World Architecture
World Architecture is a art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
101. Larkin Administration Building
Buffalo New York
The Larkin Administration Building 1902 1906 by Frank Lloyd Wright 1869 1959 was his first major public work, built, as he said, to house the commercial engine of the Larkin Company in light, wholesome, well-ventilated quarters. It was a milestone in the history of commercial architecture, in terms of both its spatial organization and the exploitation of modern technology. Indeed, some historians identify it as the twentieth-century structure that, more than any other, changed the face of architecture within a few years it was hailed in Europe. Peter Blake has claimed that it was the first consciously architectural expression of the kind of American structure which Europeans were beginning to discover to their delight: the great clusters of grain silos and similar industrial monuments that [they] found so exciting in the early 1920s. Blake 1964, 55 56. The Larkin Companys soap-manufacturing and mail-order operations occupied a large urban industrial site between Swan, Exchange, Van Renssalear, and Hamburg streets of Buffalo, in western New York State. Wrights innovative building on Seneca Street, near the corner of Seymour and Swan, housed the firms administrative functions. Around 1902 Wright realized that different building types called for different esthetic systems. Thereafter, he developed two patently distinct architectures. In his houses he pursued what might be called prairie horizontalitythe line of repose that reached its best expression in the Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago 1908 1910. For nondomestic buildings, such as the Larkin Building Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois 1905 1909 and Midway Gardens, Chicago 1913 1917, he adopted Cubic Purism, often squat and squarish with symmetrical plans and elevations. The rather severe exterior of the Larkin Building was relieved with sculpture by Richard Bock, who produced a globe of the world, supported by celestial beings and emblazoned with the company name. The great six-story space in the center of the buildingtoday we think of it as an atriumwas lit by a large skylight. It was surrounded by balconies lit by high-level windows around the perimeter of the building, they contained the general office spaces, set out years before their time on an open plan. In keeping with Wrights views about the nature of work, and no doubt with those of his client John D. Larkin, the interior espoused nonhierarchical, democratic office planning. There was even an employees lounge with a piano, where the company provided a weekly lunch-time concert for the workers an organ stood at one end of the third story of the atrium. Many of the 1,800 employees worked at long desks running between the outer walls and the atrium. The lighting was an important part of the design the desks received daylight from two sides: the exterior windows and the atrium. Electric lamps were mounted at the ends of the tables in the ground floor of the central court so that every office worker had well-balanced, shadow-free light. Wright believed in making total architecture and designed the lighting system himself, as well as the steel office furniture. The employees were protected from industrial pollution and the noise of the nearby rail yards by heavy red brick walls, and from undue interior noise by sound-absorbent surfaces. The revolutionary working environment was also air-conditioned, one of the first in the United States. Just as he separated service rooms from living rooms in his contemporary houses, Wright gathered the serviceselectrical and plumbing ducts, stairways, toilets he introduced wall-hung water closets to make cleaning easier, and heating systemsat the outer corners of the main building. Beating the box as he put it, he expressed the service functions as square towers, freestanding, individual features. Responding to criticisms by Russell Sturgess of The Architectural Record, who called it an extremely ugly building and a monster of awkwardness, Wright said in 1908, It may be ugly
The Larkin Administration Building 1902 1906 by Frank Lloyd Wright 1869 1959 was his first major public work, built, as he said, to house the commercial engine of the Larkin Company in light, wholesome, well-ventilated quarters. It was a milestone in the history of commercial architecture, in terms of both its spatial organization and the exploitation of modern technology. Indeed, some historians identify it as the twentieth-century structure that, more than any other, changed the face of architecture within a few years it was hailed in Europe. Peter Blake has claimed that it was the first consciously architectural expression of the kind of American structure which Europeans were beginning to discover to their delight: the great clusters of grain silos and similar industrial monuments that [they] found so exciting in the early 1920s. Blake 1964, 55 56. The Larkin Companys soap-manufacturing and mail-order operations occupied a large urban industrial site between Swan, Exchange, Van Renssalear, and Hamburg streets of Buffalo, in western New York State. Wrights innovative building on Seneca Street, near the corner of Seymour and Swan, housed the firms administrative functions. Around 1902 Wright realized that different building types called for different esthetic systems. Thereafter, he developed two patently distinct architectures. In his houses he pursued what might be called prairie horizontalitythe line of repose that reached its best expression in the Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago 1908 1910. For nondomestic buildings, such as the Larkin Building Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois 1905 1909 and Midway Gardens, Chicago 1913 1917, he adopted Cubic Purism, often squat and squarish with symmetrical plans and elevations. The rather severe exterior of the Larkin Building was relieved with sculpture by Richard Bock, who produced a globe of the world, supported by celestial beings and emblazoned with the company name. The great six-story space in the center of the buildingtoday we think of it as an atriumwas lit by a large skylight. It was surrounded by balconies lit by high-level windows around the perimeter of the building, they contained the general office spaces, set out years before their time on an open plan. In keeping with Wrights views about the nature of work, and no doubt with those of his client John D. Larkin, the interior espoused nonhierarchical, democratic office planning. There was even an employees lounge with a piano, where the company provided a weekly lunch-time concert for the workers an organ stood at one end of the third story of the atrium. Many of the 1,800 employees worked at long desks running between the outer walls and the atrium. The lighting was an important part of the design the desks received daylight from two sides: the exterior windows and the atrium. Electric lamps were mounted at the ends of the tables in the ground floor of the central court so that every office worker had well-balanced, shadow-free light. Wright believed in making total architecture and designed the lighting system himself, as well as the steel office furniture. The employees were protected from industrial pollution and the noise of the nearby rail yards by heavy red brick walls, and from undue interior noise by sound-absorbent surfaces. The revolutionary working environment was also air-conditioned, one of the first in the United States. Just as he separated service rooms from living rooms in his contemporary houses, Wright gathered the serviceselectrical and plumbing ducts, stairways, toilets he introduced wall-hung water closets to make cleaning easier, and heating systemsat the outer corners of the main building. Beating the box as he put it, he expressed the service functions as square towers, freestanding, individual features. Responding to criticisms by Russell Sturgess of The Architectural Record, who called it an extremely ugly building and a monster of awkwardness, Wright said in 1908, It may be ugly
102. London Underground
England
