building selection & justification

Centre Georges Pompidou [the Pompidou Centre]

built 1971-1977 by architects Renzo Piano, Richard and Sue Rogers, and Gianfranco Franchini, and structural engineers Edmund Happold and Peter Rice.

Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France

[high-tech architecture]

floor area: 103,305 square meters and 7 stories high

[my photo - spring 2007]

this very modern complex houses le Musee National d'Art Moderne [the National Museum of Modern Art], le Bibliotheque publique d'information [a huge public library], and IRCAM [a center for music and acoustic research].

a very functional design that allowed room for hugh, uncluttered spaces inside by moving all the service sections [elevators, stairs, plumbing and ventilation...] to the outside of the building and color-coated

the goal was to reveal to the public how a building works

Approaching this building in person was very intimidating at first with all the exposed systems,  but still a very impressive and worth-while experience! I wish I had more time to walk through more than a couple levels. 

I love the juxtaposition of this extremely modern structure in the middle of old parisian streets!

IAR 221: TIMELINE 1550 BC & 1550 AD

1550 BC

G O V E R N A N C E

Amorite (Old Babylonian Era) collapsed from the invasion of the Hittites and Kassites

The Hittites establish new kingdoms in Mesopotamia for the next 500 years

New civilizations:

- Wei and Shang dynasties (China)

- Canaanite Civilization (Europe)

- Assyria, Babylon, Elamite Dynasties (Middle East)

World Population was quickly increasing - from 10 million in 5000BC to 50-100 million by 1000BC

18th dynasty of Egypt

Cecrops founds Athens, Greece

Mephis (capital of Lower Egypt) became the largest city in the world

I N S T I T U T I O N S 

Akenaton tried to establish Monotheism - a new religion based on worshiping the sun

The priest and church paternally felt responsible for the sick

Egyptians began to teach and practice institutionalism based on Moses' institutional rules, refuges for the weak, and hygenic & sanitary plans

T E C H N O L O G Y

Ebers Papyrus - the oldest known surviving medical text book

- 110 page scroll with over 700 formulas and remedies for incantations against demons as well

   as evidence of empirical practice

- describes many mental disorders, contraception & pregnancy, intestinal diseases, parasites, 

  dentistry, skin problems, bone-setting, burns

Dagger blades with lion hide

Vedas - sacred texts of Hinduism from ancient India

Saffron (a spice from the saffron crocus flower) used as medicine in ancient Greece

Iron is discovered and heavily used

Pheonicians develop an alphabet

Bronze alloy:  during the middle and late bronze ages, society was most advanced in metalworking, smelting copper and tin to create a bronze alloy, then cast into bronze artifacts

Faience is discovered - a composite material of pulverized quartz, sandstone, or chert & a sodium carbonate solution; the liquid mix of these materials was placed into molds and fired

Texts: hieroglyphic script, pyramid texts, coffin texts, shroud texts, manufacture of papyrus, brush and papyrus technique, cursive script

C O M M E R C E

Palatial Period (2000 BC - 1400 BC) - trade organization and control was entirely up to the authority of the palaces

- agricultural and handicraft products were gathered then distributed to domestic and foreign markets

-perfectly organized shipping and founding of commercial stations in significant ports of the Mediterranean

- Minoans took over international transit trade

Knossos - important centre of faience production in the Middle Minoan Period

Zakros - faience processing workshop; worked on decorative techniques such  as stone carving & metalwork

1550 AD

G O V E R N A N C E 

English Radicalism began

Elizabeth I establishes tolerant religious settlement, increases royal bureaucracy & efficiency

I N S T I T U T I O N S 

Emerging Carceral Institutions: prisons, galleys & lunatic asylumns

Religious reform in England & Wales:  Catholicism was removed and the Church of England became protestant

Lutheranism became legally acknowledged in the Holy Roman Empire by the Peace of Augsburg

T E C H N O L O G Y

Work begins on the Piazza del Campidoglio, designed by Michelangelo

Nicolaus Copernicus proposes a heliocentric universe

Italian physician, Girolamo Fracastoro, outlines a theory of contagious diseases

Rapid industrialization in England leads to heavy deforestation and increasing substitution of coal for wood

Discovery of silver at Zacatecas and Guanajuato in Mexico

"Yuktibhasa" - world's first calculus text

Stream Turbine invented by Taqi al-Din: a mechanical device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized stream and converts it into useful mechanical work

Improvements in mining, refining, and smelting metals

Metallurgy - study of physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements

Work begins on the Villa Capra "La Rotonda" in northern Italy

The use of the purl stitch allowed the knitting of panels of material 

[citations]

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Ebers-papyrus

http://www.uncp.edu/home/rwb/lecture_ancient_civ.htm

http://books.google.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

http://pubmedcentral.nih.gov

http://www.wadsworth.com

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/church_1550_1553/htm