World Architecture
World Architecture is a art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
11. Archigram
The Archigram group was established in 1961 by a few young British architectsunited by common
interests and antipathies. Its founders were Peter Cook, Michael Webb, and David Greene, who
were soon joined by Dennis Crompton, Ron Herron, and Warren Chalk. Archigrams international
impactits architectural feat, so to speakwas significant. Other architects would give form to its
notions. The Centre Pompidou, Paris, by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, and Arata Isozakis
buildings at the 1970 Osaka Worlds Fair are redolent of the fantastic schemes drawn, but never
built, by Archigram. The Austrian architect Hans Hollein, too, admits his debt to them after 1964. It
is in the realm of ideas about living in an advanced industrial civilization that they offered most.
All the founders had been students at the Architecture Association school in London, where they had
learned, in the face of a then-reactionary architectural profession, to apply democratic principles to
the art. The members who came later assimilated those ideas and blended them with other influences,
notably the futuristic urban visions of Friedrich Kiesler and Bruno Taut and the technological
notions of Richard Buckminster Fuller, whom they heroized. They also formed a symbiotic
intellectual association with the exactly contemporary Japanese Metabolist group, in which Isozaki
was preeminent. The Japanese applauded their efforts todismantle the apparatus of Modern
Architecture.
Like the Dutch De Stijl group around 1920, Archigrams cooperation was mainly through a
polemical journal and like the Hollanders, it drew its name from the title of the journal. Archigram
derived fromarchitecture andtelegram oraerogram was published almost annually
between 1961 and 1974. Archigram, more like a polemical broadsheet than a journal, directed an
attack on the smugness of modernist architectural conservatism, reinforced by what can best be
called Britishness. The powerful publication ran to ten annual issues, preaching an urgent message
about architecture that has been described asesthetic technocratic idealism. Possibly the most
significant architectural publication of the decade, itspop format, including beautifully drawn
comic strips, declared the groupsoptimism and possibilities of technology and the counterculture
of the pop generation.
The 1964 issue, after a controversialLiving City exhibition at Londons Institute of Contemporary
Arts, attracted the critic Reyner Banham, who became the groups champion. There followed a
succession of perhaps outlandish architectural proposals. Archigrams direction was urban,
technological, autocraticand some have said inhumane. The members believed that technology
was the hope of the world, so traditional means of building houses and cities must be superseded.
Their favorite words were change, adaptability, flexibility, metamorphosis, impermanence, and ephemerality.
Accordingly, they designed a living environment that incorporated all kinds of gadgetry. They
proposed an inflatable bodysuit containing food, radio, and television, and thesuitaloon, a house
carried on the back. These eccentric ideas extended from the individual to the communal: Chalks
Capsule Homes 1964 were projected alongside Cooks Plug-in City 1964?1966, in which self-
contained living units could be temporarily fitted into towering structural frames, and Herrons
nomadic Walking City in which skyscrapers could move on giant telescoping legs. The group
published its Instant City in 1968.
It has been suggested that in the 1960s Archigram was to modern architecture what the Beatles were
to modern music. But in the early 1970s they more or less dispersed, Greene and Herron for a
while becoming teachers in the United States. Crompton, Cook, and Herron formed Archigram
Architects 1970?1974. Herron and Cook then established independent practices in various partnerships. Crompton maintained links with the Architectural Association, and Greene turned to
writing poetry and practicing architecture. Webb moved permanently to the United States and after
1975 taught at Cornell and Columbia Universities in New York. Chalk continued writing and
teaching in the United States and England, mostly at the Architectural Association, until he died in
1987.
12. Artemiseion
Ephesus, Turkey
The Artemiseion, a huge Ionic temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, stood in the city of Ephesus on the Aegean coast of what was then Asia, near the modern town of Selcuk, about 30 miles 50 kilometers south of Izmir, Turkey. The splendid building was acclaimed as one of the seven wonders of the world, as attested by Antipater of Sidon:When I saw the sacred house of Artemis 1/4 the [other wonders] were placed in the shade, for the Sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus. Among several attempts to identify the architectural and sculptural wonders of the ancient world, the seven best known are those listed by Antipater in the second century b.c. and confirmed soon after by one Philo of Byzantium. Artemis was the Greek moon goddess, daughter of Zeus and Leto. Whatever form she was given, it was always linked with wild nature. On the Greek mainland she was usually portrayed as a beautiful young virgin, a goddess in human form. In Ephesus and the other Ionic colonies of Asia, where ancient ideas of the Earth Mother and associated fertility cults persisted, she was linked with Cybele, the mother goddess of Anatolia, and her appearance was dramatically different, even grotesque. The original cult statue has long since disappeared, but copies survive. That is hardly surprising, because the trade in them flourished in Ephesus at least until the first century a.d. They portray a standing figure, her arms outstretched like those of the earlier decollete figurines common in Minoan Crete. Artemis was fully dressed except for her many breasts, symbolizing her fertility although some recent scholars have suggested that the bulbous forms are bulls scrotums. The lower part of her body was covered with a tight-fitting skirt, decorated with plant motifs and carved in relief with griffins and sphinxes. She wore a head scarf decorated in the same way and held in place with a four-tiered cylindrical crown. Ancient sources say that the original statue was made of black stone, enriched with gold, silver, and ebony. The Artemis shrines at Ephesus had a checkered history. The earliest was established on marshy land near the river, probably around 800 b.c. it was later rebuilt and twice enlarged. The sanctuary housed a sacred stoneperhaps a meteoritebelieved to have fallen from Zeus. By 600 b.c. Ephesus had become a major port, and in the first half of the fifth century, its citizens commissioned the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes to build a larger temple in stone to replace the timber structure. In 550 b.c. it also was destroyed when the Lydian king, Croesus, invaded the region. Croesus, whose name has passed into legend for his fabulous wealth, contributed generously to a new temple, the immediate predecessor to thewonder of the world. It was four times the area of Chersiphrons temple, and over 100 columns supported its roof. In 356 b.c. one Herostratos, a young manwho wanted his name to go down in history, started a fire that burned the temple to the ground. The Ephesian architects Demetrios and Paeonios and possibly Deinocrates were commissioned to design a more magnificent temple, built to the same plan and on the same site. The first main difference was that the new building stood on a 9-foot-high 2.7-meter stepped rectangular platform measuring 260 by 430 feet 80 by 130 meters, rather than a lower crepidoma like the earlier stone building. Another departure from the normally austere and reserved Greek architectural tradition was the opulence of the temple, which went beyond even its great size. Its porch pronaos was very deep: eight bays across and four deep. The Ionic columns towered to 48 feet 17.7 meters each had, in place of the usual Ionic base, a 14-foot-high 3.5-meter lower section, carved with narrative decorations in deep relief. The other difference was in the quality of the detail. The wonder of the world was decorated with bronze statues by the most famous contemporary artists, including Scopas of Paros. Their detail can only be guessed at, as can the overall appearance of the great temple. Attempts have been made at graphical reconstruction, but they vary widely in their interpretation of the sparse archeological evidence. Antipater described the Artemiseion astowering to the clouds, and Pliny the Elder called it awonderful monument of Grecian magnificence, and one that merits our genuine admiration. Pliny also asserted that it took 120 years to build, but it may have taken only half that time. It was unfinished in 334 b.c. when Alexander the Great arrived in Ephesus. By the time the Artemiseion was vandalized by raiding Goths in a.d. 262it was partly rebuiltboth the city of Ephesus and Artemis-worship, once flaunted as universal, were in decline. When the Roman emperor Constantine redeveloped elements of the city in the fourth century a.d., he declined to restore the temple. By then, with most Ephesians converted to Christianity, it had lost its reason for being. In a.d. 401 it was completely torn down on the instructions of John Chrysostom. The harbor of Ephesus silted up, and the sea retreated, leaving barely habitable swamplands. As has so often happened, the ruined temple was reduced to being a quarry, and its stone sculptures were broken up to make lime for plaster. The old city of Ephesus, once the administrative center of the Roman province of Asia, was eventually deserted. The temple site was not excavated until the nineteenth century. In 1863 the English architect John Turtle Wood set out to find the legendary building, under the auspices of the British Museum. He persisted through six expeditions and in 1869 discovered the base under 20 feet 6 meters of mud. He ordered an excavation that exposed the whole platform. Some remains are now in the British Museum, others in the Istanbul Archeological Museum. In 1904 and 1905 another British expedition, led by David Hogarth, found evidence of the five temples, each built on top of the former. Today the site is a marshy field, a solitary column the only reminder that in that place once stood one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