Londons underground railroad system, popularly known as the Tube, is the oldest in the world. As early as the 1830s Charles Pearson, the city of Londons solicitor, suggested that the mainline stations could be linked by an underground railroad with as many as eight tracks. Despite the potential economic and social advantages of the scheme, it could find no financial backing, and Parliament refused to approve it. The citys first above-ground passenger service was the London and Greenwich line, opened in February 1836. Within four years it was carrying nearly 6 million passengers annually between the major mainline train stations on the borders of the metropolis and the edge of the central business district. With an area of 60 square miles 154 square kilometers and a population of 2.5 million, Greater London was then the worlds largest city, and the most crowded, plagued by street congestion. To find a solution to a worsening problem, the City Terminus Company CTC revived the underground railroad idea in 1852 and placed it before Parliament, only to again fail. The following year the Bayswater, Paddington, and Holborn Bridge Railway Company submitted a plan for a different line, ostensibly at half the cost. Parliament endorsed the North Metropolitan line in 1853, and the company promptly had the CTC line approved as part of its own. The Great Western Railway Company agreed to finance construction of the underground in return for direct access to the city. In 1854 an act of Parliament was obtained to begin the Metropolitan Railroad. A sum of
Londons underground railroad system, popularly known as the Tube, is the oldest in the world. As early as the 1830s Charles Pearson, the city of Londons solicitor, suggested that the mainline stations could be linked by an underground railroad with as many as eight tracks. Despite the potential economic and social advantages of the scheme, it could find no financial backing, and Parliament refused to approve it. The citys first above-ground passenger service was the London and Greenwich line, opened in February 1836. Within four years it was carrying nearly 6 million passengers annually between the major mainline train stations on the borders of the metropolis and the edge of the central business district. With an area of 60 square miles 154 square kilometers and a population of 2.5 million, Greater London was then the worlds largest city, and the most crowded, plagued by street congestion. To find a solution to a worsening problem, the City Terminus Company CTC revived the underground railroad idea in 1852 and placed it before Parliament, only to again fail. The following year the Bayswater, Paddington, and Holborn Bridge Railway Company submitted a plan for a different line, ostensibly at half the cost. Parliament endorsed the North Metropolitan line in 1853, and the company promptly had the CTC line approved as part of its own. The Great Western Railway Company agreed to finance construction of the underground in return for direct access to the city. In 1854 an act of Parliament was obtained to begin the Metropolitan Railroad. A sum of
103. Madan reed houses
Iraq
The reed houses that form part of the distinctive culture of the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, of southeastern Iraq are an architectural achievement because they result from pushing available resources to their limits. Descended partly from the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, this seminomadic people, now numbering perhaps 200,000, have for millennia inhabited Lake Hammar and the surrounding marshlands in the Tigris-Euphrates Delta, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Not only have they developed a sophisticated house form using a single building materialthe stalks of the prolific giant reed (Fragmites communis)but they have also created the very land upon which their houses and farmsteads stand. The Madan villages are irregular clusters of small islands constructed by alternating layers of reed mats and layers of mud dredged from the marsh bottom. Thus, paradoxically, much of the fertile land is actually floating on the water. Each island has its house and buffalo paddock, and communication between them is by means of narrow canoes (mashuf) of bitumen-coated wood, propelled through the shallow water with long poles. The Madan fish, hunt waterfowl and pigs, breed water buffalo, and raise crops of paddy rice and great millet. Many domestic necessitiesbeds, cots, baskets, and canoe polesare woven from reeds. In short, until recently the Madan have lived in harmony with the ecosystem of their harsh but bountiful environment. The reed house (mudhif) is constructed around a framework made by tying the giant reedsthey can grow to 20 feet (6 meters) longto make bundles that taper from about 1.5 feet to 6 inches (45 to 15 centimeters). The thick ends are stuck into the mud floor of the island in opposing pairs and then bent and lashed together, with a substantial overlap at the top, to form a row of parallel parabolic arches, at about 6-foot (2-meter) centers. The builders even use a tripod of bundled reeds as scaffolding for this part of the work. The primary frames are stabilized with closely spaced, much thinner reed bundles (like purlins) around the perimeter of the house. The completed framework is covered with intricately woven split-reed mats to form the integrated walls and roof. The upper parts of the end walls are enclosed with a curtain of the same material, and four or five reed columns are erected to support a framework to which a decorative lattice is fixed, always to beautiful effect. Depending on the length of the reeds used for the arches, the house can be 12 feet (3.7 meters) wide the length is indeterminate, and buildings up to 100 feet (30 meters) have been recorded. Furnishings are sparse: the reed floors are covered with carpets, and there is a clay hearth for making coffee. The distinctive house form has a long pedigree,being illustrated on a clay plaque dating from the fourth millennium b.c. found in excavations of Sumerian Uruk. That fact, and the appearance of vegetable forms in stone, such as Egyptian papyrus and lotus columns, has given rise to the speculation that all columnar architecture in the protohistoric civilizations (and perhaps beyond) springs from such construction. The unique culture of the Marsh Arabs is in danger indeed, it may already be beyond help. Largely as a result of their isolation, they have maintained their traditions and were untouched even by Turkish and British colonialism. Because of high evaporation, the marshes have long been regarded as wasteful of water that could be used for irrigation a major drainage scheme was proposed in a 1951 report drafted by British engineers commissioned by the Iraqi government. In the 1970s Turkey dammed the Euphrates. But the Madans problems started in earnest after 1980, during the Iran-Iraq War. Within two years Iran regained the territory, including the marshlands, taken earlier by Iraq. The marsh dwellers fled as the Iraqi army sent enormous electrical currents through the water to electrocute invading Iranian soldiers. Saddam Husseins unrelenting destruction continued after the war. Following Saddams defeat in the Gulf War in 1991, southern Iraqi Shiite Muslims launched a guerrilla offensive against his Sunni Muslim government. The uprising was crushed, and many rebels sought refuge in the marshes, supported by the Madan, who are also Shiite. To flush them out, in 1992 Saddam began to drain the region systematically, using the 1951 British report. Within a year a network of 20-foot-high (6-meter) dikes was preventing two-thirds of the normal water flow from reaching the marshlands, thus turning much of it into expanses of dried mud. Between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, the man-made Saddam River carried floodwaters directly to the Persian Gulf. A third of Lake Hammar dried up, and thousands of Marsh Arabs moved deeper into the surviving wetlands or fled to Iran and elsewhere. Some sources estimate that fewer than 10,000 remain in Iraq, recognized as a persecuted minority by the European Parliament, to pursue their traditional lifestyle. To compound the offense of ethnocide, Saddams actions have caused probably irreversible environmental damage. International organizations such as the UN Human Rights Commission, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and the International Wildfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau have been watching in alarm, but have been powerless to act.
