Study Guide 1

Question 1

Balloon Framing

Answer 1

Wall framing in house construction includes the vertical and horizontal members of exterior walls and interior partitions, both of bearing walls and non-bearing walls. These stick members, referred to as studs, wall plates and lintels (headers), serve as a nailing base for all covering material and support the upper floor platforms, which provide the lateral strength along a wall.

Question 2

Reinforced Concrete

Answer 2

Reinforced concrete (RC) is a composite material in which concrete’s relatively low tensile strength and ductility are counteracted by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength and/or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel reinforcing bars (rebar) and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets.

Question 3

Curtain Wall

Answer 3

A curtain wall system is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep the weather out and the occupants in. As the curtain wall is non-structural it can be made of a lightweight material, reducing construction costs. When glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is that natural light can penetrate deeper within the building. The curtain wall façade does not carry any dead load weight from the building other than its own dead load weight.

Question 4

Case Study Houses

Answer 4

8 and #22 Eames and Stahl

The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig, Eero Saarinen, A. Quincy Jones, and Ralph Rapson to design and build inexpensive and efficient model homes for the United States residential housing boom caused by the end of World War II and the return of millions of soldiers.

Question 5

Ranch House

Answer 5

The ranch house is noted for its long, close-to-the-ground profile, and minimal use of exterior and interior decoration. The houses fuse modernist ideas and styles with notions of the American Western period working ranches to create a very informal and casual living style.

Question 6

Archigram

Answer 6

Archigram was an avant-garde architectural group formed in the 1960s - based at the Architectural Association, London - that was neofuturistic, anti-heroic and pro-consumerist, drawing inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that was solely expressed through hypothetical projects.

Question 7

Seaside

Answer 7

?

Question 8

Pruitt-Igoe

Answer 8

Pruitt–Igoe was a large urban housing project first occupied in 1954 in the U.S. city of St. Louis, Missouri. Living conditions in Pruitt–Igoe began to decline soon after its completion in 1956. By the late 1960s, the complex had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime, and segregation. Its 33 buildings were demolished with explosives in the mid-1970s, and the project has become an icon of urban renewal and public-policy planning failure.

Question 9

Rust Belt

Answer 9

The Rust Belt is a term for the region straddling the upper Northeastern United States, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest States, referring to economic decline, population loss, and urban decay due to the shrinking of its once powerful industrial sector. The term gained popularity in the U.S. in the 1980s.

Question 10

Dust Bowl

Answer 10

The Dust Bowl, also known as the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion (the Aeolian processes) caused the phenomenon. The drought came in three waves, 1934, 1936, and 1939–40, but some regions of the high plains experienced drought conditions for as many as eight years.

Question 11

Colorado River

Answer 11

?

Question 12

Decorated Shed

Answer 12

?

Question 13

Atrium

Answer 13

In architecture, an atrium (plural: atria or atriums) is a large open space located within a building.[1] Atria were a common feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light and ventilation to the interior. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors (in the lobby).

Question 14

Pritzker Prize (Hyatt Foundation)

Answer 14

The Pritzker Architecture Prize was founded in 1979 by Jay and Cindy Pritzker to honor outstanding living architects worldwide. Awarded annually as one of the highest accolades of the profession, it is frequently described as the Nobel Prize of architecture.

Question 15

Platform Frame

Answer 15

In Canada and the United States, the most common method of light-frame construction for houses and small apartment buildings as well as other small commercial buildings is platform framing. In builder parlance, platform framing might also nowadays be called (only partly correctly) ‘stick framing’ or ‘stick construction’ as each element is built up stick by stick, which was also true in the other stick framing method, in the obsolete and labor-intensive, but previously fashionable, balloon framing method, wherein the outside walls were erected, headers hung, then floor joists were inserted into a box made of walls.

Question 16

Corduroy Concrete

Answer 16

Rudolph Hall, also known as the Yale Art and Architecture Building or the A & A Building, is one of the earliest and best known examples of Brutalist architecture in the United States. The building houses Yale University’s School of Architecture (it once also housed the School of Art) and is located in New Haven, Connecticut.

Question 17

Solar Heat Gain

Answer 17

1

Question 18

Levittown

Answer 18

Levittown is the name of four large suburban developments created in the United States of America by William Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning veterans and their new families, the communities offered attractive alternatives to cramped central city locations and apartments. He and other builders were guaranteed by the Veterans Administration and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) that qualified veterans could receive housing for a fraction of rental costs. Production was modeled in an assembly line manner and thousands of similar or identical homes were produced easily and quickly, allowing rapid recovery of costs. Houses came standard with a white picket fence, green lawn, and modern era kitchen with appliances. Sales of the original Levittown began in March 1947, and 1,400 homes were purchased within the first three hours.