The Artemiseion, a huge Ionic temple dedicated to the goddess Artemis, stood in the city of Ephesus on the Aegean coast of what was then Asia, near the modern town of Selcuk, about 30 miles 50 kilometers south of Izmir, Turkey. The splendid building was acclaimed as one of the seven wonders of the world, as attested by Antipater of Sidon:When I saw the sacred house of Artemis 1/4 the [other wonders] were placed in the shade, for the Sun himself has never looked upon its equal outside Olympus. Among several attempts to identify the architectural and sculptural wonders of the ancient world, the seven best known are those listed by Antipater in the second century b.c. and confirmed soon after by one Philo of Byzantium. Artemis was the Greek moon goddess, daughter of Zeus and Leto. Whatever form she was given, it was always linked with wild nature. On the Greek mainland she was usually portrayed as a beautiful young virgin, a goddess in human form. In Ephesus and the other Ionic colonies of Asia, where ancient ideas of the Earth Mother and associated fertility cults persisted, she was linked with Cybele, the mother goddess of Anatolia, and her appearance was dramatically different, even grotesque. The original cult statue has long since disappeared, but copies survive. That is hardly surprising, because the trade in them flourished in Ephesus at least until the first century a.d. They portray a standing figure, her arms outstretched like those of the earlier decollete figurines common in Minoan Crete. Artemis was fully dressed except for her many breasts, symbolizing her fertility although some recent scholars have suggested that the bulbous forms are bulls scrotums. The lower part of her body was covered with a tight-fitting skirt, decorated with plant motifs and carved in relief with griffins and sphinxes. She wore a head scarf decorated in the same way and held in place with a four-tiered cylindrical crown. Ancient sources say that the original statue was made of black stone, enriched with gold, silver, and ebony. The Artemis shrines at Ephesus had a checkered history. The earliest was established on marshy land near the river, probably around 800 b.c. it was later rebuilt and twice enlarged. The sanctuary housed a sacred stoneperhaps a meteoritebelieved to have fallen from Zeus. By 600 b.c. Ephesus had become a major port, and in the first half of the fifth century, its citizens commissioned the Cretan architect Chersiphron and his son Metagenes to build a larger temple in stone to replace the timber structure. In 550 b.c. it also was destroyed when the Lydian king, Croesus, invaded the region. Croesus, whose name has passed into legend for his fabulous wealth, contributed generously to a new temple, the immediate predecessor to thewonder of the world. It was four times the area of Chersiphrons temple, and over 100 columns supported its roof. In 356 b.c. one Herostratos, a young manwho wanted his name to go down in history, started a fire that burned the temple to the ground. The Ephesian architects Demetrios and Paeonios and possibly Deinocrates were commissioned to design a more magnificent temple, built to the same plan and on the same site. The first main difference was that the new building stood on a 9-foot-high 2.7-meter stepped rectangular platform measuring 260 by 430 feet 80 by 130 meters, rather than a lower crepidoma like the earlier stone building. Another departure from the normally austere and reserved Greek architectural tradition was the opulence of the temple, which went beyond even its great size. Its porch pronaos was very deep: eight bays across and four deep. The Ionic columns towered to 48 feet 17.7 meters each had, in place of the usual Ionic base, a 14-foot-high 3.5-meter lower section, carved with narrative decorations in deep relief. The other difference was in the quality of the detail. The wonder of the world was decorated with bronze statues by the most famous contemporary artists, including Scopas of Paros. Their detail can only be guessed at, as can the overall appearance of the great temple. Attempts have been made at graphical reconstruction, but they vary widely in their interpretation of the sparse archeological evidence. Antipater described the Artemiseion astowering to the clouds, and Pliny the Elder called it awonderful monument of Grecian magnificence, and one that merits our genuine admiration. Pliny also asserted that it took 120 years to build, but it may have taken only half that time. It was unfinished in 334 b.c. when Alexander the Great arrived in Ephesus. By the time the Artemiseion was vandalized by raiding Goths in a.d. 262it was partly rebuiltboth the city of Ephesus and Artemis-worship, once flaunted as universal, were in decline. When the Roman emperor Constantine redeveloped elements of the city in the fourth century a.d., he declined to restore the temple. By then, with most Ephesians converted to Christianity, it had lost its reason for being. In a.d. 401 it was completely torn down on the instructions of John Chrysostom. The harbor of Ephesus silted up, and the sea retreated, leaving barely habitable swamplands. As has so often happened, the ruined temple was reduced to being a quarry, and its stone sculptures were broken up to make lime for plaster. The old city of Ephesus, once the administrative center of the Roman province of Asia, was eventually deserted. The temple site was not excavated until the nineteenth century. In 1863 the English architect John Turtle Wood set out to find the legendary building, under the auspices of the British Museum. He persisted through six expeditions and in 1869 discovered the base under 20 feet 6 meters of mud. He ordered an excavation that exposed the whole platform. Some remains are now in the British Museum, others in the Istanbul Archeological Museum. In 1904 and 1905 another British expedition, led by David Hogarth, found evidence of the five temples, each built on top of the former. Today the site is a marshy field, a solitary column the only reminder that in that place once stood one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
13. Aswan High Dam
Egypt
The Aswan High Dam, replacing earlier dams, contains the River Nile nearly 600 miles 1,000 kilometers upstream from Cairo by a massive embankment 375 feet 114 meters high and 3,280 feet 1,003 meters long, built of earth and rock fill with a clay and concrete core. It impounds Lake Nasser, one of the largest reservoirs in the world, covering an area more than 300 miles 480 kilometers long and 10 miles 16 kilometers wide, that holds enough water to irrigate over 7 million acres 2.8 million hectares of farmland for many years. Its economic and social impact on the lower reaches of the Nile that is, in the north of Egypt makes it an engineering feat of some importance, although not necessarily always beneficial. The annual flooding of the Nile has been the historical life source of Egypt, in what is almost a rainless region. Almost all the population lives within 12 miles 20 kilometers of the river. The flooding13 billion to 169 billion cubic yards 12 billion to 155 billion cubic metersis caused by late-summer rains on Ethiopias plateaus that find their way into the Niles tributaries. Late in the nineteenth century, regional population growth was outstripping agricultural production, and the river had to be controlled to recover stability. The first Aswan Dam was built from 1899 to 1902 and raised in 1907?1912 and again in 1929?1934.
The Aswan High Dam, replacing earlier dams, contains the River Nile nearly 600 miles 1,000 kilometers upstream from Cairo by a massive embankment 375 feet 114 meters high and 3,280 feet 1,003 meters long, built of earth and rock fill with a clay and concrete core. It impounds Lake Nasser, one of the largest reservoirs in the world, covering an area more than 300 miles 480 kilometers long and 10 miles 16 kilometers wide, that holds enough water to irrigate over 7 million acres 2.8 million hectares of farmland for many years. Its economic and social impact on the lower reaches of the Nile that is, in the north of Egypt makes it an engineering feat of some importance, although not necessarily always beneficial. The annual flooding of the Nile has been the historical life source of Egypt, in what is almost a rainless region. Almost all the population lives within 12 miles 20 kilometers of the river. The flooding13 billion to 169 billion cubic yards 12 billion to 155 billion cubic metersis caused by late-summer rains on Ethiopias plateaus that find their way into the Niles tributaries. Late in the nineteenth century, regional population growth was outstripping agricultural production, and the river had to be controlled to recover stability. The first Aswan Dam was built from 1899 to 1902 and raised in 1907?1912 and again in 1929?1934.
14. Avebury Stone Circle
England
The Avebury Stone Circle, covering around 28 acres 11 hectares, is the largest known stone circle in the world. It partly embraces the linear village of Avebury, 90 miles 145 kilometers west of London in a part of England that is replete with prehistoric remains: Silbury Hill: the Sanctuary and the long barrows of East Kennet, West Kennet, and Beckhampton. John Aubury, who accidentally discovered if while foxhunting in the winter of 1648, wrote that Aveburydoes as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge as a Cathedral doeth a parish Church. Indeed, it is sixteen times the size of Stonehenge. When the Avebury circle was intact, its complex, if rather irregular, geometry comprised a 30-footdeep 9.2-meter ditch inside a 20-foot-high 6-meter grass-covered chalk bank 1,396 feet 427 meters in diameter. One observer describes it asa curiously amorphous ?D shape. The ditch, possibly once filled with water, enclosed an outer circle of about 100 enormous, irregular standing stones that varied in height from 9 to 20 feet 2.7 to 6 meters. Within the large circle, there were two inner circles, each about 340 feet 104 meters in diameter. The northern one now largely destroyed seems to have comprised two concentric rings, one of twenty-seven stones and one of twelve at their center stood three larger stones. The southern circle had a single 20-foot-high 6-meter stone at its center. The inmost circles are thought to have been set up about 2600 b.c. the outer ring and enclosing earthworks have been dated at a century later. Its construction called for colossal effort on the part of the builders. The standing stones were quarried and dressed 2 miles 3.2 kilometers from their final position, dragged or perhaps sledded to the sitesome weighed 45 tons 41 tonnesand set upright. The excavation of the vast surrounding ditch with rudimentary stone tools yielded an estimated 200,000 tons 203,200 tonnes of spoil, mostly chalk stone. Some of the spare material may have been carried 1 mile 1.6 kilometers to construct the mysterious 130-foot-high 39.6-meter chalk mound known as Silbury Hill, just outside the village of Avebury. Many of the stones are now missing, possiblyquarried by farmers or cleared for agricultural and even religious reasons since about the fourteenth century a.d., when villagers actually buried some of them. Only 36 of the original 154 megaliths remain standing. The outer circle was broken to form four 50-foot-wide 15.3-meter entrances, facing approximately north, south, east, and west. Two were the terminations of avenues of the same width, defined by standing stones and extending up to 1.5 miles 2.5 kilometers across the surrounding countryside. According to the eighteenth-century antiquarian William Stukeley, the so-called West Kennet Avenue ran south to the Sanctuary, another stone circle on Overton Hill the one named Beckhampton Avenue ran west to end at the neolithic tomb known as Beckhampton Long Barrow. Stukeleys measured drawings, made before 1743, are the only surviving record of the former condition of the site. He interpreted the ground plan of Avebury as the body of a serpent passing through a circlea traditional alchemical symboland whose head and tail were marked by the avenues. Recent investigations have led some scholars to speculate that the Avebury circle was part of a network of sacred places that stretched 200 miles 360 kilometers across southern England. Similar to Stonehenge and many other megalithic monuments in Britain, the Avebury Stone Circle formed part of at least a local complex of megalithic works. The whole complex probably continued to be used for around 2,300 years. That persistence and the very size of the Avebury Stone Circle give weight to the suggestion that it wasperhaps the most significant sacred site in all of Britain, if not the entire continent of Europe. The renaissance of paganism in the West at the end of the twentieth century excited new interest in its elusive mysteries.