The reed houses that form part of the distinctive culture of the Madan, or Marsh Arabs, of southeastern Iraq are an architectural achievement because they result from pushing available resources to their limits. Descended partly from the ancient Sumerians and Babylonians, this seminomadic people, now numbering perhaps 200,000, have for millennia inhabited Lake Hammar and the surrounding marshlands in the Tigris-Euphrates Delta, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Baghdad. Not only have they developed a sophisticated house form using a single building materialthe stalks of the prolific giant reed (Fragmites communis)but they have also created the very land upon which their houses and farmsteads stand. The Madan villages are irregular clusters of small islands constructed by alternating layers of reed mats and layers of mud dredged from the marsh bottom. Thus, paradoxically, much of the fertile land is actually floating on the water. Each island has its house and buffalo paddock, and communication between them is by means of narrow canoes (mashuf) of bitumen-coated wood, propelled through the shallow water with long poles. The Madan fish, hunt waterfowl and pigs, breed water buffalo, and raise crops of paddy rice and great millet. Many domestic necessitiesbeds, cots, baskets, and canoe polesare woven from reeds. In short, until recently the Madan have lived in harmony with the ecosystem of their harsh but bountiful environment. The reed house (mudhif) is constructed around a framework made by tying the giant reedsthey can grow to 20 feet (6 meters) longto make bundles that taper from about 1.5 feet to 6 inches (45 to 15 centimeters). The thick ends are stuck into the mud floor of the island in opposing pairs and then bent and lashed together, with a substantial overlap at the top, to form a row of parallel parabolic arches, at about 6-foot (2-meter) centers. The builders even use a tripod of bundled reeds as scaffolding for this part of the work. The primary frames are stabilized with closely spaced, much thinner reed bundles (like purlins) around the perimeter of the house. The completed framework is covered with intricately woven split-reed mats to form the integrated walls and roof. The upper parts of the end walls are enclosed with a curtain of the same material, and four or five reed columns are erected to support a framework to which a decorative lattice is fixed, always to beautiful effect. Depending on the length of the reeds used for the arches, the house can be 12 feet (3.7 meters) wide the length is indeterminate, and buildings up to 100 feet (30 meters) have been recorded. Furnishings are sparse: the reed floors are covered with carpets, and there is a clay hearth for making coffee. The distinctive house form has a long pedigree,being illustrated on a clay plaque dating from the fourth millennium b.c. found in excavations of Sumerian Uruk. That fact, and the appearance of vegetable forms in stone, such as Egyptian papyrus and lotus columns, has given rise to the speculation that all columnar architecture in the protohistoric civilizations (and perhaps beyond) springs from such construction. The unique culture of the Marsh Arabs is in danger indeed, it may already be beyond help. Largely as a result of their isolation, they have maintained their traditions and were untouched even by Turkish and British colonialism. Because of high evaporation, the marshes have long been regarded as wasteful of water that could be used for irrigation a major drainage scheme was proposed in a 1951 report drafted by British engineers commissioned by the Iraqi government. In the 1970s Turkey dammed the Euphrates. But the Madans problems started in earnest after 1980, during the Iran-Iraq War. Within two years Iran regained the territory, including the marshlands, taken earlier by Iraq. The marsh dwellers fled as the Iraqi army sent enormous electrical currents through the water to electrocute invading Iranian soldiers. Saddam Husseins unrelenting destruction continued after the war. Following Saddams defeat in the Gulf War in 1991, southern Iraqi Shiite Muslims launched a guerrilla offensive against his Sunni Muslim government. The uprising was crushed, and many rebels sought refuge in the marshes, supported by the Madan, who are also Shiite. To flush them out, in 1992 Saddam began to drain the region systematically, using the 1951 British report. Within a year a network of 20-foot-high (6-meter) dikes was preventing two-thirds of the normal water flow from reaching the marshlands, thus turning much of it into expanses of dried mud. Between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, the man-made Saddam River carried floodwaters directly to the Persian Gulf. A third of Lake Hammar dried up, and thousands of Marsh Arabs moved deeper into the surviving wetlands or fled to Iran and elsewhere. Some sources estimate that fewer than 10,000 remain in Iraq, recognized as a persecuted minority by the European Parliament, to pursue their traditional lifestyle. To compound the offense of ethnocide, Saddams actions have caused probably irreversible environmental damage. International organizations such as the UN Human Rights Commission, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and the International Wildfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau have been watching in alarm, but have been powerless to act.
104. Maiden Castle
Dorset England
The ancient British hill fort now known as Maiden Castle (from mai-dun, Celtic for great hill), about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) southwest of modern Dorchester, grew from a neolithic village to become the largest pre-Roman fortress among nearly 1,400 in England. Indeed, it was one of the most extensive in western Europe. Still visible 2,000 years after its massive ramparts were completed, the fort crowns a low saddleback chalk hill south of the Frome Valley. Its strength did not lie (as in the case of others) in its siting, but rather in the sheer size and scale of its fortifications. By the middle of the first century b.c., four rings of ditches and steeply sloping earthen walls, in places as much as 90 feet (28 meters) high and reinforced by timber palisades or drystone structures, occupied an area of 100 acres (40 hectares). Within the defenses, the long axis of the fort is over 0.5 mile (0.8 kilometer) and its inner circumference about 1.5 miles. It was a remarkable engineering achievement, not only in terms of its monumentality, but also because of its organic nature, by which it grew over twenty centuries. Maiden Castle has a long prehistory, revealed by archeological studies first undertaken by Mortimer Wheeler in 1934 1938 further excavation took place in 1985 1986 under the direction of Niall Sharples. The first earthwork was a neolithic causewayed camp (ca. 4000 b.c.) consisting of a single ditch and bank defending an area of about 12 acres (4.8 hectares). It was followed after half a century by a 1,750-foot-long (537-meter) bank barrow, crossing the center of the fort from east to west. About 1,000 years later settlers built burial mounds on the site, after which it seems to have been abandoned for some time. After about 700 b.c. various tribes settled Britain, and most of the southwestern region now known as Somerset and Dorset was occupied by the Durotriges. They secured their lands against rival tribes with hill forts: such places as Hambledon Hill, Hod Hill, South Cadbury, Spettisbury Rings, and of course Maiden Hill, which some scholars suggest was their capital. Around 600 b.c. these Iron Culture settlers incorporated the existing earthworks into their own defensesan earth rampart augmented by a timber palisadeenclosing about 15 acres (6 hectares) at the east end of the saddleback. There was continual growth: limestone walls were added to parts of the ramparts, and it seems that around 450 b.c. a westward extension was constructed. Sometime before the third century b.c., the encircling fortifications were enlarged, and entrances with double gates were constructed at the east and west ends the entire hilltopsome 45 acres (18.2 hectares)was secured. The height of the earth walls was increased, perhaps late in the second century b.c., and yet another rampart and ditch were built around the perimeter. Further enlargement took place a century later. Although it may be that not all Dorset hill forts were continuously occupied, and that some were simply used as havens in times of danger, evidence suggests that Maiden Hill was a permanent settlement, and at the middle of the first century a.d. perhaps 5,000 people were living within what they believed to be the safety of its walls. There were made streets, and archeologists have discovered graves, storage pits, and other pits for refuseit might be said, sanitary landfill. The Romans launched a full-scale invasion of Britain in a.d. 43, moving westward across the country. The Roman historian Suetonius claims that twenty of the southwest hill forts fell quickly to the II Augusta Legion, come from Strasbourg under the general Titus Flavius Vespasianus (later to become Emperor Vespasian). They reached Maiden Castle within the year. The Durotriges were renowned warriors, accustomed to hand-to-hand combat. At longer range, they used slings and were prepared to defend their town with them: ammunition dumps within the ramparts held a reserve of 40,000 large pebbles brought from Chesil Beach. The Romans chose to turn their war machines against the well-defended east gate, defended by slingers on its four ramparts. Overwhelmed by the weight of numbers and the superior tactics and weapons technology of the invadersespecially the catapults that launched missiles from beyond the slingers rangeMaiden Castle surrendered, although not before offering savage resistance. After three millennia the huge, spectacular hill fort had become obsolete, and it was abandoned within about thirty-five years. Many of the former inhabitants moved to the new Roman town of Durnovaria (Dorchester), others to the century-old Celtic village in the shadow of Maiden Castle. In about A.D. 370 the Romans built a temple in the precincts of the fort, but it too was abandoned when they withdrew from Britain only 100 years later. The site is now maintained and managed by English Heritage.
