Jen's beginners guide to architecture. Part I: The orders, or HOW I LOVE COLUMNS

Hello reader,

On the suggestion of one of my most avid readers, my good friend food-blogger Highball Emy, i have decided to do my very own beginners guide to architecture. I have to thank Emy for the idea, as she knows how prone I am to get carried away by exciting buildings. She was one of the people who had to put up with me going ON about columns as i learnt about them at uni and then got very excitable as i was then able to explain away the craziness and eccentricity of the architecture of the Cambridge colleges we walked past on our way to dinner.

Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College, Cambridge

So, in my own way, I will try and guide you through one of my favourite things so that in future you might understand one of my gushing rants about a new [or more likely, really old] building I've just discovered. 

  
PART I:  COLUMNS

Before I start, I just thought I would give you a wee diagram so that you know what I'm talking about when I say things like CAPITAL or FLUTING. First thing I learned when I started studying architecture is that there are SO MANY really WEIRD names for bits of architecture, and they are REALLY hard to remember. So I won't bore you with things like this:

What even IS a modilion? 

I'll just tell you the main bits you need to know, and any other extras that I think might be interesting. 

So, columns. They come in all shapes and sizes, but adhere to 3 main types. These types are called orders and the main ones are the DORIC, IONIC and CORINTHIAN. 

You may be thinking - Why on earth do they have these ridiculous names, and how on earth will I remember which one is which? Well this is where my favourite Roman comes into play. 

Vitruvius was a Roman architect and engineer during the time of Augustus. He's SUPER IMPORTANT because he wrote, not one, but Ten Books on Architecture- De Architectura. These ten books, in addition to being the earliest surviving treatise on architecture, tell us a great deal about Classical architecture, written during the time it was being built- in other words, REALLY REALLY REALLY IMPORTANT TO ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY!!! 

But why do we need to know about him? Well, in his 3rd and 4th books he describes the orders and how they were "invented". I use the term invented loosely here, Vitruvius spins some fairly elaborate tales in order to give us a reason for these columns being the way they are. They are probably complete canis excrementum*, excuse my Latin, but they do help you to distinguish the three types, and they do make some sense. Let me show you what I mean: 

The Doric Order

According to Vitruvius, this order was named after a temple built by Dorus, the King of the Peloponnesus, which "happened" to be in the Doric order. Subsequently all temples in the surrounding area [Achaea] had temples built in that same style, and so when the Athenians rocked up [read: invaded] and saw these temples, they in turn began to set up temples in the same style, calling them "Doric" as they had first seen them built by the Dorians. 

Ok. Cool. So far, so Doric. But why does it LOOK the way it does? I'll continue...
The Athenians [being Greek] wanted to create their temple in a more symmetrical and "ordered" fashion, so they set out to give the column a set of standardized proportions. Vitruvius says that they measured the length of a man's foot [1ft] and compared it with his height [6ft] and therefore gave the column a width to height ratio of 1:6 i.e the height of the column must be 6 times the length of the width of the base.  
At a ratio of 1:6 the Doric is the stoutest order, hence Vitruvius' tale of it being based upon the proportions of a man. This is also in fitting with its capital [see diagram!]. Of the 3 main orders, the Doric has the plainest capital, because it is a masculine order. It can often be found in military buildings, mints and strongholds, or on the bottom storey of a building, as being the stoutest, it is also the "strongest". 

The Ionic Order

Vitruvius' description of the Ionic is far less complicated [and less dull- you thought what I wrote was bad, I heavily condensed the real deal, just for you!]. He claims that Athenians [the guys that just created the Doric order] wanted to build a temple to the Goddess Diana, but they thought that the Doric order, because it was based on the proportions of a MAN, would be too manly and therefore unsuitable. UH-OH, dilemna!  
They solved this problem by creating a new order based on the proportions of a woman. They measured the foot and height of a woman and TA-DAH the proportion of the Ionic order was formed. Vitruvius explains the extra adornments of the Ionic order as dressing it like a woman, with a base in the place of her shoes, the volutes [the "scroll" like elements in the capital] like curls of hair, and the flutes [see diagram!] like folds in her robes. This one is usually really easy to spot because of the big volutes on the capital, and is frequently used in interiors, and in "intellectual" type buildings such as libraries and museums e.g. The British Museum

The Corinthian Order
The Corinthian column has the most slender proportions of the three, in "imitation of the slenderness of a maiden". Vitruvius tells a tragic story to explain the appearance of the capital. A young girl from Corinth, [of marriageable age i.e. a VIRGIN] became ill and died before she could be married. After she was buried her nurse collected up her things and put them in a basket on top of her tomb. This basket just HAPPENED to be placed on the root of an acanthus plant, and so when spring came the stalks and leaves grew up over the basket. At this time an architect just HAPPENED to be passing by [a lot of coincidences here, EY VIRTRUVIUS?] and was pleasantly surprised by it, having never seen anything like it before, and so felt he OBVIOUSLY had to design a column after it for the Corinthians- thus inventing the Corinthian order with appropriate proportions to suit a virginal maid i.e. tall and slender. The Corinthian has the most ornamental capital of the three, which fits in with Vitruvius' identification of it with a pretty, delicate young girl. 

Ok. Now I've told you about the 3 order its time for a fun game of GUESS THE ORDER [I do this to EVERYONE who I've ever tried to teach the different orders to. My mum is an expert now and she gets really excited when she gets them right. Its quite cute].

1. I LOVE this building. It even has statues of Inigo Jones and Palladio either side.
WHOOPS that was a bit of a clue.

2.  Some of you will know this building VERY well. But WHAT ORDER IS IT?

3. This "monument" is unfinished and pays homage to an original in another country...

4. Played a starring role in the recent adaptation of Les Mis and ALSO in the 2012 Olympics!

5. Not to be confused with the Parthenon!

Extra points of you guess the NAME of the building. I said GUESS, not Google. Let's not spoil the fun! A hint is that all of the buildings are in the UK except ONE, and they are all places I have visited [all photos are my own!].

Answers in my next post!

Hope you've enjoyed this guide, and I hope it hasn't been too boring or heavy. Do let me know so I can make Part 2 even better!

Thanks for reading

Jennifer




P.S Disclaimer: I am aware that some of the things I've said in this post aren't completely precise. I hope no one will be offended by my somewhat crude generalisations. I didn't want to make it too boring for you to read, after-all, this is a blog and not an essay, and is no place for pedantry!