The Textbook of Architecture

Ten documentary films · about 53 minutes

The Language of Stone

A history of classical architecture, from the first stone columns to the revivals of the last three centuries. The models in the films are the models in this book, so a Doric corner, the Pantheon’s dome or a villa by Palladio seen in a film can be found here and turned, taken apart and changed.

The films are coming to YouTube, one episode at a time.

Coming soon

Episode 1 · 7:06

An Ancient Language

Where classical architecture came from

Columns, entablatures and pediments appear on banks, museums and town halls all over the world. In this first episode we look at where they came from: post-and-lintel building from Stonehenge and Egypt to Greece, the timber origins of the Greek temple, the Roman architect Vitruvius and his Ten Books on Architecture, and the five classical orders.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 1:34 Post and lintel
  3. 2:38 From timber to stone
  4. 3:50 The book of rules
  5. 5:07 Five orders
  6. 5:58 A living language

In the book: The Classical Orders · Post and lintel · Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (Morgan's translation, 1914) · Fly over ancient Athens and Rome

Coming soon

Episode 2 · 6:50

The Doric

The oldest order and the Parthenon

The Doric is the oldest of the classical orders. In this episode we follow it from the early temples at Olympia and Paestum to the Parthenon in Athens, look at each part of a Doric column and entablature, explain the 'corner problem' in the Doric frieze, and look at the curves and refinements that mean almost nothing in the Parthenon is straight.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:57 The first order
  3. 2:04 Anatomy of the Doric
  4. 3:13 The corner problem
  5. 4:26 The Parthenon
  6. 5:50 After the Greeks

In the book: The Doric order · The Parthenon's refinements and the corner problem · Fly over Athens in 400 BC

Coming soon

Episode 3 · 5:17

The Ionic

The order of the eastern Greek cities

The Ionic order developed in the Greek cities of Asia Minor, where temples such as the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus were among the largest in the ancient world. In this episode we look at the Ionic capital and its volutes, the problem of the corner capital, the Ionic buildings of the Athenian Acropolis, and how the order was used later.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:51 From the east
  3. 1:42 The volute
  4. 2:37 The awkward corner
  5. 3:18 The Ionic in Athens
  6. 4:13 The order of learning

In the book: The Ionic order · Fly over Athens in 400 BC

Coming soon

Episode 4 · 4:58

The Corinthian

The Corinthian and the Composite

Vitruvius tells a story about how the Corinthian capital was invented, involving a basket left on a grave and an acanthus plant. In this episode we look at how the capital is made up, how the Corinthian went from a rarity in Greece to the standard order of Roman temples, and how the Romans created the Composite order.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 1:13 The basket and the leaves
  3. 2:11 From Greece to Rome
  4. 3:29 The Composite
  5. 3:58 The order of splendour

In the book: The Corinthian order · Vitruvius on the Corinthian (Book IV) · Fly over Rome in AD 320

Coming soon

Episode 5 · 4:45

Arch, Vault and Concrete

What the Romans added to Greek architecture

The Greeks built with columns and beams. The Romans added the arch, the vault and concrete, and could build on a much larger scale as a result. In this episode we look at how an arch works, Roman aqueducts including the Pont du Gard, barrel and groin vaults, Roman concrete, and how the Romans used the Greek orders on buildings like the Colosseum.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:46 The arch
  3. 1:45 Rivers in the air
  4. 2:38 Vault and concrete
  5. 3:40 Orders on arches

In the book: The arch · Vaults · Fly over Rome in AD 320

Coming soon

Episode 6 · 4:29

The Pantheon

The Pantheon and the domes that followed it

The Pantheon in Rome still has the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world. In this episode we look at its portico and inscription, the geometry of the rotunda, how the dome was built and made lighter towards the top, how the building survived, and how later domes, from Hagia Sophia to Florence Cathedral, built on it.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:46 A temple to all the gods
  3. 1:22 The sphere
  4. 2:08 How it stands
  5. 3:10 The heirs

In the book: Domes, from the Pantheon to Hagia Sophia · Fly over Rome in AD 320 · Fly over Constantinople in 1150 · Fly over Florence in 1500

Coming soon

Episode 7 · 5:58

The Measure of Man

Proportion, from Vitruvius to the golden section

How did classical architects decide the sizes of things? In this episode we look at Vitruvius's comparison between buildings and the human body, the spacing of columns, the Renaissance idea that musical ratios could be used for rooms, Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital in Florence, and the evidence for and against the golden section.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:57 The body and the temple
  3. 2:14 The module
  4. 2:55 Music made visible
  5. 4:06 A hospital of cubes
  6. 4:31 The golden section

In the book: Proportion · Vitruvius, Book III (Morgan's translation, 1914)

Coming soon

Episode 8 · 5:06

Rebirth

The classical orders in Renaissance Florence and Rome

In fifteenth-century Florence, architects began studying the Roman ruins and using the classical orders again. In this episode we look at Brunelleschi's Foundling Hospital and cathedral dome, Alberti's facade for Santa Maria Novella, Bramante's Tempietto in Rome, and how printed books by Serlio and Vignola turned the five orders into a standard system.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:49 Brunelleschi
  3. 1:57 Alberti
  4. 2:40 Bramante
  5. 3:27 The rule book

In the book: Fly over Florence in 1500 · The orders after the authors · The treatises

Coming soon

Episode 9 · 4:21

Palladio

Villas, churches and the Four Books

Andrea Palladio has probably been imitated more than any other architect. In this episode we look at his work in Vicenza, his farm villas with temple fronts, the Villa Rotonda, his churches in Venice, his Four Books on Architecture, and how his ideas reached England and America.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 0:54 The Palladian window
  3. 1:19 Temples for farmers
  4. 2:18 A front for a church
  5. 3:03 The Four Books

In the book: Fly over Venice in 1500 · Palladio's rooms and proportions

Coming soon

Episode 10 · 4:32

The Afterlife of the Orders

Classical architecture from the 18th century to today

In the last episode of the series we follow the classical orders from the eighteenth century to today: Laugier's primitive hut, Neoclassicism and the Greek Revival, Durand and the École des Beaux-Arts, the argument between classical and Gothic, the Modernist rejection of ornament, and the return of classical forms.

The chapters
  1. 0:00 Introduction
  2. 1:00 Back to Greece
  3. 1:45 The system
  4. 2:34 The battle of the styles
  5. 3:20 The return

In the book: The revivals · The styles of the world · The orders laboratory

The films play from YouTube, through its privacy-enhanced player (youtube-nocookie.com); nothing is loaded from YouTube until you press play.