The ancient British hill fort now known as Maiden Castle (from mai-dun, Celtic for great hill), about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) southwest of modern Dorchester, grew from a neolithic village to become the largest pre-Roman fortress among nearly 1,400 in England. Indeed, it was one of the most extensive in western Europe. Still visible 2,000 years after its massive ramparts were completed, the fort crowns a low saddleback chalk hill south of the Frome Valley. Its strength did not lie (as in the case of others) in its siting, but rather in the sheer size and scale of its fortifications. By the middle of the first century b.c., four rings of ditches and steeply sloping earthen walls, in places as much as 90 feet (28 meters) high and reinforced by timber palisades or drystone structures, occupied an area of 100 acres (40 hectares). Within the defenses, the long axis of the fort is over 0.5 mile (0.8 kilometer) and its inner circumference about 1.5 miles. It was a remarkable engineering achievement, not only in terms of its monumentality, but also because of its organic nature, by which it grew over twenty centuries. Maiden Castle has a long prehistory, revealed by archeological studies first undertaken by Mortimer Wheeler in 1934 1938 further excavation took place in 1985 1986 under the direction of Niall Sharples. The first earthwork was a neolithic causewayed camp (ca. 4000 b.c.) consisting of a single ditch and bank defending an area of about 12 acres (4.8 hectares). It was followed after half a century by a 1,750-foot-long (537-meter) bank barrow, crossing the center of the fort from east to west. About 1,000 years later settlers built burial mounds on the site, after which it seems to have been abandoned for some time. After about 700 b.c. various tribes settled Britain, and most of the southwestern region now known as Somerset and Dorset was occupied by the Durotriges. They secured their lands against rival tribes with hill forts: such places as Hambledon Hill, Hod Hill, South Cadbury, Spettisbury Rings, and of course Maiden Hill, which some scholars suggest was their capital. Around 600 b.c. these Iron Culture settlers incorporated the existing earthworks into their own defensesan earth rampart augmented by a timber palisadeenclosing about 15 acres (6 hectares) at the east end of the saddleback. There was continual growth: limestone walls were added to parts of the ramparts, and it seems that around 450 b.c. a westward extension was constructed. Sometime before the third century b.c., the encircling fortifications were enlarged, and entrances with double gates were constructed at the east and west ends the entire hilltopsome 45 acres (18.2 hectares)was secured. The height of the earth walls was increased, perhaps late in the second century b.c., and yet another rampart and ditch were built around the perimeter. Further enlargement took place a century later. Although it may be that not all Dorset hill forts were continuously occupied, and that some were simply used as havens in times of danger, evidence suggests that Maiden Hill was a permanent settlement, and at the middle of the first century a.d. perhaps 5,000 people were living within what they believed to be the safety of its walls. There were made streets, and archeologists have discovered graves, storage pits, and other pits for refuseit might be said, sanitary landfill. The Romans launched a full-scale invasion of Britain in a.d. 43, moving westward across the country. The Roman historian Suetonius claims that twenty of the southwest hill forts fell quickly to the II Augusta Legion, come from Strasbourg under the general Titus Flavius Vespasianus (later to become Emperor Vespasian). They reached Maiden Castle within the year. The Durotriges were renowned warriors, accustomed to hand-to-hand combat. At longer range, they used slings and were prepared to defend their town with them: ammunition dumps within the ramparts held a reserve of 40,000 large pebbles brought from Chesil Beach. The Romans chose to turn their war machines against the well-defended east gate, defended by slingers on its four ramparts. Overwhelmed by the weight of numbers and the superior tactics and weapons technology of the invadersespecially the catapults that launched missiles from beyond the slingers rangeMaiden Castle surrendered, although not before offering savage resistance. After three millennia the huge, spectacular hill fort had become obsolete, and it was abandoned within about thirty-five years. Many of the former inhabitants moved to the new Roman town of Durnovaria (Dorchester), others to the century-old Celtic village in the shadow of Maiden Castle. In about A.D. 370 the Romans built a temple in the precincts of the fort, but it too was abandoned when they withdrew from Britain only 100 years later. The site is now maintained and managed by English Heritage.
105. Maillarts bridges
The Swiss engineer, architect, and artist Robert Maillart (1872 1940) exploited the structural strength and expressive potential of reinforced concrete to generate a modern form for his bridges. By using simple construction concepts he developed graceful structures based on flat or curved reinforced concrete slabs. Amongst his radically innovative ideas were the mushroom slab, the deck-stiffened arch, the open three-hinged arch, and the hollow-box arch. Maillarts biographer David Billington (1997, 2) asserts that the engineers elegance arose from structure itself and not from an extraneous idea of beauty.Taken singly or together, Maillarts bridges are engineering and architectural feats that elegantly demonstrated, as Le Corbusier claimed in Vers une Architecture (1923), that engineers recognized (long before architects) that beauty could be achieved through thoroughly defining and solving problems. That new approach to design lay at the foundation of modem architecture.
Maillart studied civil engineering at Switzerlands Federal Technological Institute in Z
106. Maria Pia Bridge
Oporto Portugal
Located at the mouth of the Douro River, Oporto is the capital of northern Portugal and the second-largest city in the country, rising steeply from the deep river valley. In 1875 the railway between Lisbon and Oporto was almost complete, and the final problem facing its builders was crossing the Douro. An international competition attracted only four entries, three from France and one from England. Gustave Alexandre Eiffels winning proposal for the transparent Maria-Pia Bridge was not only the least expensivetwo-thirds that of the next tender and only one-third of the highest pricebut it also involved revolutionary structural design. Although Eiffel is best remembered for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, much of his professional life was given to building bridges. Upon his graduation from the ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1855, he was employed by a firm in southwestern France that produced steam engines and railroad equipment. In 1858 it won a contract to erect a railway bridge over the Garonne River near Bordeaux Eiffel oversaw the construction, which was completed in 1865. The following year he set up business as a constructor, designing and fabricating metal structural work, especially in wrought iron. After 1872 foreign contracts came his way, and three years later he designed the Maria-Pia railway bridge in Oporto.Eiffel supported the railroad deck 190 feet (57 meters) above the river with a graceful, filigreed wrought-iron arch spanning 525 feet (160 meters) the approaches to the center span were borne on lacy framed pylons of varying heights to accommodate the sloping banks. Construction started in 1877, and the bridge was built in just a year and ten months, without the need for temporary scaffolding directly supported on the grounda masterly piece of design. The structural system involved several other technological innovations, not least the design analysis methods. Civil engineers already knew how to calculate for statically indeterminate beams, but the force method needed to predict the behavior of this kind of structure, although propounded a decade earlier, had been taken seriously only a year before Eiffel designed the bridge. It has been asserted that this was the first application of the analysis of a statically indeterminate structure other than a beam, and that Eiffel discovered the method by himself. The pioneer technique was to be used in many large arches, including two in Oporto. The first came soon after: the wrought-iron Dom Lu
Located at the mouth of the Douro River, Oporto is the capital of northern Portugal and the second-largest city in the country, rising steeply from the deep river valley. In 1875 the railway between Lisbon and Oporto was almost complete, and the final problem facing its builders was crossing the Douro. An international competition attracted only four entries, three from France and one from England. Gustave Alexandre Eiffels winning proposal for the transparent Maria-Pia Bridge was not only the least expensivetwo-thirds that of the next tender and only one-third of the highest pricebut it also involved revolutionary structural design. Although Eiffel is best remembered for the Eiffel Tower in Paris, much of his professional life was given to building bridges. Upon his graduation from the ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in 1855, he was employed by a firm in southwestern France that produced steam engines and railroad equipment. In 1858 it won a contract to erect a railway bridge over the Garonne River near Bordeaux Eiffel oversaw the construction, which was completed in 1865. The following year he set up business as a constructor, designing and fabricating metal structural work, especially in wrought iron. After 1872 foreign contracts came his way, and three years later he designed the Maria-Pia railway bridge in Oporto.Eiffel supported the railroad deck 190 feet (57 meters) above the river with a graceful, filigreed wrought-iron arch spanning 525 feet (160 meters) the approaches to the center span were borne on lacy framed pylons of varying heights to accommodate the sloping banks. Construction started in 1877, and the bridge was built in just a year and ten months, without the need for temporary scaffolding directly supported on the grounda masterly piece of design. The structural system involved several other technological innovations, not least the design analysis methods. Civil engineers already knew how to calculate for statically indeterminate beams, but the force method needed to predict the behavior of this kind of structure, although propounded a decade earlier, had been taken seriously only a year before Eiffel designed the bridge. It has been asserted that this was the first application of the analysis of a statically indeterminate structure other than a beam, and that Eiffel discovered the method by himself. The pioneer technique was to be used in many large arches, including two in Oporto. The first came soon after: the wrought-iron Dom Lu
