LESSON 1

WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE?

1
A. READING

Architecture is the art and science of designing buildings and other physical structures. A wider
definition often includes the design of the total built environment from the macro-level of also
structure of how a building is built town planning, urban design, and landscape architecture to the
micro-level of construction details and, sometimes, furniture. The term "Architecture" is also used
for the profession of providing architectural services.

Architects are primarily driven by the creative manipulation of mass, space, volume, texture, light,
shadow, materials, program, and pragmatic elements such as cost, construction and technology,
in order to achieve an end which is aesthetic, functional and often artistic. This distinguishes
architecture from engineering design, which is driven primarily by the creative manipulation of
materials and forms using mathematical and scientific principles.

Separate from the design process, architecture is also experienced through the senses, which
therefore gives rise to aural, visual, olfactory, and tactile architecture. As people move through a
space, architecture is experienced as a time sequence. Even though our culture considers
architecture to be a visual-experience, the other senses play a role in how we experience both
natural and built environments. Attitudes towards the senses depend on culture. The design
process and the sensory experience of a space are distinctly separate views, each with its own
language and assumptions.

Architectural works are perceived as cultural and political symbols and works of art. Historical
civilizations are often known primarily through their architectural achievements. Such buildings as
the pyramids of Egypt and the Roman Colosseum are cultural symbols, and are an important link
in public consciousness, even when scholars have discovered much about a past civilization
through other means. Cities, regions and cultures continue to identify themselves with and are
known by their architectural monuments.

Etymology and application of the term

The word "architecture" comes from the Latin, "architectura" and ultimately from
Greek,"arkitekton", αρχιτεκτων, an architect, or more precisely "master builder", from the
combination of αρχι a "chief" or "leader" and τεκτων, a "builder" or "carpenter."

While the primary application of the word "architecture" pertains to the built environment, by
extension, the term has come to denote the art and discipline of creating an actual, or inferring an
implied or apparent plan of any complex object or system. The term can be used to connote the
implied architecture of mathematics or of abstract things such as music , the apparent
architecture of natural things, such as geological formations or the structure of biological cells, or
explicitly planned architectures of human-made things such as software, computers, enterprises,
and databases, in addition to buildings. In every usage, an architecture may be seen as a
subjective mapping from a human perspective (that of the user in the case of abstract or physical

2
artifacts) to the elements or components of some kind of structure or system, which preserves the
relationships among the elements or components.

The Architect
Architecture as a profession is the practice of providing architectural services. The practice of
architecture includes the planning, designing and oversight of a building's construction by an
architect. Architectural services typically address both feasibility and cost for the builder, as well
as function and aesthetics for the user.

Architecture did not start to become professionalized until the late nineteenth century. Before then,
architects had ateliers and architectural education varied, from a more formal training as at the
École des Beaux-Arts in France, which was founded in the mid seventeenth century, to the more
informal system where students worked in an atelier until they could become independent. There
were also so-called gentlemen architects, which were architects with private means. This was a
tradition particularly strong in England during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lord
Burlington, designer of Chiswick House, (1723-49) is an example. Some architects were also
sculptors, such as Bernini, theater designers such as Filippo Juvarra and John Vanbrugh, and
painters, such as Michelangelo and Le Corbusier.

In the 1440s, the Florentine architect, Alberti, wrote his De Re Aedificatoria, published in 1485, a
year before the first edition of Vitruvius, with which he was already familiar. Alberti gives the
earliest definition of the role of the architect. The architect is to be concerned firstly with the
construction. This encompasses all the practical matters of site, of materials and their limitations
and of human capability. The second concern is "articulation"; the building must work and must
please and suit the needs of those who use it. The third concern of the architect is aesthetics,
both of proportion and of ornament.

The role of the architect is constantly evolving, and is central to the design and implementation of
the environments in which people live. In order to obtain the skills and knowledge required to
design, plan and oversee a diverse range of projects, architects must go through extensive formal
education, coupled with a requisite amount of professional practice.

The work of an architect is an interdisciplinary field, drawing upon mathematics, science, art,
technology, social sciences, politics and history, and often governed by the architect's personal
approach or philosophy. Vitruvius, the earliest known architectural theorist, states: "Architecture is
a science, arising out of many other sciences, and adorned with much and varied learning: by the
help of which a judgement is formed of those works which are the result of other arts." He adds
that an architect should be well versed in other fields of learning such as music and astronomy.
Vitruvius' broad definition of the architect still holds true to some extent today, even though
business concerns and the computer have reshaped the activities and definition of the modern
architect in significant ways.