The Avebury Stone Circle, covering around 28 acres 11 hectares, is the largest known stone circle in the world. It partly embraces the linear village of Avebury, 90 miles 145 kilometers west of London in a part of England that is replete with prehistoric remains: Silbury Hill: the Sanctuary and the long barrows of East Kennet, West Kennet, and Beckhampton. John Aubury, who accidentally discovered if while foxhunting in the winter of 1648, wrote that Aveburydoes as much exceed in greatness the so renowned Stonehenge as a Cathedral doeth a parish Church. Indeed, it is sixteen times the size of Stonehenge. When the Avebury circle was intact, its complex, if rather irregular, geometry comprised a 30-footdeep 9.2-meter ditch inside a 20-foot-high 6-meter grass-covered chalk bank 1,396 feet 427 meters in diameter. One observer describes it asa curiously amorphous ?D shape. The ditch, possibly once filled with water, enclosed an outer circle of about 100 enormous, irregular standing stones that varied in height from 9 to 20 feet 2.7 to 6 meters. Within the large circle, there were two inner circles, each about 340 feet 104 meters in diameter. The northern one now largely destroyed seems to have comprised two concentric rings, one of twenty-seven stones and one of twelve at their center stood three larger stones. The southern circle had a single 20-foot-high 6-meter stone at its center. The inmost circles are thought to have been set up about 2600 b.c. the outer ring and enclosing earthworks have been dated at a century later. Its construction called for colossal effort on the part of the builders. The standing stones were quarried and dressed 2 miles 3.2 kilometers from their final position, dragged or perhaps sledded to the sitesome weighed 45 tons 41 tonnesand set upright. The excavation of the vast surrounding ditch with rudimentary stone tools yielded an estimated 200,000 tons 203,200 tonnes of spoil, mostly chalk stone. Some of the spare material may have been carried 1 mile 1.6 kilometers to construct the mysterious 130-foot-high 39.6-meter chalk mound known as Silbury Hill, just outside the village of Avebury. Many of the stones are now missing, possiblyquarried by farmers or cleared for agricultural and even religious reasons since about the fourteenth century a.d., when villagers actually buried some of them. Only 36 of the original 154 megaliths remain standing. The outer circle was broken to form four 50-foot-wide 15.3-meter entrances, facing approximately north, south, east, and west. Two were the terminations of avenues of the same width, defined by standing stones and extending up to 1.5 miles 2.5 kilometers across the surrounding countryside. According to the eighteenth-century antiquarian William Stukeley, the so-called West Kennet Avenue ran south to the Sanctuary, another stone circle on Overton Hill the one named Beckhampton Avenue ran west to end at the neolithic tomb known as Beckhampton Long Barrow. Stukeleys measured drawings, made before 1743, are the only surviving record of the former condition of the site. He interpreted the ground plan of Avebury as the body of a serpent passing through a circlea traditional alchemical symboland whose head and tail were marked by the avenues. Recent investigations have led some scholars to speculate that the Avebury circle was part of a network of sacred places that stretched 200 miles 360 kilometers across southern England. Similar to Stonehenge and many other megalithic monuments in Britain, the Avebury Stone Circle formed part of at least a local complex of megalithic works. The whole complex probably continued to be used for around 2,300 years. That persistence and the very size of the Avebury Stone Circle give weight to the suggestion that it wasperhaps the most significant sacred site in all of Britain, if not the entire continent of Europe. The renaissance of paganism in the West at the end of the twentieth century excited new interest in its elusive mysteries.
15. Babylon Nebuchadnezzars city
Iraq
The city of Babylon Gate of God once stood on the banks of the Euphrates River, 56 miles 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, Iraq. It was the capital of Babylonia in the second and first millennia b.c. In a.d. 1897 the German archeologist Robert Koldewey commenced a major excavation. During the next twenty years he unearthed, among many other structures, a processional avenue to the temple of Marduk and the legendary fortified city wall, which once enjoyed a place among the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was not until the sixth century a.d. that its place was usurped by the so-called Hanging Gardens. Babylon entered the pages of history as the site of a temple around 2200 b.c. At first it was subject to Ur, an adjacent city-state, but gained its independence in 1894 b.c., when the Sumu-abum established the dynasty that reached its zenith under Hammurabi, known asthe Lawgiver. The Hittites overran the city 330 years later. It was governed by the Kassite dynasty, which extended its borders and made it the capital of the country of Babylonia, with southern Mesopotamia under its control. When the Kassites yielded to pressure from the Elamites in 1155 b.c., Babylon was governed by a succession of ephemeral dynasties and became part of the Assyrian Empire in the late eighth century b.c. In turn, the Assyrians were driven out by Nabopolassar, who founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty around 615 b.c. His son Nebuchadnezzar II ca. 604 561 b.c. built the kingdom into an empire that covered most of southwest Asia. Babylon, now Nebuchadnezzars imperial capital, underwent a huge rebuilding programnew temples and palace buildings, defensive walls and gates, and a splendid processional wayto make it the largest city in the known world, covering some 2,500 acres 1,000 hectares. It must have impressed visitors, because the myth sprang up, perhaps from the assertion of the Greek historian Herodotus, that it was 200 square miles 510 square kilometers in area, with 330-foot-high 99meter walls, 80 feet 25 meters thick. Of his achievement, Nebuchadnezzar boasted,Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of my kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? The Euphrates River divided the city into two unequal sectors. Theold quarter, including most of the palaces and temples, stood on the east bank Nebuchadnezzars new city was on the west. The whole was surrounded by an 11-mile-long 17-kilometer outer wall enclosing suburbs and the kings summer palace. The inner wall, penetrated by eight fortified gates leading to the outlying regions of Babylonia, was wide enough to allow two chariots to be driven abreast on its top. Most prominent among the portals was the northern Ishtar Gate, dedicated to the queen of heaven: a defensible turreted building with double towers and a barbican, faced with blue glazed brick and richly ornamented with 500 bulls, dragons, and other animals in colored brick relief. Through the Ishtar Gate passed the north-south processional way, which ran past the royal palace and was used in the New Year festival. It was paved with limestone slabs, about 3.5 feet 1 meter square the flanking footpaths were of breccia stones about 2 feet 600 millimeters square. Joints were beveled and the gaps filled with asphalt. The road was contained by 27-foot-thick 8-meter turreted walls, behind which citadels were strategically placed. The faces of the walls were decorated with lions in low relief. Much of the significance of the road lies in the exotic and doubtless expensive materials employed. The land between the rivers had little naturally occurring stone, and except for their faces, the city walls and gatehouses and even the kings palace were constructed of sun-dried brick. Inside the Ishtar Gate, at the northwest corner of the old city, stood Nebuchadnezzars extensive palace with its huge throne room, and the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It is more likely that they wereoverhanging gardens. Described by one first century b.c. visitor asvaulted terraces raised one above another, they were irrigated with water pumped from the Euphrates. Another early description says that this 400-foot-square 122-meter artificial mountain was more than 80 feet 25 meters high and built of stone. It was planted with all manner of vegetation, including large trees. There is a romantic legend that the Hanging Gardens were built for Nebuchadnezzars wife, Amytis, a Mede who missed the green mountains of her motherland. Beside the palace stood the rebuilt temple of the citys patron god, Marduk, replete with gold ornament. In a sacred precinct north of the temple stood a seven-story ziggurat stepped pyramid some descriptions put its height at 300 feet 90 meters. Nebuchadnezzar was Babylons last great ruler. Because his successors were comparatively weak, the Neo-Babylonian Empire quickly passed. In 539 b.c. the Persian Cyrus II took the city by stealth, overthrew Nebuchadnezzars grandson Belshazzar, and subsumed Babylon into his empire. The city became the official residence of the crown prince, but following a revolt in 482 b.c., Xerxes I demolished the temples and ziggurat, thoroughly destroying the statue of Marduk. Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 b.c. but he died before be could carry out his intention to refurbish it as the capital of his empire. For a few years after 312 b.c., the Seleucid dynasty used Babylon as a capital until the seat of government was moved with most of the population to the new city of Seleucia on the Tigris. Babylon the Great became insignificant, and by the foundation of Islam in the seventh century a.d., it had almost disappeared. Now Babylon is being rebuilt. In April 1989 the New York Times International reported that, under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,walls of yellow brick, 40 feet [12 meters] high and topped with pointed crenellations, have replaced the mounds that once marked [Nebuchadnezzars] Palace foundations. And as Babylons walls rise again, the builders insert inscribed bricks recording how [it] was
The city of Babylon Gate of God once stood on the banks of the Euphrates River, 56 miles 90 kilometers south of Baghdad, Iraq. It was the capital of Babylonia in the second and first millennia b.c. In a.d. 1897 the German archeologist Robert Koldewey commenced a major excavation. During the next twenty years he unearthed, among many other structures, a processional avenue to the temple of Marduk and the legendary fortified city wall, which once enjoyed a place among the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was not until the sixth century a.d. that its place was usurped by the so-called Hanging Gardens. Babylon entered the pages of history as the site of a temple around 2200 b.c. At first it was subject to Ur, an adjacent city-state, but gained its independence in 1894 b.c., when the Sumu-abum established the dynasty that reached its zenith under Hammurabi, known asthe Lawgiver. The Hittites overran the city 330 years later. It was governed by the Kassite dynasty, which extended its borders and made it the capital of the country of Babylonia, with southern Mesopotamia under its control. When the Kassites yielded to pressure from the Elamites in 1155 b.c., Babylon was governed by a succession of ephemeral dynasties and became part of the Assyrian Empire in the late eighth century b.c. In turn, the Assyrians were driven out by Nabopolassar, who founded the Neo-Babylonian dynasty around 615 b.c. His son Nebuchadnezzar II ca. 604 561 b.c. built the kingdom into an empire that covered most of southwest Asia. Babylon, now Nebuchadnezzars imperial capital, underwent a huge rebuilding programnew temples and palace buildings, defensive walls and gates, and a splendid processional wayto make it the largest city in the known world, covering some 2,500 acres 1,000 hectares. It must have impressed visitors, because the myth sprang up, perhaps from the assertion of the Greek historian Herodotus, that it was 200 square miles 510 square kilometers in area, with 330-foot-high 99meter walls, 80 feet 25 meters thick. Of his achievement, Nebuchadnezzar boasted,Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of my kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty? The Euphrates River divided the city into two unequal sectors. Theold quarter, including most of the palaces and temples, stood on the east bank Nebuchadnezzars new city was on the west. The whole was surrounded by an 11-mile-long 17-kilometer outer wall enclosing suburbs and the kings summer palace. The inner wall, penetrated by eight fortified gates leading to the outlying regions of Babylonia, was wide enough to allow two chariots to be driven abreast on its top. Most prominent among the portals was the northern Ishtar Gate, dedicated