The Textbook of Architecture

An illustrated book of the rules of building

The Textbook of Architecture

From the pyramids to the present day. The figures are 3D models made from the proportions the old books give, so you can turn them, cut them open and change their numbers.

Open the book Build an order Walk through history →
60
styles
622
rules
156
treatises
244
3D models

Frontispiece: a Doric temple after the Parthenon, Athens, 447–432 BC. Drag to turn it.

Eight ways in

How to read this book

Take the Grand TourFly over and walk through Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Florence and Venice, rebuilt in 3D. Design a buildingA temple, a villa or a Tudor, Victorian or Craftsman house, planned for you by its style’s rules: walk through it, change it, print its drawings. Walk through a town59 settlements covering every style, from a henge to a garden city.

The picture of Rome: map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The book

Read it as a book

36 chapters in 5 parts, from support and span to the styles of every age.

 The styles

Travel through time

60 styles, from Egyptian to Parametric, each with its rules and models.

 The rules

Look up a rule

622 rules, each with its source and a 3D model.

 The library

Open the treatises

Vitruvius, Palladio, Ruskin and other old books to read in full (without their plates); the rest summarised.

 The models

Play with the models

244 temples, vaults, domes, pagodas and cathedrals to turn and change.

Five thousand years

The styles of the world

Scroll sideways through history.

Stonehenge: the model drawn as an engraving 9500–1500 BC Prehistoric and Megalithic Ancient · Anatolia, Atlantic and Mediterranean Europe The ziggurat of Ur: the model drawn as an engraving 3500–539 BC Mesopotamian Ancient · Tigris and Euphrates The tholos tomb: the model drawn as an engraving 3000–1100 BC Aegean Bronze Age Ancient · Crete, the Cyclades and mainland Greece Inca masonry: the model drawn as an engraving 3000 BC – 1572 Andean The Americas · Western South America The Egyptian temple: the model drawn as an engraving 2700–30 BC Ancient Egyptian Ancient · Nile Valley The Chinese timber hall: the model drawn as an engraving 1600 BC – 1912 Chinese East Asia · China The Mesoamerican platform pyramid: the model drawn as an engraving 1200 BC – 1521 Mesoamerican The Americas · Mexico and Central America The refinements of the Parthenon: the model drawn as an engraving 700–31 BC Ancient Greek Classical · Greece, the Aegean, Asia Minor, South Italy and Sicily The Apadana at Persepolis: the model drawn as an engraving 550–330 BC Achaemenid Persian Ancient · Iran A Mughal chahar bagh: the model drawn as an engraving 550 BC – 1750 Persian and Mughal garden Gardens · Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan and northern India The Pantheon, Rome: the model drawn as an engraving 300 BC – AD 476 Ancient Roman Classical · The Mediterranean and the Roman Empire The stupa: the model drawn as an engraving 270 BC – 1200 Buddhist India South & Southeast Asia · India, Sri Lanka, and from there Southeast and East Asia The Early Christian basilica: the model drawn as an engraving AD 313 – AD 600 Early Christian Medieval · Rome, Italy and the Mediterranean Hagia Sophia, Constantinople: the model drawn as an engraving AD 330 – 1453 Byzantine Medieval · Constantinople, the eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans The Korean hanok: the model drawn as an engraving AD 372 – 1910 Korean East Asia · Korea The Nagara temple: the model drawn as an engraving AD 450 – 1300 Hindu Temple: Nagara (North Indian) South & Southeast Asia · Northern and central India The kondō of Hōryū-ji: the model drawn as an engraving AD 588 – 1868 Japanese East Asia · Japan The Dravida temple: the model drawn as an engraving AD 600 – 1750 Hindu Temple: Dravida (South Indian) South & Southeast Asia · Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra; Sri Lanka The hypostyle mosque: the model drawn as an engraving AD 622 – 1050 Early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid) Islamic · Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, North Africa The hypostyle mosque: the model drawn as an engraving AD 756 – 1492 Moorish (Western Islamic) Islamic · Al-Andalus (Spain and Portugal) and the Maghreb A Japanese garden: the model drawn as an engraving AD 794 – today Japanese garden Gardens · Japan Angkor Wat: the model drawn as an engraving AD 802 – 1431 Khmer South & Southeast Asia · Cambodia, and parts of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam A Chinese scholar’s garden: the model drawn as an engraving AD 960 – 1911 Chinese garden Gardens · China, especially Suzhou, Yangzhou and the lower Yangzi; Beijing The Russian church: the model drawn as an engraving AD 988 – 1700 Russian Medieval · Kievan Rus’, Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal and Muscovy The four-iwan mosque: the model drawn as an engraving 1000 – 1722 Persian Islamic (Seljuk, Timurid and Safavid) Islamic · Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan A Romanesque church: the model drawn as an engraving 1000 – 1200 Romanesque Medieval · Western and Central Europe A High Gothic cathedral: the model drawn as an engraving 1140 – 1530 Gothic Medieval · Europe, from the Île-de-France The Ottoman mosque: the model drawn as an engraving 1300 – 1922 Ottoman Islamic · Anatolia, the Balkans, the eastern Mediterranean A house by its style’s rules: the model drawn as an engraving 1350 – 1603 Tudor Medieval · England and Wales Brunelleschi’s dome: the model drawn as an engraving 1420 – 1600 Renaissance Renaissance & Baroque · Italy, then Europe An Italian terraced garden: the model drawn as an engraving 1450 – 1650 Italian Renaissance garden Gardens · Italy (Tuscany, Rome and Lazio) The scrolled church front: the model drawn as an engraving 1520 – 1600 Mannerism Renaissance & Baroque · Italy, France, Northern Europe The Taj Mahal: the model drawn as an engraving 1526 – 1857 Mughal Islamic · Northern India and Pakistan Villa Rotonda: the model drawn as an engraving 1540 – 1800 Palladian Renaissance & Baroque · Veneto; Britain, Ireland, North America The oval church: the model drawn as an engraving 1600 – 1750 Baroque Renaissance & Baroque · Rome, Catholic Europe, France, Latin America A French formal garden: the model drawn as an engraving 1600 – 1760 French formal garden Gardens · France, then the courts of Europe; the Netherlands and England in a smaller form A house by its style’s rules: the model drawn as an engraving 1714 – 1830 Georgian and Colonial Renaissance & Baroque · Britain, Ireland and North America The English landscape park: the model drawn as an engraving 1715 – 1800 English landscape garden Gardens · England, then Europe and America The oval church: the model drawn as an engraving 1720 – 1780 Rococo Renaissance & Baroque · France, Bavaria, Austria, Prussia, Russia A Gothic Revival church: the model drawn as an engraving 1740 – 1900 Gothic Revival Revival & Industry · Britain, Northern Europe, North America, the British Empire The primitive hut: the model drawn as an engraving 1750 – 1850 Neoclassical Revival & Industry · Europe, the Americas, Russia The English landscape park: the model drawn as an engraving 1780 – 1840 The Picturesque Gardens · Britain, especially the Welsh borders, the Wye valley and the Lakes A Beaux-Arts composition: the model drawn as an engraving 1830 – 1930 Beaux-Arts Revival & Industry · France, the Americas, worldwide A Victorian bedding garden: the model drawn as an engraving 1830 – 1900 Victorian garden Gardens · Britain, Europe, North America and the British Empire A house by its style’s rules: the model drawn as an engraving 1837 – 1901 Victorian Revival & Industry · Britain, the Empire and the United States An Arts and Crafts house: the model drawn as an engraving 1860 – 1915 Arts and Crafts Revival & Industry · Britain, then Europe and North America An Arts and Crafts garden: the model drawn as an engraving 1880 – 1939 Arts and Crafts garden Gardens · England, then North America and the Commonwealth The tall office building: the model drawn as an engraving 1880 – 1910 Chicago School Revival & Industry · Chicago, St Louis, Buffalo, New York An Art Nouveau façade: the model drawn as an engraving 1890 – 1914 Art Nouveau Revival & Industry · Europe (Brussels, Paris, Nancy, Vienna, Barcelona, Glasgow, Riga) A house over the falls: the model drawn as an engraving 1900 – today Organic architecture Modern & Contemporary · United States, Scandinavia, Germany, worldwide A house by its style’s rules: the model drawn as an engraving 1901 – 1930 Craftsman Revival & Industry · United States A house by its style’s rules: the model drawn as an engraving 1901 – 1914 Edwardian Revival & Industry · Britain The zoning envelope: the model drawn as an engraving 1920 – 1940 Art Deco Modern & Contemporary · Worldwide: New York, Paris, Miami, Shanghai, Mumbai, Napier The Five Points of a new architecture: the model drawn as an engraving 1920 – 1970 Modernism Modern & Contemporary · Europe, then worldwide The Unité d’habitation: the model drawn as an engraving 1950 – 1980 Brutalism Modern & Contemporary · Britain, France, then worldwide The postmodern tower: the model drawn as an engraving 1965 – 1995 Postmodernism Modern & Contemporary · United States, Europe, Japan High-tech: frame and services: the model drawn as an engraving 1967 – today High-Tech Modern & Contemporary · Britain, France, Hong Kong, then worldwide The passive solar house: the model drawn as an engraving 1970 – today Sustainable architecture Modern & Contemporary · Worldwide Deconstructed volumes: the model drawn as an engraving 1982 – 2005 Deconstructivism Modern & Contemporary · Europe, United States The twisting tower: the model drawn as an engraving 2000 – today Parametricism Modern & Contemporary · Worldwide