3
Theory of Architecture
The earliest written work on the subject of architecture is De architectura, by the Roman architect
Vitruvius in the early 1st century CE. According to Vitruvius a good building should satisfy the
three principles of firmitatis utilitatis venustatis, which translates roughly as -

 durability - it should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.

 utility - it should be useful; and function well for the people using it.
 beauty - it should delight people, and raise their spirits.

According to Vitruvius, the architect should strive to fulfill each of these three attributes as well as
possible.

Leone Battista Alberti, who elaborates on the ideas of Vitruvius in his treatise, De Re Aedificatoria,
saw beauty primarily as a matter of proportion, although ornament also played a part. For Alberti,
the rules of proportion were those that governed the idealised human figure, the Golden Mean.
The most important aspect of beauty was therefore an inherent part of an object, rather than
something applied superficially; and was based on universal, recognisable truths. The notion of
style in the arts was not developed until the 16th century, with the writing of Vasari. The treatises,
by the 18th century, had been translated into Italian, French, Spanish and English.

In the early nineteenth century, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin wrote Contrasts (1836) that, as
the titled suggested, contrasted the modern, industrial world, which he disparaged, with an
idealized image of neo-medieval world. Gothic architecture, Pugin believed, was the only “true
Christian form of architecture.”

The 19th century English art critic, John Ruskin, in his Seven Lamps of Architecture, published
1849, was much narrower in his view of what constituted architecture. Architecture was the "art
which so disposes and adorns the edifices raised by men … that the sight of them" contributes "to
his mental health, power, and pleasure". For Ruskin, the aesthetic was of overriding significance.
His work goes on to state that a building is not truly a work of architecture unless it is in some way
"adorned". For Ruskin, a well-constructed, well-proportioned, functional building needed string
courses or rustication, at the very least.

On the difference between the ideals of "architecture" and mere "construction", the renowned
20th C. architect Le Corbusier wrote: "You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these
materials you build houses and palaces: that is construction. Ingenuity is at work. But suddenly
you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: This is beautiful. That is Architecture".

(Taken and abridged from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture)

4
B. EXERCISE 1: TOPIC SENTENCE
Determine the topic sentence of each paragraph in the previous reading passage.

Paragraph 1:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 2:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 3:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 4:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

5
 _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 5:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 6:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 7:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 8:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

6
 _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 9:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 10:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 11:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 12:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

7
 _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 13:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 14:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 15:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 16:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

8
 _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

C. EXERCISE 2: TOPIC AND CONTROLLING IDEA(S)

Determine the topic and controlling idea(s) of each topic sentence determined in the
previous exercise by underlining them.

D. EXERCISE 3: VOCABULARY BUILDERS

Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. to distinguish (V) a Strength (N) 1.

2. tactile (N) b to criticize (V) 2.

3. to connote (V) c informal 3.

training/apprenticeship (N)
4 atelier (N) d to differentiate (V) 4

5. interdisciplinary (Adj) e essay (N) 5.

6. durability (N) f Physical (N) 6.

7. treatise (N) g to indicate (V) 7.

8. inherent (Adj) h decorated (Adj) 8.

9. to disparage (V) i related to several fields of 9.

study (Adj)
10. adorned (Adj) j Natural (Adj) 10.

9
 LESSON 2
VITRUVIUS

10
A. READING

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born ca. 80/70 BC?; died ca. 25 BC) was a Roman writer, architect and
engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum during military service or praefect architectus
armamentarius of the apparitor status group), active in the 1st century BC. Little is known about
Vitruvius' life. His first name Marcus and his cognomen Pollio are uncertain as they are only
mentioned by Cetius Faventinus. Most inferences about his life are extracted from his only
surviving work De Architectura.

Born a free Roman citizen, most likely at Formiae in Campania, he served the Roman army under
Julius Caesar in Hispania and Gaul. As an army engineer he specialized in the construction of
war machines for sieges. In later years the emperor Augustus, through his sister Octavia Minor,
sponsored Vitruvius, entitling him with a pension to guarantee his financial independence. His
date of death is unknown, which suggests that he had enjoyed only little popularity during his
lifetime.

Design for an Archimedean water-screw

De Architectura
Vitruvius is the author of De architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture, a
treatise written of Latin and Greek on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. This work
is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity. Mainly known for his
writings, Vitruvius was himself an architect. Frontinus mentions him in connection with the
standard sizes of pipes. The only building, however, that we know Vitruvius to have worked on is,
as he himself tells us, a basilica at Fanum Fortunae, now the modern town of Fano. The basilica
has disappeared so completely that its very site is a matter of conjecture.

