1000 Monuments of Genius. Christopher E.M. Pearson
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buildings of Dhaka, Bangladesh. In recent years, Indian architects such as Charles Correa and Balkrishna Doshi, though clearly influenced by their Western mentors, have worked to generate an appropriately hybrid modernism for their native country, one that can reflect both new approaches and traditional regional concerns.
With the exception of a brief incursion of the Italian Baroque through Jesuit influence in the early 18th century, China remained closed to foreign architectural trends until the early 20th century. Contrary to what happened in Japan, a subsequent period of hybrid Western-Asian building later gave way to an implicit adoption of modernist principles, and in recent years the opening of Chinese markets to the West has led to an extraordinary boom in highrise architecture in Beijing and other economic zones. Japan, after its opening to the West in the mid-19th century, has gradually assumed its position in the forefront of contemporary architecture. Foremost among 20th century Japanese architects was Kenzo Tange, who began his career by designing the Peace Centre in Hiroshima. Tange’s primary influence – as was that of his teacher Kunio Maekawa (who worked in the master’s Paris atelier) and many other later Japanese architects, including Tadao Ando – is that of Le Corbusier. Following Le Corbusier’s Brutalist deployment of raw concrete in bold and striking forms, Japan continues to set the world benchmark of skilful and elegant concrete construction. Towards the end of the 20th century, the increasingly futuristic approach of some Japanese architects led to a kind of modernist ‘Baroque’ that has produced formally complex and expressive results.
A typically forward-looking monument of the present era in Asian architecture is represented by C. Y. Lee and Partners’ Taipei 101 tower in Taiwan (1999–2004), a centre for international finance. Its 101 stories embody a fusion of Western technology and modernist aesthetics with Asian economic might and traditional iconography. Innovative engineering – including a huge steel pendulum suspended between the 92nd to the 88th floors as a giant tuned mass damper to offset deflection of the building in high winds – makes it an extremely stable structure, able to withstand earthquakes and typhoons. At the same time, an elaborate cosmological and numerological symbolism has been claimed for the tower, and the repeated segmentation of its envelope suggests a pagoda form.
Australia and Oceania
Over millennia the indigenous peoples of Australia and the South Sea islands developed timeless building traditions suited to local ecological conditions that nevertheless did not match Western expectations of what formal architecture should look like; their cultural productions were largely ignored by the first Western colonists. The first Western-style monumental architecture in Australia, dating from the early 19th century, evinced a late version of English Georgian Classicism when it aspired to formal elegance. Much building was necessarily utilitarian in character, though military and penal constructions could nevertheless assume a severe grandeur, and ornamental ironwork, as applied to balconies, came to characterise more upscale domestic architecture. Fuelled by the wealth generated by the Gold Rush, Australian cities soon came to display impressive examples of High Victorian-style architecture based on contemporary British modes and models. Foreign influence remained decisive through much of the 20th century, whether in the new capital city of Canberra (designed by Walter Burley Griffin, a onetime partner of Frank Lloyd Wright), or the famous Sydney Opera House (by the Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finished by others). Of native Australian architects, the late Harry Seidler remains the most prominent, though the buildings of Glenn Murcutt have recently aroused global interest among architectural professionals for their sensitive response to site and climate.
84. Mahabodi Temple, Bodh Gaya, Bihar, 250 BCE with later reconstructions (India)
85. Ruins at Mohenhjo-Daro, Mohenjo-Daro, c. 2600–1900 BCE (Pakistan)
86. Stupa III, Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh, begun in the 3rd century BCE (India)
The Buddhist stupa typology evolved from domical earth mounds over the tombs of holy men, which were the focus of pilgrimages. Its form was standardised by the emperor Asoka, the first Indian ruler to be converted to Buddhism. The domical form of the building is often said to represent the vault of heaven. As here, a balustraded fence (harmika) typically encloses the stupa, symbolising the enclosed garden where the Buddha achieved enlightenment. This is further referenced by the stylised bodhi tree (a three-tiered, umbrella-like motif known as a chatra) on top of the mound, which at the same time emphasises the symbolic role of the stupa as an axis mundi, or vertical route of ascension to the heavenly realm. Four doorways, aligned roughly to the cardinal directions, represent the four winds. Monumental gateways, or toranas, covered with low-relief carvings of Buddhist imagery, provide access points. A short stairway on the south side leads to the circular walkway used by circumambulating priests. Like many other stupas, this important early example was attached to a monastery, of which only vestiges now remain.
87. Ajanta caves, Maharashtra, 2nd century BCE and later (India)
88. Chaitya Hall, Karli, Maharashtra, c. 150 BCE (India)
89. Ise shrine, Uji-Yamada, early 1st century CE with later periodic rebuildings (Japan)
Part of a larger complex with housing for pilgrims and priests, the Ise shrine is a major focus of Shinto worship in Japan. The inner shrine, dedicated to the sun goddess, is situated some kilometres from the outer shrine, which is dedicated to the goddess of agriculture and the earth. Built on a domestic scale, the inner shrine is regularly duplicated every 20 years on an immediately adjacent site in order to maintain it in a state of perfect preservation and cleanliness; the older building is then demolished. The central post of each reincarnation, however, is always retained in situ to provide a sense of continuity. The present building manifests forms and building techniques dating from the 7th century and earlier, thus preserving many archaic forms of timber construction that would otherwise have disappeared, notably the crossed wooden members (chigi) of the gable ends and the stubby wooden billets (katsuogi) ranged along the roof ridge. Its form in fact seems to derive from early designs for raised granaries. Reflecting Shinto views on ritual purity, visitors are not allowed near the innermost precinct, where priests prepare a daily offering of food for the deity.
90. Mỹ Sơn, Quãng Nam province, 4th-13th century (Vietnam)
91. Yungang caves, Datong, late 5th century (China)
92. Kailasa Temple, Ellora, Maharashtra, 750 (India)
93. Horyu-ji temple complex, Nara Prefecture, 7th century (Japan)
Horyu-ji is the oldest surviving Buddhist temple in Japan, and one of the oldest extant wooden buildings in the world. This monastic complex dates from near the time of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan in the 6th century. It was built by Shotoku Taishi, an early convert to the new religion. All the buildings are contained within an enclosed courtyard, though the colonnaded outer walls were added some time later. The plan, while essentially regular, evidences a subtle asymmetry in the placement and size of the buildings, giving a living, dynamic quality to the composition. The trabeated mode of building, upward curve of the roof eaves and complex system of bracketing are all essentially Chinese in origin. Typical of many later Buddhist temples in Japan, Horyu-ji features a multi-tiered pagoda housing symbolic relics of the Buddha, a monumental gateway, a lecture hall (kodo) and an image hall (kondo). A single wooden post serves as the ‘heart’ of the pagoda, rising from the floor to the uppermost finial, while its elegantly flared eaves are supported on ‘cloud-pattern’ bracketing.
94. Great Wild Goose Pagoda, Ci’en Temple, Xi’an, Shanxi Province, 652 with later rebuildings (China)
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