General Architectural History

Question 1

Christopher Wren

Answer 1

Royal Architect.

Era: English Baroque

Location: London, England

• Developed the Master Plan of London After the great fire of 1666. (not used)
• St. Pauls Cathedral of 1710
• Designed 52 London churches

Question 2

English Baroque

Answer 2

1666-1713 in England

Term sometimes used to refer to the developments in English architecture that were parallel to the evolution of Baroque architecture in continental Europe between the Great Fire of London (1666) and the Treaty of Utrecht (1713)

Question 3

Kevin Lynch

Answer 3

Urban Planner

Era: 1950’s/1960’s

Location: New England

• Studied under FLW at MIT
• Coined “imagability” and “Wayfinding”

Lynch’s most famous work, The Image of the City published in 1960, is the result of a five-year study on how observers take in information of the city. Using three disparate cities as examples (Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles), Lynch reported that users understood their surroundings in consistent and predictable ways, forming mental maps with five elements:
paths, the streets, sidewalks, trails, and other channels in which people travel;
edges, perceived boundaries such as walls, buildings, and shorelines;
districts, relatively large sections of the city distinguished by some identity or character;
nodes, focal points, intersections or loci;
landmarks, readily identifiable objects which serve as external reference points.
In the same book Lynch also coined the words “imageability” and “wayfinding”. Image of the City has had important and durable influence in the fields of urban planning and environmental psychology.

Question 4

Christopher Alexander

Answer 4

Architect

Date: 1970’s - Present

Location: California

Wrote a _Pattern Languge:Towns Building and Construction _

Published in 1977

described a practical architectural system in a form that a theoretical mathematician or computer scientist might call a generative grammar.

Question 5

Jane Jacobs

Answer 5

Title: Writer

Era: 1950’s/1960

Place: NYC, USA, Torontao

Wrote the Death and Life of Great American Cities which is a critique of urban renewal policy of the 1950’s and how they destroyed communities and created isolated, unnatural urban spaces. Wanted to abolish zoning laws and restore free markets in land. Wanted dense, mixed use neighborhoods and vibrant communities.

• Frequently cited Greenwich Vilage as an example of a vibrant urban commuity.
• Coined phrase “eyes on the street” a reference to natural surveillance by people in their neighborhood.

Question 6

Camillo Sitte

Answer 6

Architiect

Era: Late 1800’s

Location: Europe