to the queen of heaven: a defensible turreted building with double towers and a barbican, faced with blue glazed brick and richly ornamented with 500 bulls, dragons, and other animals in colored brick relief. Through the Ishtar Gate passed the north-south processional way, which ran past the royal palace and was used in the New Year festival. It was paved with limestone slabs, about 3.5 feet 1 meter square the flanking footpaths were of breccia stones about 2 feet 600 millimeters square. Joints were beveled and the gaps filled with asphalt. The road was contained by 27-foot-thick 8-meter turreted walls, behind which citadels were strategically placed. The faces of the walls were decorated with lions in low relief. Much of the significance of the road lies in the exotic and doubtless expensive materials employed. The land between the rivers had little naturally occurring stone, and except for their faces, the city walls and gatehouses and even the kings palace were constructed of sun-dried brick. Inside the Ishtar Gate, at the northwest corner of the old city, stood Nebuchadnezzars extensive palace with its huge throne room, and the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It is more likely that they wereoverhanging gardens. Described by one first century b.c. visitor asvaulted terraces raised one above another, they were irrigated with water pumped from the Euphrates. Another early description says that this 400-foot-square 122-meter artificial mountain was more than 80 feet 25 meters high and built of stone. It was planted with all manner of vegetation, including large trees. There is a romantic legend that the Hanging Gardens were built for Nebuchadnezzars wife, Amytis, a Mede who missed the green mountains of her motherland. Beside the palace stood the rebuilt temple of the citys patron god, Marduk, replete with gold ornament. In a sacred precinct north of the temple stood a seven-story ziggurat stepped pyramid some descriptions put its height at 300 feet 90 meters. Nebuchadnezzar was Babylons last great ruler. Because his successors were comparatively weak, the Neo-Babylonian Empire quickly passed. In 539 b.c. the Persian Cyrus II took the city by stealth, overthrew Nebuchadnezzars grandson Belshazzar, and subsumed Babylon into his empire. The city became the official residence of the crown prince, but following a revolt in 482 b.c., Xerxes I demolished the temples and ziggurat, thoroughly destroying the statue of Marduk. Alexander the Great captured the city in 330 b.c. but he died before be could carry out his intention to refurbish it as the capital of his empire. For a few years after 312 b.c., the Seleucid dynasty used Babylon as a capital until the seat of government was moved with most of the population to the new city of Seleucia on the Tigris. Babylon the Great became insignificant, and by the foundation of Islam in the seventh century a.d., it had almost disappeared. Now Babylon is being rebuilt. In April 1989 the New York Times International reported that, under Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,walls of yellow brick, 40 feet [12 meters] high and topped with pointed crenellations, have replaced the mounds that once marked [Nebuchadnezzars] Palace foundations. And as Babylons walls rise again, the builders insert inscribed bricks recording how [it] was
16. Banaue rice terraces
Ifugao Province, Philippines
In the Banaue municipality of the northern Ifugao Province on the Philippine island of Luzon, the indigenous Igorot people have constructed 49,500 acres 20,000 hectares of agricultural land upon the inhospitable bedrock of the steep Cordillera Central Mountain Range. For millennia, succeeding generations of farmers built and maintained 12,500 miles 20,000 kilometers of dikes and retaining wallsenough to stretch halfway around the equatorcreating a unique, irregular patchwork of terraced rice paddies. The American anthropologist Roy Barton called these terraces and others in the regiona modification by man of the earths surface on a scale unparalleled elsewhere. The Cordillera rice terraces were added to UNESCOs World Heritage List in December 1995, a decision justified in the following terms:The fruit of knowledge passed on from one generation to the next, of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they helped form a landscape of great beauty that expresses conquered and conserved harmony between humankind and the environment. Moreover, they were cited asoutstanding examples of living cultural landscapes. The tiers rise to about 4,900 feet 1,500 meters above sea level. Each is defined by a stone or clay retaining wall, snaking along the contours of the steep mountainside. Stone walls are up to 50 feet high 15 meters: some of the clay walls are more than 80 feet 25.5 meters high. Some garden terraces have been backfilled with soil, ash, and composted vegetable material, while others have been simply carved from the rock and overlaid with soil washed down from the higher levels. Rice cannot be grown without large quantities of water, and the terraces are served by an elaborate irrigation system, comprising canals cut through the rock and bamboo and wooden aqueducts. Once the highest terraces are flooded, water spills over the descending walls until the whole hillside is irrigated. What of their builders? Igorot literally,the mountain people is a broad ethnic classification applied to a number of groups bound by common sociocultural and religious characteristicsIbaloy, Kankanay, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, and Bontocwho occupy the Cordilleras. They originate from the warlike immigrants who reached the northern islands of the Philippines from Vietnam and China, some scholars believe 10,000 years ago. Their descendants eventually became rice farmers and, against the difficulties presented by the hostile topography, built their amazing tiers of rice fields on the precipitous mountainsides. The true age of the terraces remains in question: some sources suggest that the Igorot commenced them between 200 b.c. and a.d. 100, others that they date from at least 1000 b.c. As late as the 1990s rising nationalism had not permeated their tribal highlands, and the Igorots, while regarded as citizens, did not think of themselves as Filipinos. They were further alienated by the Marcos administrations dam-building schemes, which included flooding the mountain valleys in their Cordillera homelands. They continue to resist integration into Filipino society. The rice culture of the Igorot, central to their way of life, inevitably had a spiritual dimension. As Joaquin Palencia remarks,the adversarial nature of the geography of this region and the tremendous odds faced by the Ifugao to assure access to food
In the Banaue municipality of the northern Ifugao Province on the Philippine island of Luzon, the indigenous Igorot people have constructed 49,500 acres 20,000 hectares of agricultural land upon the inhospitable bedrock of the steep Cordillera Central Mountain Range. For millennia, succeeding generations of farmers built and maintained 12,500 miles 20,000 kilometers of dikes and retaining wallsenough to stretch halfway around the equatorcreating a unique, irregular patchwork of terraced rice paddies. The American anthropologist Roy Barton called these terraces and others in the regiona modification by man of the earths surface on a scale unparalleled elsewhere. The Cordillera rice terraces were added to UNESCOs World Heritage List in December 1995, a decision justified in the following terms:The fruit of knowledge passed on from one generation to the next, of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they helped form a landscape of great beauty that expresses conquered and conserved harmony between humankind and the environment. Moreover, they were cited asoutstanding examples of living cultural landscapes. The tiers rise to about 4,900 feet 1,500 meters above sea level. Each is defined by a stone or clay retaining wall, snaking along the contours of the steep mountainside. Stone walls are up to 50 feet high 15 meters: some of the clay walls are more than 80 feet 25.5 meters high. Some garden terraces have been backfilled with soil, ash, and composted vegetable material, while others have been simply carved from the rock and overlaid with soil washed down from the higher levels. Rice cannot be grown without large quantities of water, and the terraces are served by an elaborate irrigation system, comprising canals cut through the rock and bamboo and wooden aqueducts. Once the highest terraces are flooded, water spills over the descending walls until the whole hillside is irrigated. What of their builders? Igorot literally,the mountain people is a broad ethnic classification applied to a number of groups bound by common sociocultural and religious characteristicsIbaloy, Kankanay, Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, and Bontocwho occupy the Cordilleras. They originate from the warlike immigrants who reached the northern islands of the Philippines from Vietnam and China, some scholars believe 10,000 years ago. Their descendants eventually became rice farmers and, against the difficulties presented by the hostile topography, built their amazing tiers of rice fields on the precipitous mountainsides. The true age of the terraces remains in question: some sources suggest that the Igorot commenced them between 200 b.c. and a.d. 100, others that they date from at least 1000 b.c. As late as the 1990s rising nationalism had not permeated their tribal highlands, and the Igorots, while regarded as citizens, did not think of themselves as Filipinos. They were further alienated by the Marcos administrations dam-building schemes, which included flooding the mountain valleys in their Cordillera homelands. They continue to resist integration into Filipino society. The rice culture of the Igorot, central to their way of life, inevitably had a spiritual dimension. As Joaquin Palencia remarks,the adversarial nature of the geography of this region and the tremendous odds faced by the Ifugao to assure access to food
17. BART Bay Area Rapid Transit
San Francisco, California
BART Bay Area Rapid Transit is a 95-mile 152-kilometer automated rapid-transit system, the first of thenew generation of such systems in the United States. By the end of the twentieth century there were thirteen in operation, including Washington, D.C. opened 1976, Atlanta 1979, and Miami 1986. BART has thirty-nine stations on five lines radiating out from San Francisco to serve Contra Costa and Alameda Counties in the eastern Bay Area of northern California. In 1947 a joint Army-Navy review board, predicted that another connecting link between San Francisco and Oakland would be needed to prevent intolerable traffic congestion on the Bay Bridge. It proposed the construction of a tube to carry high-speed electric trains under the waters of the bay. Four years later the California State Legislature created the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission and charged it with finding a long-term transportation solution in the context of environmental problems, not least among them the danger from earthquakes. After six years of investigation, the commission concluded that any transportation plan would have to be part of a total regional development plan. Because no such plan existed, the commission prepared a coordinated master strategy, later adopted by the Association of Bay Area Governments. The commissions most economical transportation solution was to establish a five-county rapid-transit district, with the task of building and operating a high-speed rapid rail network linking major commercial centers with suburban nodes. The San Francisco BART District was formed, comprising the counties Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. Plans were made for a revolutionary rapid-transit system. Electric trains would run on grade-separated corridors at maximum speeds of 80 mph 128 kph and averaging around 45 mph 72 kph. Sophisticated, well-appointed vehicles would compete with private automobiles in the Bay Area, and well-designed, conveniently located stations would be built. By mid-1961, after extensive public consultation, the final plan was submitted to the five counties for approval. San Mateo County was unconvinced and withdrew from the scheme in December. Marin County also withdrew a few months later, not only because it could not sustain its share of the cost but also because there were questions about the feasibility of running trains across the Golden Gate Bridge. The original proposal was therefore revised as a three-county plan, providing links across the bay between San Francisco and Contra Costa and Alameda. Those counties accepted the BART Composite Report in July 1962. As part of the following Novembers general election, voters