107. Marib Dam
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen is located on the southwestern coast of the Arabian peninsula, the region once possessed by the ancient southern Arabian kingdoms that occupied the mouths of large wadis (valleys) between mountains and desert. The first-millennium-b.c. kingdom of Saba sprang up in the dry delta of the Wadi Dhana that divides the Balak Hills. In the eighth century b.c., at the height of their prosperity, the Sabaeans had established colonies along both sea and land trade routes to Israel, and they dominated the region. Their capital, Marib, among the wealthiest cities of ancient Arabia, stood 107 miles (172 kilometers) east of Sanaa, the capital of modern Yemen. It is generally agreed that artificial irrigation was practiced near ancient Marib as early as the middle of the third millennium b.c. About 2,000 years later a dam was built to harness the biannual floods and systematic irrigation was introduced. Some scholars believe that the Marib Dam was the greatest technical structure of antiquity. Around 685 b.c., under King Karibil Watar, Saba enlarged its borders. Territories were conquered in the southwest of the peninsula Ausan in the south was defeated and Sabaean rule extended northwest as far as Nagran. In the second half of the sixth century b.c., two kings successively built the Marib Dam near the mouth of the Wadi Dhana, the largest water course from the Yemeni uplands. By impounding water during the two rainy seasons, the dam provided irrigation for some 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of fields and gardens. Replenished and enriched by sedimentary deposits, this agricultural land supported a population estimated to be about 30,000. The first dam was a simple earth structure, 1,900 feet (580 meters) long and probably only 13 feet (4 meters) high, built between rocks on the south side of the wadi and a rock shelf on the north. Its location a little downstream of the wadis narrowest point permitted space for a natural spillway and sluices. Around 500 b.c. a second 23-foot-high (7-meter) earth dam was built. It was triangular in section both faces sloped at 45 degrees and the upstream side was faced with stone set in mortar. The final form of the Marib Dam was not built by the Sabaeans. Late in the second century b.c. the Himyarites, a tribe from the extreme southwest of Arabia, established their capital at Dhafar and gradually absorbed the Sabaean kingdom, gaining control of South Arabia. They undertook the next major reconstruction of the Marib Dam, building a new 46-foot-high (14-meter), 2,350-foot-long (720-meter), stone-faced earthen wall, incorporating sophisticated hydraulic systems. It was nearly 200 feet (60 meters) thick at the base, built on a stone foundation, and created a lake that was probably 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) in area. At each end of the wall there were sluices, constructed with what has been described as the finest ancient masonry
The Republic of Yemen is located on the southwestern coast of the Arabian peninsula, the region once possessed by the ancient southern Arabian kingdoms that occupied the mouths of large wadis (valleys) between mountains and desert. The first-millennium-b.c. kingdom of Saba sprang up in the dry delta of the Wadi Dhana that divides the Balak Hills. In the eighth century b.c., at the height of their prosperity, the Sabaeans had established colonies along both sea and land trade routes to Israel, and they dominated the region. Their capital, Marib, among the wealthiest cities of ancient Arabia, stood 107 miles (172 kilometers) east of Sanaa, the capital of modern Yemen. It is generally agreed that artificial irrigation was practiced near ancient Marib as early as the middle of the third millennium b.c. About 2,000 years later a dam was built to harness the biannual floods and systematic irrigation was introduced. Some scholars believe that the Marib Dam was the greatest technical structure of antiquity. Around 685 b.c., under King Karibil Watar, Saba enlarged its borders. Territories were conquered in the southwest of the peninsula Ausan in the south was defeated and Sabaean rule extended northwest as far as Nagran. In the second half of the sixth century b.c., two kings successively built the Marib Dam near the mouth of the Wadi Dhana, the largest water course from the Yemeni uplands. By impounding water during the two rainy seasons, the dam provided irrigation for some 25 square miles (65 square kilometers) of fields and gardens. Replenished and enriched by sedimentary deposits, this agricultural land supported a population estimated to be about 30,000. The first dam was a simple earth structure, 1,900 feet (580 meters) long and probably only 13 feet (4 meters) high, built between rocks on the south side of the wadi and a rock shelf on the north. Its location a little downstream of the wadis narrowest point permitted space for a natural spillway and sluices. Around 500 b.c. a second 23-foot-high (7-meter) earth dam was built. It was triangular in section both faces sloped at 45 degrees and the upstream side was faced with stone set in mortar. The final form of the Marib Dam was not built by the Sabaeans. Late in the second century b.c. the Himyarites, a tribe from the extreme southwest of Arabia, established their capital at Dhafar and gradually absorbed the Sabaean kingdom, gaining control of South Arabia. They undertook the next major reconstruction of the Marib Dam, building a new 46-foot-high (14-meter), 2,350-foot-long (720-meter), stone-faced earthen wall, incorporating sophisticated hydraulic systems. It was nearly 200 feet (60 meters) thick at the base, built on a stone foundation, and created a lake that was probably 1.5 square miles (4 square kilometers) in area. At each end of the wall there were sluices, constructed with what has been described as the finest ancient masonry
108. Masjed e Shah Royal Mosque
Isfahan Iran
The Royal Mosque, or Masjed-e-Shah (now known as the Masjed-e-Imam), was the major legacy of the Safavid Shah Abbas I (1587 1628), sometimes called Abbas the Great, who established Persia as a unified state. The beautiful building, said to stagger the visitor with its opulence and inventiveness, represents the epitome of Iranian architecture. It merits a place among the worlds architectural feats because of the resplendent tile work that covers it both inside and out.Helped by the British mercenaries Sir Anthony and Sir Robert Sherley, Abbas I defeated the Turks and expelled the Portuguese from the strategically critical island of Hormuz. He unified Persia by enforcing adherence to Shiism and establishing Farsi as the official language. His domestic policy focused on providing an economic infrastructure by building roads and bridges, and looking abroad, he also employed Armenian merchants to improve the silk trade with India. But nothing in the entire Safavid period (ca. 1320 1772) is better remembered than the vast amounts he spent developing Isfahan, where he established his capital in 1598. Beginning in 1602, Abbas I completely rebuilt the city center in the form that survives. He commissioned the grand avenue of Chahar Bagh, the 1,700-by-500-foot (500-by-150-meter) Meidan-e-Shah (central Royal Plaza) and the buildings that surround it: the Bazaar (1619), still the largest in Iran the Royal Palace of Ali Qapu (1602) facing the Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque (1602) and of course the Masjed-e-Shah. The Bridge of Thirty-Three Arches over the Zilldeh Rudh was built for him, as well as the Jubi Aqueduct to water the gardens with which he bedecked the capital. He also patronized a flourishing school of painting, and rugs for the royal palace and other buildings were woven on the court looms. It was said of Abbas Is unparalleled achievements in art and architecture, Isfahan is half the world. The commencement date of the Royal Mosque is uncertain. Some sources give 1590, a little early in the context of other urban development, and others claim that Abbas I laid the first stone in spring 1611. Ali Reza, the calligrapher responsible for the inscriptions in the building, dated the main entrance in 1616. Although Abbas put great pressure on his architect Ostad Abul-Qasim and his team of workmen, the mosque was incomplete when the Shah died in 1628 at the age of seventy. It is probable that work was still going on two years after that. The beautiful building certainly set a precedent, for elements of some later mosques are derivative: for example, the dome of the nearby Madrasa Mader-e-Shah (Royal Theological College) of 1714. There are an estimated 18 million bricks in the Royal Mosque and the exterior reveals of its openings are claimed to be faced with 472,500 tiles. Indeed, the building should be included among the worlds architectural feats because of the resplendent tile work on its main facade, its beautiful turquoise dome, and the interior. Tiles were a critical element of Persian architecture for two reasons: first, there was a practical need to weatherproof the clay bricks normally used in construction and second, artistically, they were used to ornament the building. This was not merely for decoration but to define and articulate the underlying architectural form: tile work emphasized selected motifs and marked transitional points in the design, either by providing a patterned boundary or by the use of calligraphy. The Royal Mosque is widely celebrated for its exquisite haft rang (seven-color) tile workcolors were white, blue, yellow, turquoise, pink, aubergine, and greenwhich was developed extensively during the seventeenth century as the quality of glazes improved. It differed from conventional mosaic in that the full range of colors was used to create sinuous or calligraphic patterns on individual tiles, so that when they were placed, the overall design could be seen.
