in the town of Cosa by ofcourse the Romans. By this, it allowed great pillars to support arches and domes such as the Pantheon, Rome. This material worked well in countries like Rome as the weather was perfect with small chances of rain to keeping it from eroding and falling apart, so this worked in their advantage and perhaps is why these fascinating monuments lasted for this long!

Other Roman Architecture we discussed about were Palace of Knossos, Library of Celsus- Ephesus (Turkey), Maison Carree, Nimes but we changed subject onto the Modern Version of Classic Architecture which are buildings like: La Madeleine 1842 (France), The British Museum 1823-47 (UK), Capitol, State of Virginia 1788 and Birmingham, Town Hall 1832

Tomorrow (16/10/2014) we are hopefully going to visit the Delapre Abbey in Northampton to give us an up close look and insight into some classic Architecture in our University town to see the materials used, how it was made, the detail within the façade of the building and the different elements that could be found such as pillars/columns, arches, statues and much more.