approved a $792 million bond issue to finance the high-speed transit system and to rebuild 3.5 miles 5.6 kilometers of the San Francisco Municipal Railway. The estimated $133 million cost of the Transbay Tube was to be funded by Bay Bridge tolls. The rolling stock, which would run on 1,000-volt direct current, was estimated to cost another $71 million, and the total cost of the system was projected at $996 millionthe largest public works project ever undertaken by local residents in the United States. There were to be many delays, and costs would inevitably rise, eventually totaling $1.62 billion. Parsons-Brinckerhoff-Tudor-Bechtel was the consortium appointed to manage the project, consisting of Parsons-Brinckerhoff-Quade and Douglas the New York originators of the first plan and from San Francisco, Tudor Engineering Company and the Bechtel Corporation, BART construction began on 19 June 1964, on the Diablo Test Track in Contra Costa County completed ten months later, it was used to develop and test the vehicular system. The Oakland subway was commenced in January 1966. In the following November the first of the fifty-seven, 24-foot-high-by-28-foot-wide 7.4-by-14.8-meter steel-and-concrete sections of the Transbay Tube, almost 4 miles 6.4 kilometers long in total, was submerged in the bay. A 3-mile-long 4.8-kilometer drilled rock tunnel through the Berkeley Hills was completed four months later. The Transbay Tube structure was completed in August 1969. Lying as much as 135 feet. 41.3 meters underwater, it took six years to design seismic studies were an integral part of the process, and under three to build. The tunnel indeed the entire BART system would survive intact the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. The final cost of the tunnel was $180 million. Before the tube was closed to visitors so the rail tracks could be installed, thousands of pedestrians passed through. In July 1967 construction began on the two-level Market Street subway, 100 feet 30.6 meters below San Francisco. The work was complicated by a difficult mud-and-water environment and the century-old network of underground utilities. The first tunneling on the west coast was carried out entirely under compressed-air conditions this section of the project brought the BART workforce to 5,000 in 1969. On 27 January 1971 the bore into the west end of Montgomery Street Station marked the completion of that phase of the project. Although delays and inflation were eroding capital, public and governmental pressure groups forced the relocation of 15 miles of line and 15 stations, and a general improvement of station designs. They were also substantially altered during construction to improve access. Discussion of BARTs financial problems is not the purpose of this essay: suffice it to say that an increasing input of federal money was needed to support the constant variations and improvements to the original plan. BARTs linear park was constructed to demonstrate how functionality need not spoil the amenity of the environment, and major landscaping was partly funded by federal money. When the first 250 vehicles were eventually ordered from Rohr Industries of California, the price had reached L 80 millionL 18 million above the estimate for the whole 450-car fleet. The first car was delivered in August 1970, and within months, 10 test cars operated on the Fremont Line. The paid service began operation on 11 September 1972 on the 28 miles 45 kilometers between Fremont and MacArthur Stations. Heavily subsidized by federal grants, 200 more cars were bought by July 1975. In the late 1980s, BART purchased another 150 from SOFERM AL, an American subsidiary of Alsthom Atlantique of France, and 80 more from Morrison-Knudsen a few years later. A central control room, installed in 1972 in the Lake Merritt Administration Building, was replaced in 1979 by an Operations Control Center, from which train operations and remote control of electrification, ventilation, and emergency-response systems are supervised. In 1991, the BART Extensions Program launched a L 2.6 billion plan to expand services in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo Counties. Since then 5 stations and 21 miles 33 kilometers of double track have been added, including the Pittsburg-Antioch Extension, whose North Concord/Martinez Station opened in December 1995, the first new one in over 20 years. The L 517 million Dublin/Pleasanton Extension opened in May 1997. A proposal to connect BART to San Francisco International Airport SFO was first considered in 1972, just as the inaugural service was opened. The first stage opened in February 1996. During the next phase, BART will move further down the San Francisco peninsula, adding 9 miles 14.4 kilometers of track and 4 new stations, including one inside the new International Terminal. Work on the final leg started in 1997, and the line was scheduled for completion early in the twenty-first century. In 1995, BART launched a ten-year program, costing L 1.1 billion, to overhaul the system infrastructure and the original fleet of cars.
BART Bay Area Rapid Transit is a 95-mile 152-kilometer automated rapid-transit system, the first of thenew generation of such systems in the United States. By the end of the twentieth century there were thirteen in operation, including Washington, D.C. opened 1976, Atlanta 1979, and Miami 1986. BART has thirty-nine stations on five lines radiating out from San Francisco to serve Contra Costa and Alameda Counties in the eastern Bay Area of northern California. In 1947 a joint Army-Navy review board, predicted that another connecting link between San Francisco and Oakland would be needed to prevent intolerable traffic congestion on the Bay Bridge. It proposed the construction of a tube to carry high-speed electric trains under the waters of the bay. Four years later the California State Legislature created the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit Commission and charged it with finding a long-term transportation solution in the context of environmental problems, not least among them the danger from earthquakes. After six years of investigation, the commission concluded that any transportation plan would have to be part of a total regional development plan. Because no such plan existed, the commission prepared a coordinated master strategy, later adopted by the Association of Bay Area Governments. The commissions most economical transportation solution was to establish a five-county rapid-transit district, with the task of building and operating a high-speed rapid rail network linking major commercial centers with suburban nodes. The San Francisco BART District was formed, comprising the counties Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo. Plans were made for a revolutionary rapid-transit system. Electric trains would run on grade-separated corridors at maximum speeds of 80 mph 128 kph and averaging around 45 mph 72 kph. Sophisticated, well-appointed vehicles would compete with private automobiles in the Bay Area, and well-designed, conveniently located stations would be built. By mid-1961, after extensive public consultation, the final plan was submitted to the five counties for approval. San Mateo County was unconvinced and withdrew from the scheme in December. Marin County also withdrew a few months later, not only because it could not sustain its share of the cost but also because there were questions about the feasibility of running trains across the Golden Gate Bridge. The original proposal was therefore revised as a three-county plan, providing links across the bay between San Francisco and Contra Costa and Alameda. Those counties accepted the BART Composite Report in July 1962. As part of the following Novembers general election, voters approved a $792 million bond issue to finance the high-speed transit system and to rebuild 3.5 miles 5.6 kilometers of the San Francisco Municipal Railway. The estimated $133 million cost of the Transbay Tube was to be funded by Bay Bridge tolls. The rolling stock, which would run on 1,000-volt direct current, was estimated to cost another $71 million, and the total cost of the system was projected at $996 millionthe largest public works project ever undertaken by local residents in the United States. There were to be many delays, and costs would inevitably rise, eventually totaling $1.62 billion. Parsons-Brinckerhoff-Tudor-Bechtel was the consortium appointed to manage the project, consisting of Parsons-Brinckerhoff-Quade and Douglas the New York originators of the first plan and from San Francisco, Tudor Engineering Company and the Bechtel Corporation, BART construction began on 19 June 1964, on the Diablo Test Track in Contra Costa County completed ten months later, it was used to develop and test the vehicular system. The Oakland subway was commenced in January 1966. In the following November the first of the fifty-seven, 24-foot-high-by-28-foot-wide 7.4-by-14.8-meter steel-and-concrete sections of the Transbay Tube, almost 4 miles 6.4 kilometers long in total, was submerged in the bay. A 3-mile-long 4.8-kilometer drilled rock tunnel through the Berkeley Hills was completed four months later. The Transbay Tube structure was completed in August 1969. Lying as much as 135 feet. 41.3 meters underwater, it took six years to design seismic studies were an integral part of the process, and under three to build. The tunnel indeed the entire BART system would survive intact the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. The final cost of the tunnel was $180 million. Before the tube was closed to visitors so the rail tracks could be installed, thousands of pedestrians passed through. In July 1967 construction began on the two-level Market Street subway, 100 feet 30.6 meters below San Francisco. The work was complicated by a difficult mud-and-water environment and the century-old network of underground utilities. The first tunneling on the west coast was carried out entirely under compressed-air conditions this section of the project brought the BART workforce to 5,000 in 1969. On 27 January 1971 the bore into the west end of Montgomery Street Station marked the completion of that phase of the project. Although delays and inflation were eroding capital, public and governmental pressure groups forced the relocation of 15 miles of line and 15 stations, and a general improvement of station designs. They were also substantially altered during construction to improve access. Discussion of BARTs financial problems is not the purpose of this essay: suffice it to say that an increasing input of federal money was needed to support the constant variations and improvements to the original plan. BARTs linear park was constructed to demonstrate how functionality need not spoil the amenity of the environment, and major landscaping was partly funded by federal money. When the first 250 vehicles were eventually ordered from Rohr Industries of California, the price had reached L 80 millionL 18 million above the estimate for the whole 450-car fleet. The first car was delivered in August 1970, and within months, 10 test cars operated on the Fremont Line. The paid service began operation on 11 September 1972 on the 28 miles 45 kilometers between Fremont and MacArthur Stations. Heavily subsidized by federal grants, 200 more cars were bought by July 1975. In the late 1980s, BART purchased another 150 from SOFERM AL, an American subsidiary of Alsthom Atlantique of France, and 80 more from Morrison-Knudsen a few years later. A central control room, installed in 1972 in the Lake Merritt Administration Building, was replaced in 1979 by an Operations Control Center, from which train operations and remote control of electrification, ventilation, and emergency-response systems are supervised. In 1991, the BART Extensions Program launched a L 2.6 billion plan to expand services in Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Mateo Counties. Since then 5 stations and 21 miles 33 kilometers of double track have been added, including the Pittsburg-Antioch Extension, whose North Concord/Martinez Station opened in December 1995, the first new one in over 20 years. The L 517 million Dublin/Pleasanton Extension opened in May 1997. A proposal to connect BART to San Francisco International Airport SFO was first considered in 1972, just as the inaugural service was opened. The first stage opened in February 1996. During the next phase, BART will move further down the San Francisco peninsula, adding 9 miles 14.4 kilometers of track and 4 new stations, including one inside the new International Terminal. Work on the final leg started in 1997, and the line was scheduled for completion early in the twenty-first century. In 1995, BART launched a ten-year program, costing L 1.1 billion, to overhaul the system infrastructure and the original fleet of cars.