The Royal Mosque, or Masjed-e-Shah (now known as the Masjed-e-Imam), was the major legacy of the Safavid Shah Abbas I (1587 1628), sometimes called Abbas the Great, who established Persia as a unified state. The beautiful building, said to stagger the visitor with its opulence and inventiveness, represents the epitome of Iranian architecture. It merits a place among the worlds architectural feats because of the resplendent tile work that covers it both inside and out.Helped by the British mercenaries Sir Anthony and Sir Robert Sherley, Abbas I defeated the Turks and expelled the Portuguese from the strategically critical island of Hormuz. He unified Persia by enforcing adherence to Shiism and establishing Farsi as the official language. His domestic policy focused on providing an economic infrastructure by building roads and bridges, and looking abroad, he also employed Armenian merchants to improve the silk trade with India. But nothing in the entire Safavid period (ca. 1320 1772) is better remembered than the vast amounts he spent developing Isfahan, where he established his capital in 1598. Beginning in 1602, Abbas I completely rebuilt the city center in the form that survives. He commissioned the grand avenue of Chahar Bagh, the 1,700-by-500-foot (500-by-150-meter) Meidan-e-Shah (central Royal Plaza) and the buildings that surround it: the Bazaar (1619), still the largest in Iran the Royal Palace of Ali Qapu (1602) facing the Sheikh Lotfallah Mosque (1602) and of course the Masjed-e-Shah. The Bridge of Thirty-Three Arches over the Zilldeh Rudh was built for him, as well as the Jubi Aqueduct to water the gardens with which he bedecked the capital. He also patronized a flourishing school of painting, and rugs for the royal palace and other buildings were woven on the court looms. It was said of Abbas Is unparalleled achievements in art and architecture, Isfahan is half the world. The commencement date of the Royal Mosque is uncertain. Some sources give 1590, a little early in the context of other urban development, and others claim that Abbas I laid the first stone in spring 1611. Ali Reza, the calligrapher responsible for the inscriptions in the building, dated the main entrance in 1616. Although Abbas put great pressure on his architect Ostad Abul-Qasim and his team of workmen, the mosque was incomplete when the Shah died in 1628 at the age of seventy. It is probable that work was still going on two years after that. The beautiful building certainly set a precedent, for elements of some later mosques are derivative: for example, the dome of the nearby Madrasa Mader-e-Shah (Royal Theological College) of 1714. There are an estimated 18 million bricks in the Royal Mosque and the exterior reveals of its openings are claimed to be faced with 472,500 tiles. Indeed, the building should be included among the worlds architectural feats because of the resplendent tile work on its main facade, its beautiful turquoise dome, and the interior. Tiles were a critical element of Persian architecture for two reasons: first, there was a practical need to weatherproof the clay bricks normally used in construction and second, artistically, they were used to ornament the building. This was not merely for decoration but to define and articulate the underlying architectural form: tile work emphasized selected motifs and marked transitional points in the design, either by providing a patterned boundary or by the use of calligraphy. The Royal Mosque is widely celebrated for its exquisite haft rang (seven-color) tile workcolors were white, blue, yellow, turquoise, pink, aubergine, and greenwhich was developed extensively during the seventeenth century as the quality of glazes improved. It differed from conventional mosaic in that the full range of colors was used to create sinuous or calligraphic patterns on individual tiles, so that when they were placed, the overall design could be seen.
109. Maunsell sea forts
England
The coasts of Kent and Essex Counties, England, overlook the Thames Estuary, the only sea route to London. Throughout World War II it was constantly endangered by German minelayers, U-boats, and the Luftwaffe. From 1939 until 1942 the British navy patrolled the area then a series of seven sea forts was built to permanently guard the river mouth. They were an innovative architectural and engineering achievement. The reinforced concrete and steel structures were entirely prefabricated in a Gravesend dry dock, floated to their locations, sunk, and anchored on the bottom of the sea, up to 9 miles (14 kilometers) off the coast. Although not as large as the now almost commonplace offshore oil and gas platforms around the world, the sea forts predated them by about five years, and the six so-called Texas Towers that form part of the U.S. lighthouse system by almost twenty. Two kinds of forts, one for the navy and another for the army, were designed by the civil engineer Guy Maunsell. Even when war was little more than a threat, he submitted several proposals for seaward defenses, but it was not until October 1940over a year after the outbreak of warthat the Admiralty commissioned him to design a prototype sea fortress. His initial costly proposal, for a 2,900-ton (2,640-tonne) pontoon supporting a gun battery, was shelved by the government. But when France fell, the Admiralty was moved to action and asked Maunsell to produce five sea forts for the Royal Navy. The naval sea forts were essentially steel gun platforms with two 6-inch (150-millimeter) cannon and a Bofors antiaircraft gun. The huge structures were assembled by Holloway Brothers at the Red Lion Wharf, Gravesend, towed downriver by three tugs, and sunk by flooding their hollow pontoon base. Two were positioned in the estuary off the Essex coast and two off the Kent coast. Each fortress had a crew of about 100, who lived, provisioned for more than a month, in the two 26-foot-diameter (8-meter), 7-story concrete legs that supported the main platform, with its guns, radar, and control tower. The first was sited at The Roughs in February 1942. Sunk Head followed on 1 June, and Tongue Sands was completed about a fortnight later. Knock John was ready for action on 1 August. The fifth was never built. The army sea forts, also designed by Maunsell, were Englands response to German air attacks on the strategic Liverpool docks via the undefended Mersey Estuary. It was decided to build five in the Mersey mouth and seven in the Thames Estuary. Each self-contained fort had living quarters for twenty-four men and comprised seven steel platforms supported on four 160-foot (49-meter) concrete legs. Four were gun towers with 3.7-inch (95-millimeter) cannon a fifth was armed with a Bofors gun the sixth was a searchlight tower and the last was for radar. They were linked high above the sea by tubular steel catwalks that also carried power and fuel lines between the platforms. Their disposition was based upon the proven layout of shore gun batteries. In the event, only three were built on each side of England. Those in the Thames Estuary, constructed by the engineers who built the navy forts, were towed downriver in pairs and lowered by winches at strategic sites: The Great Nore, Shivering Sands, and Red Sandall rather closer inshore than the navy counterparts. The pontoon bases used in the earlier structures would have been unsuitable in shallower water, where tidal currents constantly shifted the seabed instead, Maunsell designed a self-burying footing that firmly anchored each tower in place. Construction began in August 1942, and the last tower was completed sixteen months later. At each site, the Bofors platform was erected first to defend the construction crews as they assembled the rest of the fort. There is now no way to measure the passive deterrent effect of the Maunsell forts, but during their short active life they accounted for the destruction of twenty-two enemy aircraft and about thirty flying bombs. Because the Ministry of Defence believed that a combination of bad weather and tidal action would quickly destroy them after the war, no thought was taken for their disposal. For a few years after 1945 the naval forts were serviced by the Thames Estuary Special Defence unit, and two were temporarily adapted as lightships. Difficulty of access in storms led to that being discontinued in fact, Tongue Sands was wrecked in bad weather in 1966. Only Knock John and The Roughs survive. After May 1964 the former, together with Red Sand and Shivering Sands army forts, was occupied at various times and for various periods by pirate radio stations, until the last was shut down under the Offshore Broadcasting Act in July 1967. The Roughs continues to have an eccentric postwar history. It lies slightly north of the Thames Estuary off Harwich, and in September 1967, when it was still outside British territorial waters, a former British army officer named Paddy Roy Bates formally (and it must be said legally) annexed it as the Principality of Sealand, going aboard as the prince with his family. In the late 1990s a consortium of U.S. Internet entrepreneurs set up the worlds first offshore data haven there, offering prospective clients security for their computer operations, free from the interference of legislation. The army forts also went into decline. For a short while, under the control of the Anti-Aircraft Fort Maintenance Detachment, they were furnished with improved searchlights and radar installations. Any perceived crisis past, the army stripped all guns and equipment from them in 1956. The Red Sand fort, off the Isle of Sheppey, was abandoned that same year. The Great Nore fort was dismantled in 1958 after being struck by a ship and officially declared a hazard to shipping. In 1959 another vessel collided with the Shivering Sands fort, bringing down one of the towers. Despite their short-lived roles as radio stations, the survivors are now derelict. Their robustness means that their skeletons will stand in the North Sea for some years to come, gaunt confirmation of the proverb Necessity is the mother of invention. Guy Maunsell did not survive his great sea forts, dying in 1961 after establishing an international civil-engineering partnership, which continues.