Ancient · The Americas · East Asia · Classical · Gardens · South & Southeast Asia · Medieval · Islamic · Renaissance & Baroque · Revival & Industry · Modern & Contemporary

Regula diei · the rule of the day

Wedges that lock by their own weight

Build an arch of wedge-shaped stones (voussoirs) whose joints all point towards the centre of the curve: each stone can then fall only by forcing its neighbours apart, and so the ring holds itself up once the last stone, the keystone, is in place.

joints ⟂ intrados (radial to the centre)

Vitruvius advises that openings be relieved by arches built of voussoirs whose joints converge on the centre, so that the load of the wall above is turned aside onto the piers instead of breaking the lintel. The principle is older than Rome (Mesopotamian and Etruscan builders knew it), but the Romans made it universal.

An arch works in compression only. Mortar is not needed to hold it together, only to bed the stones; a well-cut dry arch will stand. What it cannot do is stand while it is being built, which is why every arch needs temporary centring until the keystone closes the ring.

Vitruvius, Ten Books, VI.8.3

Study this rule
Voussoirs cut with radial joints; the keystone (in red) closes the ring. Open in Models ↗

Contents

The parts of the book

  1. PrologueBefore the First StoneWhat architecture is, how this book works, and how to read a building.2 chapters
  2. IThe Grammar of BuildingThe elements every tradition shares: support and span, wall and opening, arch, vault, dome and roof, and the numbers that govern them.9 chapters
  3. IIThe Classical OrdersThe five orders of columns, their anatomy and proportions after Vitruvius, Serlio, Vignola, Palladio and Scamozzi, and how they combine into temples, arcades and façades.9 chapters
  4. IIIThe Styles of the WorldEvery major way of building, from the first monuments to the parametric present, each with its rules, its buildings and its models.15 chapters
  5. IVThe TreatisesThe books in which architects wrote down the rules. They are reproduced where the text is free, summarised and illustrated where it is not.1 chapter