18. Baths of Caracalla
Rome, Italy
The Baths of Caracalla Thermae Antoninianae were built between a.d. 212 and 216 by the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus a.d. 188 217, usually known as Caracalla. Although in layout the Baths of Caracalla largely emulated the model established about a century before in the Baths of Trajan, their massive scale and opulent internal finishes were without precedent. Their fully integrated plan and imposing scale and grandeur amply demonstrated the Romans design skills. Significantly, the baths demonstrated the structural advances made possible through the masterful use of concrete to span vast spaces using barrel and groin vaults, domes, and half-domes, as well as the sophisticated mechanical engineering services developed by the Romans. Public baths thermae were an essential part of all Roman towns. The majority of citizens lived in crowded tenements insulae without running water or sanitary facilities, so communal baths were constructed and made available to both sexes of all social classes. Entry was free. Generally, mixed bathing was not favored, so the baths were open to women in the mornings and men in the afternoons and evenings. The thermae were the center of Roman social lifepeople could meet friends there and engage in any number of leisure and cultural pursuits on offer. As well as changing rooms, gymnasia, saunas, and pools of various temperatures, there were libraries, museums, restaurants, bars, shops, lecture theaters, concert halls, playing fields, gardens, and courtyards, all richly furnished with mosaics, fountains, and statues. Although extremely costly to build, the baths were a political investmenta means for the emperor to demonstrate his concern for the well-being of the community. The Baths of Caracalla occupied a 50-acre 20.25-hectare site. The complex was divided into three parts: the rectangular main building, approximately 750 by 380 feet 225 by 115 meters and large enough to accommodate 1,600 bathers encircling landscaped parks and gardens and a perimeter ring of shops, lecture halls, and pavilions. Laid out symmetrically, the compactly planned baths offered identical bathing circuits on either side of the central and shorter axis. The sequence of bathing spaces on that axis comprised the hot bath caldarium, warm bath tepidarium, and the cold bath frigidarium in a large unheated central hall. The last, which also served as a foyer, was open on one side, allowing easy access to the open-air swimming pool natatio. Changing rooms apodyteria, gymnasia, or exercise yards palaestrae, with terraced porticoes, and sauna laconica were arranged symmetrically on the transverse axis. Rooms for massage, manicure, and other services associated with the bathing routine were featured on either side of the baths. Decorative interior finishes colored marble veneers on walls, marble, basalt and granite columns and arches, and coarsely textured black-and-white mosaic floorscreated a rich and sumptuous character. Since the baths were public facilities that attracted large numbers of people, the gathering spaces needed to be vast and uncluttered with structural elements. In the absence of structural impediments, bathers were afforded extended views to various parts of the thermae. The Romans achieved these objectives by exploiting the semicircular arch. The rectangular central hall of the Baths of Caracalla demonstrated their structural method. It was roofed with an enormous semicircular intersecting concrete vault divided into three compartments. Each was 108 feet 30 meters high and rested at the corners on enormous piers. Clerestory windows adequately lit the hall. Water for the Baths of Caracalla flowed from a branch of the Aqua Marcia aqueduct into a huge reservoir, divided into eighteen chambers with a total capacity of about 2.2 million gallons 10 million liters. The water was carried through pipes laid underneath the gardens to the main building, where it was distributed directly to the cold pools, or to wood-fired boilers, where it was heated for the warm and hot baths. For ease of inspection and maintenance, distribution pipes and waste drains were located in separate tunnels. A separate network of tunnels was used to store wood for about fifty furnaces praefurnia that heated the saunas laconica and other rooms via a hot-air system hypocausta beneath the floors. The heated rooms were on the southwestern side of the complex to gain maximum benefit from the sun all had large windows. The hottest room, the circular, protruding caldarium, was covered by a 115-foot-diameter 35-meter dome, higher than the Pantheons and only slightly less in span. The Baths of Caracalla are now in ruins, but their soaring height and impressive scale allow visitors to appreciate their size and massiveness.
The Baths of Caracalla Thermae Antoninianae were built between a.d. 212 and 216 by the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus a.d. 188 217, usually known as Caracalla. Although in layout the Baths of Caracalla largely emulated the model established about a century before in the Baths of Trajan, their massive scale and opulent internal finishes were without precedent. Their fully integrated plan and imposing scale and grandeur amply demonstrated the Romans design skills. Significantly, the baths demonstrated the structural advances made possible through the masterful use of concrete to span vast spaces using barrel and groin vaults, domes, and half-domes, as well as the sophisticated mechanical engineering services developed by the Romans. Public baths thermae were an essential part of all Roman towns. The majority of citizens lived in crowded tenements insulae without running water or sanitary facilities, so communal baths were constructed and made available to both sexes of all social classes. Entry was free. Generally, mixed bathing was not favored, so the baths were open to women in the mornings and men in the afternoons and evenings. The thermae were the center of Roman social lifepeople could meet friends there and engage in any number of leisure and cultural pursuits on offer. As well as changing rooms, gymnasia, saunas, and pools of various temperatures, there were libraries, museums, restaurants, bars, shops, lecture theaters, concert halls, playing fields, gardens, and courtyards, all richly furnished with mosaics, fountains, and statues. Although extremely costly to build, the baths were a political investmenta means for the emperor to demonstrate his concern for the well-being of the community. The Baths of Caracalla occupied a 50-acre 20.25-hectare site. The complex was divided into three parts: the rectangular main building, approximately 750 by 380 feet 225 by 115 meters and large enough to accommodate 1,600 bathers encircling landscaped parks and gardens and a perimeter ring of shops, lecture halls, and pavilions. Laid out symmetrically, the compactly planned baths offered identical bathing circuits on either side of the central and shorter axis. The sequence of bathing spaces on that axis comprised the hot bath caldarium, warm bath tepidarium, and the cold bath frigidarium in a large unheated central hall. The last, which also served as a foyer, was open on one side, allowing easy access to the open-air swimming pool natatio. Changing rooms apodyteria, gymnasia, or exercise yards palaestrae, with terraced porticoes, and sauna laconica were arranged symmetrically on the transverse axis. Rooms for massage, manicure, and other services associated with the bathing routine were featured on either side of the baths. Decorative interior finishes colored marble veneers on walls, marble, basalt and granite columns and arches, and coarsely textured black-and-white mosaic floorscreated a rich and sumptuous character. Since the baths were public facilities that attracted large numbers of people, the gathering spaces needed to be vast and uncluttered with structural elements. In the absence of structural impediments, bathers were afforded extended views to various parts of the thermae. The Romans achieved these objectives by exploiting the semicircular arch. The rectangular central hall of the Baths of Caracalla demonstrated their structural method. It was roofed with an enormous semicircular intersecting concrete vault divided into three compartments. Each was 108 feet 30 meters high and rested at the corners on enormous piers. Clerestory windows adequately lit the hall. Water for the Baths of Caracalla flowed from a branch of the Aqua Marcia aqueduct into a huge reservoir, divided into eighteen chambers with a total capacity of about 2.2 million gallons 10 million liters. The water was carried through pipes laid underneath the gardens to the main building, where it was distributed directly to the cold pools, or to wood-fired boilers, where it was heated for the warm and hot baths. For ease of inspection and maintenance, distribution pipes and waste drains were located in separate tunnels. A separate network of tunnels was used to store wood for about fifty furnaces praefurnia that heated the saunas laconica and other rooms via a hot-air system hypocausta beneath the floors. The heated rooms were on the southwestern side of the complex to gain maximum benefit from the sun all had large windows. The hottest room, the circular, protruding caldarium, was covered by a 115-foot-diameter 35-meter dome, higher than the Pantheons and only slightly less in span. The Baths of Caracalla are now in ruins, but their soaring height and impressive scale allow visitors to appreciate their size and massiveness.