The coasts of Kent and Essex Counties, England, overlook the Thames Estuary, the only sea route to London. Throughout World War II it was constantly endangered by German minelayers, U-boats, and the Luftwaffe. From 1939 until 1942 the British navy patrolled the area then a series of seven sea forts was built to permanently guard the river mouth. They were an innovative architectural and engineering achievement. The reinforced concrete and steel structures were entirely prefabricated in a Gravesend dry dock, floated to their locations, sunk, and anchored on the bottom of the sea, up to 9 miles (14 kilometers) off the coast. Although not as large as the now almost commonplace offshore oil and gas platforms around the world, the sea forts predated them by about five years, and the six so-called Texas Towers that form part of the U.S. lighthouse system by almost twenty. Two kinds of forts, one for the navy and another for the army, were designed by the civil engineer Guy Maunsell. Even when war was little more than a threat, he submitted several proposals for seaward defenses, but it was not until October 1940over a year after the outbreak of warthat the Admiralty commissioned him to design a prototype sea fortress. His initial costly proposal, for a 2,900-ton (2,640-tonne) pontoon supporting a gun battery, was shelved by the government. But when France fell, the Admiralty was moved to action and asked Maunsell to produce five sea forts for the Royal Navy. The naval sea forts were essentially steel gun platforms with two 6-inch (150-millimeter) cannon and a Bofors antiaircraft gun. The huge structures were assembled by Holloway Brothers at the Red Lion Wharf, Gravesend, towed downriver by three tugs, and sunk by flooding their hollow pontoon base. Two were positioned in the estuary off the Essex coast and two off the Kent coast. Each fortress had a crew of about 100, who lived, provisioned for more than a month, in the two 26-foot-diameter (8-meter), 7-story concrete legs that supported the main platform, with its guns, radar, and control tower. The first was sited at The Roughs in February 1942. Sunk Head followed on 1 June, and Tongue Sands was completed about a fortnight later. Knock John was ready for action on 1 August. The fifth was never built. The army sea forts, also designed by Maunsell, were Englands response to German air attacks on the strategic Liverpool docks via the undefended Mersey Estuary. It was decided to build five in the Mersey mouth and seven in the Thames Estuary. Each self-contained fort had living quarters for twenty-four men and comprised seven steel platforms supported on four 160-foot (49-meter) concrete legs. Four were gun towers with 3.7-inch (95-millimeter) cannon a fifth was armed with a Bofors gun the sixth was a searchlight tower and the last was for radar. They were linked high above the sea by tubular steel catwalks that also carried power and fuel lines between the platforms. Their disposition was based upon the proven layout of shore gun batteries. In the event, only three were built on each side of England. Those in the Thames Estuary, constructed by the engineers who built the navy forts, were towed downriver in pairs and lowered by winches at strategic sites: The Great Nore, Shivering Sands, and Red Sandall rather closer inshore than the navy counterparts. The pontoon bases used in the earlier structures would have been unsuitable in shallower water, where tidal currents constantly shifted the seabed instead, Maunsell designed a self-burying footing that firmly anchored each tower in place. Construction began in August 1942, and the last tower was completed sixteen months later. At each site, the Bofors platform was erected first to defend the construction crews as they assembled the rest of the fort. There is now no way to measure the passive deterrent effect of the Maunsell forts, but during their short active life they accounted for the destruction of twenty-two enemy aircraft and about thirty flying bombs. Because the Ministry of Defence believed that a combination of bad weather and tidal action would quickly destroy them after the war, no thought was taken for their disposal. For a few years after 1945 the naval forts were serviced by the Thames Estuary Special Defence unit, and two were temporarily adapted as lightships. Difficulty of access in storms led to that being discontinued in fact, Tongue Sands was wrecked in bad weather in 1966. Only Knock John and The Roughs survive. After May 1964 the former, together with Red Sand and Shivering Sands army forts, was occupied at various times and for various periods by pirate radio stations, until the last was shut down under the Offshore Broadcasting Act in July 1967. The Roughs continues to have an eccentric postwar history. It lies slightly north of the Thames Estuary off Harwich, and in September 1967, when it was still outside British territorial waters, a former British army officer named Paddy Roy Bates formally (and it must be said legally) annexed it as the Principality of Sealand, going aboard as the prince with his family. In the late 1990s a consortium of U.S. Internet entrepreneurs set up the worlds first offshore data haven there, offering prospective clients security for their computer operations, free from the interference of legislation. The army forts also went into decline. For a short while, under the control of the Anti-Aircraft Fort Maintenance Detachment, they were furnished with improved searchlights and radar installations. Any perceived crisis past, the army stripped all guns and equipment from them in 1956. The Red Sand fort, off the Isle of Sheppey, was abandoned that same year. The Great Nore fort was dismantled in 1958 after being struck by a ship and officially declared a hazard to shipping. In 1959 another vessel collided with the Shivering Sands fort, bringing down one of the towers. Despite their short-lived roles as radio stations, the survivors are now derelict. Their robustness means that their skeletons will stand in the North Sea for some years to come, gaunt confirmation of the proverb Necessity is the mother of invention. Guy Maunsell did not survive his great sea forts, dying in 1961 after establishing an international civil-engineering partnership, which continues.