Question 19

Row House (US)

Answer 19

Row houses are a category of urban homes that are located in one area and are consistent, one with the other, in architecture, design, and appearance. The etymology of different real estate terms used to describe homes is difficult to pin down, but for the most part, houses described with this term are multistory units that are at least consistent, if not identical, to all adjoining homes. Similar to townhouses, they are located in older, larger cities, especially those on the eastern coast of the United States.

Question 20

“Inside-Out” Building

Answer 20

1

Question 21

New Urbanism

Answer 21

1

Question 22

Brasilia

Answer 22

Brasília (Portuguese pronunciation: [bɾaˈziljɐ]) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located atop the Brazilian highlands in the country’s center-western region. It was founded on April 21, 1960, to serve as the new national capital. Brasília was planned and developed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer in 1956 in order to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a more central location. The landscape architect was Roberto Burle Marx. The city’s design divides it into numbered blocks as well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the Banking Sector and the Embassy Sector. Brasília was chosen as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its modernist architecture and uniquely artistic urban planning.

Question 23

Sun Belt

Answer 23

The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest (the geographic southern United States). Another rough boundary of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel, north latitude. The main defining feature of the Sun Belt is its warm climate with extended summers and brief, relatively pleasant winters. Within the Sun Belt areas of the U.S., deserts/semi-deserts (California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), Mediterranean (California), and humid subtropical (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina) climates can be found.

Question 24

Rio Salado Project

Answer 24

1

Question 25

Architecture at 55 mph

Answer 25

1

Question 26

“Duck”

Answer 26

1

Question 27

Big-Box Store

Answer 27

1

Question 28

Skeleton Frame

Answer 28

1

Question 29

Dead Load

Answer 29

1

Question 30

Wind Load

Answer 30

1

Question 31

Sprawl

Answer 31

1

Question 32

Terrace House (UK)

Answer 32

1

Question 33

Geodesic Dome

Answer 33

geodesic dome is a spherical or partial-spherical shell structure or lattice shell based on a network of great circles (geodesics) on the surface of a sphere. The geodesics intersect to form triangular elements that have local triangular rigidity and also distribute the stress across the structure. When completed to form a complete sphere, it is a geodesic sphere. A dome is enclosed, unlike open geodesic structures such as playground climbers.

Question 34

Critical Regionalism

Answer 34

Critical regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter the placelessness and lack of identity of the International Style (architecture), but also rejects the whimsical individualism and ornamentation of Postmodern architecture. The stylings of critical regionalism seek to provide an architecture rooted in the modern tradition, but tied to geographical and cultural context. Critical regionalism is not simply regionalism in the sense of vernacular architecture. It is a progressive approach to design that seeks to mediate between the global and the local languages of architecture. The phrase “critical regionalism” was first used by the architectural theorists Alexander Tzonis and Liane Lefaivre and, with a slightly different meaning, by the historian-theorist Kenneth Frampton.

Question 35

Chandigarh

Answer 35

1

Question 36

Farm Belt

Answer 36

1

Question 37

Central Arizona Project

Answer 37

1

Question 38

Co-ordinate Unit

Answer 38

1

Question 39

Megastructure

Answer 39

1

Question 40

Logo Building

Answer 40

1

Question 41

Land Ordinance of 1785

Answer 41

1

Question 42

Expo 1958 - Brussels, Belgium. (Atomium)

Answer 42

1

Question 43

Expo 1962 - Seattle, WA (Space Needle)

Answer 43

1

Question 44

Expo 1967 - Montreal, Canada. (B. Fuller, US Pavilion; M. Safdie, “Habitat”)

Answer 44

1

Question 45

AIA - American Institute of Architects

Answer 45

1

Question 46

MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York

Answer 46

1

Question 47

SOM – Skidmore, Owings, Merrill

Answer 47

1

Question 48

Hitchcock & Johnson, The International Style, 1932 (MoMA Exhibition)

Answer 48

The International Style is the name of a major architectural style that is said to have emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of modern architecture, as first defined by Americans Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932, with an emphasis more on architectural style, form and aesthetics than the social aspects of the modern movement as emphasised in Europe. The term “International Style” first came into use via a 1932 exhibition curated by Hitchcock and Johnson, Modern Architecture - International Exhibition, which declared and labelled the architecture of the early 20th century as the “International Style”. The most common characteristics of International Style buildings are said to be: i. rectilinear forms; ii. light, taut plane surfaces that have been completely stripped of applied ornamentation and decoration; iii. open interior spaces; iv. a visually weightless quality engendered by the use of cantilever construction. Glass and steel, in combination with usually less visible reinforced concrete, are the characteristic materials of the construction.