19. The Bauhaus
Germany
The German design school known as the Bauhaus literally, house of building, that functioned between 1919 and 1932, laid the foundation of a different kind of architectural education, one that was eventually adopted throughout the world. It restored the links between design and making that had been undermined during the Renaissance and virtually destroyed by the European academies. Much of the Bauhauss significance lies in the fact that some of its leaders migrated to the United States in the 1930s to head up the schools of architecture at Harvard and the Illinois Institute of Technology other members also became teachers and practitioners in America. The Bauhaus was conceived by Walter Gropius 1883 1969. After reluctantly commencing architectural studies at Berlin-Charlottenberg in 1905, between 1907 and 1910 he worked in the office of Peter Behrens before forming a partnership with a fellow employee, Adolf Meyer. During World War I Gropius served as a cavalry officer, and following the November 1918 armistice he was appointed director of two separate institutions in Weimar, Saxony, Germany: the Grand Ducal Academy of Arts and the Grand Ducal Academy of Crafts. He immediately proposed that they should be combined, and in April 1919 courses started at Das Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar. Gropiuss 1919 Manifesto called forthe unification of all the creative arts under the leadership of architecture building on the doctrines of nineteenth-century English reformers, Gropius sought to improve design standards by combining art and production. Architecture was not in the curriculum of the Bauhauss first phase at Weimar 1919 1923. Because he believed that good art, architecture, and design were more the result of collaboration than of individual virtuosity, Gropiuss formal program was based upon the proposition that one cannot design without understanding the process by which the design is realized. The designed object must beby systematic practical and theoretical research into formal, technical, and economic fields derived fromnatural functions and relationshipsin short, the Bauhaus provided an applied design education based on Marxist materialism. Under Johannes Itten students were introduced to elements of designshape, line, color, pattern, texture, rhythm, and density. There were also workshops for stone, wood, metal, pottery, glass, painting, and textiles. Every course was conducted by a team: a craftsperson and an artist. The aims of the Bauhaus were maintained through the three phases of its existence in three different places and despite several changes in its direction. They were: first,rescue all of the arts from the isolation in which each then found itself second, raise the status of craft to that of the so-called fine arts and third, link the designer with emerging industrial production. Those ideas are taken for granted now, but they were first spelled out by the Bauhaus. In spite of Gropiuss ostensible nonpolitical stance, the unfamiliar ideas, left-wing beliefs, and eccentric ways evident at the Bauhaus unsettled the government and brought opposition. Objecting to official insistence upon an exhibition Art and Technics in 1923, immediately afterward the staff resigned. Gropius was swamped with offers to relocate, and accepted one from Dessau. To house the school he designed a group of connected blocks 1925 1926: administration, classrooms, studios, workshops, and accommodations for staff and students. Although Gropius often denied any such intention, the need for modem architecturea tangible expression of the spirit of the agemeant that the Dessau complex would be adopted as a model internationally. Architecture was introduced into the curriculum at Dessau. Just then, groups of European architects, mostly socialists, were searching for a pure form of architecture, liberated from the historical styles that they associated with a decadent aristocracy or worse in their eyes with the rising industrial bourgeoisie. The architects included English Arts and Crafts, Italian Futurists, Dutch De Srijl, and German Expressionists. Buildings inevitably became expressions of their beliefs, and their response to Europes widespread housing crisis of the 1920s was an austere form of workers housing with open floor plans, white interiors, and furniture thatworked, whatever that meant. For them, a building must have a flat roof and flat walls, devoid of all ornament and decoration. And because color was bourgeois, the exteriors of houses must be white, gray, or blackin fact, just like the Dessau Bauhaus. It is not surprising that by 1932 the Americans Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson recognized in all this what they inaccurately dubbed an International Style. It was soon imitated throughout the world, frequently with no heed to the underlying sociopolitical theory. Gropius resigned the Bauhaus directorship in April 1928, not only to concentrate upon his architectural practice but also in an attemptfutile, as it happenedto stem the growing National Socialist Nazi Partys propaganda attacks upon the school. He recommended the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer as successor. But because Meyer was overtly Communist, the mayor of Dessau dismissed him in 1930, appointing in his place a German architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Under mounting pressure to close altogether, Mies moved the Bauhaus to Berlin in 1932. A year later he disbanded it. Although its ideas were spread internationally by many publicationsnot least the Bauhausb
The German design school known as the Bauhaus literally, house of building, that functioned between 1919 and 1932, laid the foundation of a different kind of architectural education, one that was eventually adopted throughout the world. It restored the links between design and making that had been undermined during the Renaissance and virtually destroyed by the European academies. Much of the Bauhauss significance lies in the fact that some of its leaders migrated to the United States in the 1930s to head up the schools of architecture at Harvard and the Illinois Institute of Technology other members also became teachers and practitioners in America. The Bauhaus was conceived by Walter Gropius 1883 1969. After reluctantly commencing architectural studies at Berlin-Charlottenberg in 1905, between 1907 and 1910 he worked in the office of Peter Behrens before forming a partnership with a fellow employee, Adolf Meyer. During World War I Gropius served as a cavalry officer, and following the November 1918 armistice he was appointed director of two separate institutions in Weimar, Saxony, Germany: the Grand Ducal Academy of Arts and the Grand Ducal Academy of Crafts. He immediately proposed that they should be combined, and in April 1919 courses started at Das Staatliches Bauhaus Weimar. Gropiuss 1919 Manifesto called forthe unification of all the creative arts under the leadership of architecture building on the doctrines of nineteenth-century English reformers, Gropius sought to improve design standards by combining art and production. Architecture was not in the curriculum of the Bauhauss first phase at Weimar 1919 1923. Because he believed that good art, architecture, and design were more the result of collaboration than of individual virtuosity, Gropiuss formal program was based upon the proposition that one cannot design without understanding the process by which the design is realized. The designed object must beby systematic practical and theoretical research into formal, technical, and economic fields derived fromnatural functions and relationshipsin short, the Bauhaus provided an applied design education based on Marxist materialism. Under Johannes Itten students were introduced to elements of designshape, line, color, pattern, texture, rhythm, and density. There were also workshops for stone, wood, metal, pottery, glass, painting, and textiles. Every course was conducted by a team: a craftsperson and an artist. The aims of the Bauhaus were maintained through the three phases of its existence in three different places and despite several changes in its direction. They were: first,rescue all of the arts from the isolation in which each then found itself second, raise the status of craft to that of the so-called fine arts and third, link the designer with emerging industrial production. Those ideas are taken for granted now, but they were first spelled out by the Bauhaus. In spite of Gropiuss ostensible nonpolitical stance, the unfamiliar ideas, left-wing beliefs, and eccentric ways evident at the Bauhaus unsettled the government and brought opposition. Objecting to official insistence upon an exhibition Art and Technics in 1923, immediately afterward the staff resigned. Gropius was swamped with offers to relocate, and accepted one from Dessau. To house the school he designed a group of connected blocks 1925 1926: administration, classrooms, studios, workshops, and accommodations for staff and students. Although Gropius often denied any such intention, the need for modem architecturea tangible expression of the spirit of the agemeant that the Dessau complex would be adopted as a model internationally. Architecture was introduced into the curriculum at Dessau. Just then, groups of European architects, mostly socialists, were searching for a pure form of architecture, liberated from the historical styles that they associated with a decadent aristocracy or worse in their eyes with the rising industrial bourgeoisie. The architects included English Arts and Crafts, Italian Futurists, Dutch De Srijl, and German Expressionists. Buildings inevitably became expressions of their beliefs, and their response to Europes widespread housing crisis of the 1920s was an austere form of workers housing with open floor plans, white interiors, and furniture thatworked, whatever that meant. For them, a building must have a flat roof and flat walls, devoid of all ornament and decoration. And because color was bourgeois, the exteriors of houses must be white, gray, or blackin fact, just like the Dessau Bauhaus. It is not surprising that by 1932 the Americans Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson recognized in all this what they inaccurately dubbed an International Style. It was soon imitated throughout the world, frequently with no heed to the underlying sociopolitical theory. Gropius resigned the Bauhaus directorship in April 1928, not only to concentrate upon his architectural practice but also in an attemptfutile, as it happenedto stem the growing National Socialist Nazi Partys propaganda attacks upon the school. He recommended the Swiss architect Hannes Meyer as successor. But because Meyer was overtly Communist, the mayor of Dessau dismissed him in 1930, appointing in his place a German architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Under mounting pressure to close altogether, Mies moved the Bauhaus to Berlin in 1932. A year later he disbanded it. Although its ideas were spread internationally by many publicationsnot least the Bauhausb
20. Bedouin tents
Middle East
