Sempers Elements of architecture Notes

Semper’s four elements of architecture.

 Gottfried Semper was a German architect that developed a theory of the origins of
architecture similar to Marc Antoine Laugier’s primitive hut.

 Laugier’s primitive hut consisted of three elements, the column, the pediment, and the
entablature.

 On the other hand, Semper’s theory consists of four elements:

o the hearth,
o the roof,
o the enclosure,
o the mound.

 Laugier’s primitive hut focuses on the survival of man and how architecture comes from
man’s survival in the world.

 Semper’s theory focuses on the use and the creation of spaces made by man.