Question 49

R. Banham, The New Brutalism, 1966

Answer 49

Reyner Banham’s essay on The New Brutalism, first published December 1955

Question 50

R. Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966 (MoMA publ.)

Answer 50

First published in 1966, and since translated into 16 languages, this remarkable book has become an essential document in architectural literature. As Venturi’s ““gentle manifesto for a nonstraightforward architecture,”” Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture expresses in the most compelling and original terms the postmodern rebellion against the purism of modernism. Three hundred and fifty architectural photographs serve as historical comparisons and illuminate the author’s ideas on creating and experiencing architecture. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture was the winner of the Classic Book Award at the AIA’s Seventh Annual International Architecture Book Awards.

Question 51

Ch. Jencks, Language of Post-Modern Architecture, 1977

Answer 51

Combining a theoretical treatment of the architectural language with a record of the Post-Modern movement at six different stages in its history, this book defines Post-Modernism in architecture. The buildings of Robert Venturi and Michael Graves, among others, are feature

Question 52

MoMA, Deconstructivist Architecture, 1988 (MoMA Exhibition)

Answer 52

Deconstructivism came to public notice with the 1982 Parc de la Villette architectural design competition (especially the entry from Jacques Derrida and Peter Eisenman[1] and Bernard Tschumi’s winning entry), the Museum of Modern Art’s 1988 Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition in New York, organized by Philip Johnson and Mark Wigley

Question 53

Mid-Century Modern

Answer 53

1940’s-1950’s: Mid-century modern is an architectural, interior, product and graphic design that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965. The term, employed as a style descriptor as early as the mid-1950s, was reaffirmed in 1983 by Cara Greenberg in the title of her book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s (Random House), celebrating the style that is now recognized by scholars and museums worldwide as a significant design movement.

Question 54

Brutalism

Answer 54

1950’s-1970’s: Brutalist architecture is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descending from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. The term originates from the French word for “raw” in the term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material béton brut (raw concrete).[1][2] British architectural critic Reyner Banham adapted the term into “brutalism” (originally “New Brutalism”) to identify the emerging style.

Question 55

Postmodernism (Pomo)

Answer 55

1970’s-1980’s: The idea of Postmodernism in architecture began as a response to the perceived blandness and failed Utopianism of the Modern movement. Modern Architecture, as established and developed by Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier, was focused on the pursuit of a perceived ideal perfection, and attempted harmony of form and function,[13] and dismissal of “frivolous ornament.”[14][15] Critics of modernism argued that the attributes of perfection and minimalism themselves were subjective, and pointed out anachronisms in modern thought and questioned the benefits of its philosophy.[16] Definitive postmodern architecture such as the work of Michael Graves and Robert Venturi rejects the notion of a ‘pure’ form or ‘perfect’ architectonic detail, instead conspicuously drawing from all methods, materials, forms and colors available to architects. Modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is associated with the phrase “less is more”; in contrast Venturi famously said, “Less is a bore.” Postmodernist architecture was one of the first aesthetic movements to openly challenge Modernism as antiquated and “totalitarian”, favoring personal preferences and variety over objective, ultimate truths or principles.

Question 56

Deconstructivism (Decon)

Answer 56

1980’s-Present: Deconstructivism is a development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s. It is influenced by the theory of “Deconstruction”, which is a form of semiotic analysis. It is characterized by fragmentation, an interest in manipulating a structure’s surface, skin, non-rectilinear shapes which appear to distort and dislocate elements of architecture, such as structure and envelope. The finished visual appearance of buildings that exhibit deconstructivist “styles” is characterized by unpredictability and controlled chaos.

Question 57

Hi-Tech

Answer 57

Mid-60’s-Present: High-tech architecture, also known as Late Modernism or Structural Expressionism, is an architectural style that emerged in the 1970s, incorporating elements of high-tech industry and technology into building design. High-tech architecture appeared as a revamped modernism, an extension of those previous ideas helped by even more technological advances. This category serves as a bridge between modernism and post-modernism; however, there remain gray areas as to where one category ends and the other begins. In the 1980s, high-tech architecture became more difficult to distinguish from post-modern architecture. Some of its themes and ideas were later absorbed into the style of Neo-Futurism art and architectural movement.