110. Mausoleum at Halicarnassos
Anatolia Turkey
The tomb of King Mausolos, known as the Mausoleum, was a structure impressive enough to merit inclusion among the seven wonders of the ancient world, and its name has passed into many European languages to describe any imposing funereal structure. It was designed by the Greek architect Pythios (some sources credit Satyros also) and decorated with works by the sculptors Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus, and Leochares. Because it survived for sixteen centuries, descriptions abound combined with archeological evidence, they provide a good idea of the monuments appearance. Mausolos (reigned ca. 377 353 b.c.) was a Persian satrap (governor) of Caria in southwestern Anatoliaa region so remote from the Persian capital that it was virtually independent. With a view to extending his power, Mausolos moved his capital from Mylasa in the interior to the coastal site of Halicarnassos, with its key position on the sea routes and large safe harbor, on the Gulf of Cerameicus. In 362 b.c. he joined the ill-starred rebellion of the Anatolian satraps against Artaxerxes II, but anticipating defeat, withdrew from the alliance in time. From then on he became the almost autonomous king of a large domain including Lycia and several Ionian cities northwest of Caria, later forming coalitions with the island city-states of Rhodes and Cos. Mausolos undertook major urban design projects in Halicarnassos: a defense system, civic buildings, and a secret dockyard and canal. But the most interesting of all his public works was the planning of his great tomb. Conceived during his lifetime, it was initiated probably after his death by Artemisia II, who was at once his sister and his widow, and who for three years was sole ruler of Caria. She died in 350 b.c. and was buried with Mausolos in the uncompleted tomb. According to Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23 79), the craftsmen, realizing that the tomb was a monument to their own creativity, elected to finish the work after their patroness died. Sited on a hill above Halicarnassos, the tomb rose 140 feet (43 meters) into the air from the center of a stone podium in an enclosed courtyard. A stair flanked by lions led to the top of this platform, whose outer walls were arrayed with statues, including an equestrian warrior at each corner. Its rectangular, tapered pedestal of white marble, with base dimensions of about 120 by 100 feet (37 by 30 meters), was 60 feet (18.3 meters) high. Its faces were carved with reliefs of Greek legends, including battles between centaurs and Lapiths, and Greeks and Amazons. The pedestal supported a colonnade of thirty-six 38-foot-high (11.6-meter) Ionic columns that housed a sarcophagus of white alabaster decorated with gold in a burial chamber. The tomb was roofed with a 22-foot-high (6-meter) stone pyramid of 24 steep steps, crowned with a 20-foot (6-meter) marble chariot bearing statues of Mausolos and Artemisia. Sculptured friezes of people, lions, horses, and other animals adorned every level of the Mausoleum tradition has it that each of the famous sculptors was responsible for a side. Under Memnon of Rhodes, Halicarnassos resisted Alexander the Great in 334 b.c. But it successively fell to Antigonus I (311 b.c.), Lysimachus (after 301 b.c.), and the Ptolemies (281 197 b.c.), after that retaining its independence until the Roman conquest in 129 b.c. Throughout all this conflict and for 1,600 years, the Mausoleum remained intact until a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and damaged the roof, bringing down the stone chariot. By the fifteenth century a.d. only the base remained. When the Crusader Knights of St. John of Malta invaded the region, they built a castle on the site and in 1494 used the stones of the Mausoleum to fortify it against an expected Turkish invasion. Within twenty-five years almost every block of stone had been placed in the walls of their Castle of St. Peter the Liberator. Before grinding much of the Mausoleums surviving sculpture into lime for plaster, the knights selected many of the pieces to adorn their castle. They renamed the city Mesy today the ancient site is occupied by the town of Bodrum.In 1846 Charles Newton of the British Museum began a search for vestiges of the Mausoleum. By 1857 he had uncovered sections of the reliefs and pieces of the roof. He also found a broken wheel from the stone chariot and, finally, the statues of Mausolos and Artemisia that had ridden in it for twenty-one centuries. All that remains of this wonder of the ancient world can now be found in the Mausoleum Room of the British Museum.
The tomb of King Mausolos, known as the Mausoleum, was a structure impressive enough to merit inclusion among the seven wonders of the ancient world, and its name has passed into many European languages to describe any imposing funereal structure. It was designed by the Greek architect Pythios (some sources credit Satyros also) and decorated with works by the sculptors Scopas, Bryaxis, Timotheus, and Leochares. Because it survived for sixteen centuries, descriptions abound combined with archeological evidence, they provide a good idea of the monuments appearance. Mausolos (reigned ca. 377 353 b.c.) was a Persian satrap (governor) of Caria in southwestern Anatoliaa region so remote from the Persian capital that it was virtually independent. With a view to extending his power, Mausolos moved his capital from Mylasa in the interior to the coastal site of Halicarnassos, with its key position on the sea routes and large safe harbor, on the Gulf of Cerameicus. In 362 b.c. he joined the ill-starred rebellion of the Anatolian satraps against Artaxerxes II, but anticipating defeat, withdrew from the alliance in time. From then on he became the almost autonomous king of a large domain including Lycia and several Ionian cities northwest of Caria, later forming coalitions with the island city-states of Rhodes and Cos. Mausolos undertook major urban design projects in Halicarnassos: a defense system, civic buildings, and a secret dockyard and canal. But the most interesting of all his public works was the planning of his great tomb. Conceived during his lifetime, it was initiated probably after his death by Artemisia II, who was at once his sister and his widow, and who for three years was sole ruler of Caria. She died in 350 b.c. and was buried with Mausolos in the uncompleted tomb. According to Pliny the Elder (a.d. 23 79), the craftsmen, realizing that the tomb was a monument to their own creativity, elected to finish the work after their patroness died. Sited on a hill above Halicarnassos, the tomb rose 140 feet (43 meters) into the air from the center of a stone podium in an enclosed courtyard. A stair flanked by lions led to the top of this platform, whose outer walls were arrayed with statues, including an equestrian warrior at each corner. Its rectangular, tapered pedestal of white marble, with base dimensions of about 120 by 100 feet (37 by 30 meters), was 60 feet (18.3 meters) high. Its faces were carved with reliefs of Greek legends, including battles between centaurs and Lapiths, and Greeks and Amazons. The pedestal supported a colonnade of thirty-six 38-foot-high (11.6-meter) Ionic columns that housed a sarcophagus of white alabaster decorated with gold in a burial chamber. The tomb was roofed with a 22-foot-high (6-meter) stone pyramid of 24 steep steps, crowned with a 20-foot (6-meter) marble chariot bearing statues of Mausolos and Artemisia. Sculptured friezes of people, lions, horses, and other animals adorned every level of the Mausoleum tradition has it that each of the famous sculptors was responsible for a side. Under Memnon of Rhodes, Halicarnassos resisted Alexander the Great in 334 b.c. But it successively fell to Antigonus I (311 b.c.), Lysimachus (after 301 b.c.), and the Ptolemies (281 197 b.c.), after that retaining its independence until the Roman conquest in 129 b.c. Throughout all this conflict and for 1,600 years, the Mausoleum remained intact until a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and damaged the roof, bringing down the stone chariot. By the fifteenth century a.d. only the base remained. When the Crusader Knights of St. John of Malta invaded the region, they built a castle on the site and in 1494 used the stones of the Mausoleum to fortify it against an expected Turkish invasion. Within twenty-five years almost every block of stone had been placed in the walls of their Castle of St. Peter the Liberator. Before grinding much of the Mausoleums surviving sculpture into lime for plaster, the knights selected many of the pieces to adorn their castle. They renamed the city Mesy today the ancient site is occupied by the town of Bodrum.In 1846 Charles Newton of the British Museum began a search for vestiges of the Mausoleum. By 1857 he had uncovered sections of the reliefs and pieces of the roof. He also found a broken wheel from the stone chariot and, finally, the statues of Mausolos and Artemisia that had ridden in it for twenty-one centuries. All that remains of this wonder of the ancient world can now be found in the Mausoleum Room of the British Museum.