There are only three essential structural systems in architecture: the post and beam trabeated, the arch and its extensions arcuated, and those that employ stretched filaments and membranes tensile. Because durable tensile materials like steel and reinforced concrete were not developed until after 1865, and synthetic membranes, like fiberglass-Teflon laminate and Kevlar, until more than a century later, tensile technology was limited to buildings not consideredproper architecture. But despite the denial of means, the method of creating them has been understood, refined, and applied from ancient times. Purest among such applications are the tents of the Bedouin. Their origins are lost, but they are indeed architectural feats for their structural economy, functionality, and environmental sustainability. The nomadic Arabs known as Bedouin badawi, fordesert dwellers inhabited Arabia from sometime in the second millennium b.c. With the expansion of Islam in the seventh century a.d., they spread into the Syrian and Egyptian deserts and invaded northern Africa, where their flocks, allowed to overgraze, soon turned much of the coastal pasture into semidesert. The Bedouin, who now comprise about 10 percent of the population of the Middle East, continue to herd camels, sheep, goats, and sometimes cattle. Their patterns of migration depend on availability of pasture: in winter, if there is rain, they move farther into the desert in summer, they locate near assured water supplies and build simple mud-and-stone temporary houses. While on the move, the Bedouin live in a beit al-shar house of hair. The dwelling, little changed for about 4,000 years, consists of short wooden posts supporting a framework of tightly stretched goat-hair ropes, over which a loosely woven goat-hair cloth membrane falaif is stretched to serve as walls and roof. The goat-hair yarn is spun on a drop spindle by the older women and woven into cloth strips on a horizontal loom. The breadth of the strips approximates the ancient cubit about 20 inches or 50 centimeters they vary in length from 23 to 65 feet 7 to 20 meters, depending on the size of the tent for which they are made. Because the women work only inspare time, even short strips of cloth may take several months to produce. The portable loom allows any unfinished work to be rolled up when the group moves on. The finished strips are sewn together with black goat-hair thread to make up a single roof membrane. That is a social occasion, with women working together. The goat hairs natural color, usually black, is retained, although sometimes the addition of sheeps wool yields a streaked cloth. The black fabric absorbs heat, but it also provides deep shade, so that temperatures inside can be considerably lower than outside. The coarse weave allows heat to disperse, and the covering provides good insulation in the cold desert night. When it rains, the loosely woven fabric swells, stopping most leaks. A tent cloth lasts an average of five years, and its maintenance and replacement depend upon a renewable resource, as they have for centuries. When the Bedouin make camp, the leader of the band directs the women in pitching the tent. Before the poles are raised, the roof is spread on the ground, with one of its long sides facing windward, and stretched by tightening lines attached to pegs. Once it has been lifted on the pole and rope frame, the goat-hair flaps that form the wallslong enough to enclose the entire tent at nightare hung and pegged down, with the entrance facing away from the prevailing wind. The low profile of the roof and very long guy ropes are designed to maximize wind resistance. Traditionally, brightly decorated curtains divide the interior. The mens area, always at the end toward Mecca, also incorporates the majlis, where guests are received around a hearth. The private family area mahram, or womens section, is much larger and barred to all men except the head of the family. The third space is the kitchen. Of necessity for a nomadic lifestyle, furnishings are sparse. Carpets and mattresses cover the desert floor pillows stacked around a camel saddle may provide seating for guests. The Tuaregs, descendants of the Berbers, whom the Arabs displaced from North African coastal regions, also live in tents. About 800,000 strong, the seven major Tuareg confederations inhabit an area from the western Sahara to western Sudan. Although some have permanent settlements, most prefer small nomadic groups. Believing thathouses are the graves of the living, they set up rectangular tents about 10 feet 3 meters long and 10 to 15 feet 3 to 4.6 meters wide, covered with up to forty tanned goatskins, dyed red and sewn together, or mats of palm fiber. In this matriarchal society, when a woman marries, her family makes a tent for her, and it remains her property. In about two hours, she can put her household on pack animals, ready to move on. Two other examples will demonstrate that not all transportable houses are tensile structures. The nomadic lifestyle of some Amerindian tribes was constrained by the migration of the great buffalo herds. Their houses needed to be strong enough to withstand the prairie winds while lending themselves to easy dismantling, carrying, and reerection. Possibly derived from the Inuits Arctic summer dwellings, the tepee was adopted about two hundred years ago as the year-round house of the Plains nations. A conical skeleton frame of up to thirty wooden poles was lashed together near the top and covered with a fitted membrane of tanned buffalo hides. Although it was transportable, it did not share all the tensile characteristics of the Bedouin tent. The same is true of the ger or yurt, the traditional house of Mongolian herdspeople, still in use all year-round. Its self-supporting framed structurea cylinder roofed with a domeapplies a dynamic arrangement, refined over centuries, of leather-lashed saplings, a roof ring, and tensioning bands. The covering, traditionally felt, is secured with ropes. The ger can be dismantled and carried by pack animals, although sometimes it is transported intact on a wagon. Many Middle Eastern governments are attempting to impose a permanent sedentary lifestyle on the Bedouin, Modernization, if not altogether desirable, is probably inevitable. Trucks are displacing camels as the principal means of transportation some camps have refrigerators and television sets powered by portable generators whose noise disturbs the quiet of the desert. Coffee is brewed for guests on gas stoves rather than the traditional hearth, andoff-the-hook canvas tents are appearing among thehouses of hair.
There are only three essential structural systems in architecture: the post and beam trabeated, the arch and its extensions arcuated, and those that employ stretched filaments and membranes tensile. Because durable tensile materials like steel and reinforced concrete were not developed until after 1865, and synthetic membranes, like fiberglass-Teflon laminate and Kevlar, until more than a century later, tensile technology was limited to buildings not consideredproper architecture. But despite the denial of means, the method of creating them has been understood, refined, and applied from ancient times. Purest among such applications are the tents of the Bedouin. Their origins are lost, but they are indeed architectural feats for their structural economy, functionality, and environmental sustainability. The nomadic Arabs known as Bedouin badawi, fordesert dwellers inhabited Arabia from sometime in the second millennium b.c. With the expansion of Islam in the seventh century a.d., they spread into the Syrian and Egyptian deserts and invaded northern Africa, where their flocks, allowed to overgraze, soon turned much of the coastal pasture into semidesert. The Bedouin, who now comprise about 10 percent of the population of the Middle East, continue to herd camels, sheep, goats, and sometimes cattle. Their patterns of migration depend on availability of pasture: in winter, if there is rain, they move farther into the desert in summer, they locate near assured water supplies and build simple mud-and-stone temporary houses. While on the move, the Bedouin live in a beit al-shar house of hair. The dwelling, little changed for about 4,000 years, consists of short wooden posts supporting a framework of tightly stretched goat-hair ropes, over which a loosely woven goat-hair cloth membrane falaif is stretched to serve as walls and roof. The goat-hair yarn is spun on a drop spindle by the older women and woven into cloth strips on a horizontal loom. The breadth of the strips approximates the ancient cubit about 20 inches or 50 centimeters they vary in length from 23 to 65 feet 7 to 20 meters, depending on the size of the tent for which they are made. Because the women work only inspare time, even short strips of cloth may take several months to produce. The portable loom allows any unfinished work to be rolled up when the group moves on. The finished strips are sewn together with black goat-hair thread to make up a single roof membrane. That is a social occasion, with women working together. The goat hairs natural color, usually black, is retained, although sometimes the addition of sheeps wool yields a streaked cloth. The black fabric absorbs heat, but it also provides deep shade, so that temperatures inside can be considerably lower than outside. The coarse weave allows heat to disperse, and the covering provides good insulation in the cold desert night. When it rains, the loosely woven fabric swells, stopping most leaks. A tent cloth lasts an average of five years, and its maintenance and replacement depend upon a renewable resource, as they have for centuries. When the Bedouin make camp, the leader of the band directs the women in pitching the tent. Before the poles are raised, the roof is spread on the ground, with one of its long sides facing windward, and stretched by tightening lines attached to pegs. Once it has been lifted on the pole and rope frame, the goat-hair flaps that form the wallslong enough to enclose the entire tent at nightare hung and pegged down, with the entrance facing away from the prevailing wind. The low profile of the roof and very long guy ropes are designed to maximize wind resistance. Traditionally, brightly decorated curtains divide the interior. The mens area, always at the end toward Mecca, also incorporates the majlis, where guests are received around a hearth. The private family area mahram, or womens section, is much larger and barred to all men except the head of the family. The third space is the kitchen. Of necessity for a nomadic lifestyle, furnishings are sparse. Carpets and mattresses cover the desert floor pillows stacked around a camel saddle may provide seating for guests. The Tuaregs, descendants of the Berbers, whom the Arabs displaced from North African coastal regions, also live in tents. About 800,000 strong, the seven major Tuareg confederations inhabit an area from the western Sahara to western Sudan. Although some have permanent settlements, most prefer small nomadic groups. Believing thathouses are the graves of the living, they set up rectangular tents about 10 feet 3 meters long and 10 to 15 feet 3 to 4.6 meters wide, covered with up to forty tanned goatskins, dyed red and sewn together, or mats of palm fiber. In this matriarchal society, when a woman marries, her family makes a tent for her, and it remains her property. In about two hours, she can put her household on pack animals, ready to move on. Two other examples will demonstrate that not all transportable houses are tensile structures. The nomadic lifestyle of some Amerindian tribes was constrained by the migration of the great buffalo herds. Their houses needed to be strong enough to withstand the prairie winds while lending themselves to easy dismantling, carrying, and reerection. Possibly derived from the Inuits Arctic summer dwellings, the tepee was adopted about two hundred years ago as the year-round house of the Plains nations. A conical skeleton frame of up to thirty wooden poles was lashed together near the top and covered with a fitted membrane of tanned buffalo hides. Although it was transportable, it did not share all the tensile characteristics of the Bedouin tent. The same is true of the ger or yurt, the traditional house of Mongolian herdspeople, still in use all year-round. Its self-supporting framed structurea cylinder roofed with a domeapplies a dynamic arrangement, refined over centuries, of leather-lashed saplings, a roof ring, and tensioning bands. The covering, traditionally felt, is secured with ropes. The ger can be dismantled and carried by pack animals, although sometimes it is transported intact on a wagon. Many Middle Eastern governments are attempting to impose a permanent sedentary lifestyle on the Bedouin, Modernization, if not altogether desirable, is probably inevitable. Trucks are displacing camels as the principal means of transportation some camps have refrigerators and television sets powered by portable generators whose noise disturbs the quiet of the desert. Coffee is brewed for guests on gas stoves rather than the traditional hearth, andoff-the-hook canvas tents are appearing among thehouses of hair.