Vitruvius is famous for asserting in his book De architectura that a structure must exhibit the three
qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas — that is, it must be strong or durable, useful, and beautiful.
According to Vitruvius, architecture is an imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests,
so humans constructed housing from natural materials that gave them shelter against the
elements. When perfecting this art of building, the ancient Greek invented the architectural orders:
Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of proportion, culminating in understanding the
proportions of the greatest work of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian

11
Man, as drawn magnificently by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body inscribed in the circle and
the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).

Vitruvius is sometimes loosely referred to as the first architect, but it is more accurate to describe
him as the first Roman architect to have written surviving records of his field. He himself cites
older but less complete works. He was less an original thinker or creative intellect than a codifier
of existing architectural practice. It should also be noted that Vitruvius had a much wider scope
than modern architects. Roman architects practised a wide variety of disciplines; in modern terms,
they could be described as being engineers, architects, landscape architects, artists, and
craftsmen combined. Etymologically the word architect derives from Greek words meaning
'master' and 'builder'. The first of the Ten Books deals with many subjects which now come within
the scope of landscape architecture.

Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci

Roman technology
The work is also important for its descriptions of many different machines used for engineering
structures such as hoists, cranes and pulleys, as well as war machines such as catapults and
ballistae, and siege engines. The books form the basis of much of what we know about Roman
technology, now augmented by archaeological studies of extant remains, such as the water mills
at Barbegal in France. He describes many different construction materials used for a wide variety
of different structures, as well as such details as stucco painting. Cement and lime receive in-
depth descriptions, and the longevity of many Roman structures is mute testimony to their skill in
building.

12
It is worth noting that Vitruvius advises that lead should not be used to conduct drinking water. He
comes to this conclusion in Book VIII of De Architectura after empirical observation of the
apparent laborer illnesses in the plumbum foundries of his time. In 1986 the United States
banned the use of lead in plumbing due to lead poisoning's neurological damage.

Rediscovery
His book De architectura was rediscovered in 1414 by the Florentine humanist Poggio Bracciolini.
To Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) falls the honour of making this work widely known in his
seminal treatise on architecture De re aedificatoria (ca. 1450). The first known edition of Vitruvius
was in Rome by Fra Giovanni Sulpitius in 1486. Translations followed in Italian (Como, 1521),
French (Jean Martin, 1547, English, German (Walter H. Ryff, 1543) and Spanish and several
other languages. The original illustrations had been lost. New woodcut illustrations, based on
descriptions in the text, were added in the 16th century, probably by Fra Giovanni Giocondo in
Venice in 1511. The surviving ruins of Roman antiquity, the Roman Forum, temples, theatres,
triumphal arches and their reliefs and statues gave ample visual examples of the descriptions in
the Vitruvian text. This book then quickly became a major inspiration for Renaissance, Baroque
and Neoclassical architecture.

(Taken and abridged from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvius)

13
B. EXERCISE 1: OUTLINING
Complete the following outline based on the previous reading passage.

Paragraph 1:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

14
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 2:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

15
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 3:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

16
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 4:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

17
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 5:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

18
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 6:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

19
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 7:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

20
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 8:
Main ideas:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Supporting details:

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

21
 ________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

C. EXERCISE 2: VOCABULARY BUILDERS

Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. conjecture (N) a to support (V) 1.

2. to derive (V) b crane (N) 2.

3. hoist (N) c influential (Adj) 3.

4. pulley (N) d speculation (N) 4.

5. to augment (V) e plentiful (Adj) 5.

6. extant (Adj) f to draw from (V) 6.

7. lime (N) g a tool used to lift thing(s) (N) 7.

8. plumbum (N) h existing (Adj) 8.

9. seminal (Adj) i a white substance, calcium 9.

oxide, obtained in limestone
(N)
10. ample (Adj) j lead (N) 10.

22
 LESSON 3
STONEHENGE

23
A. READING

Stonehenge is a monumental circular setting of large standing stones surrounded by a circular

earthwork, built in prehistoric times beginning about 3100 BC and located about 13 km (8 miles)
north of Salisbury, Wiltshire, Eng. The modern interpretation of the monument is based chiefly on
excavations carried out since 1919 and especially since 1950.

The Stonehenge that visitors see today is considerably

ruined, many of its stones having been pilfered by medieval
and early modern builders (there is no natural building stone
within 21 km [13 miles] of Stonehenge); its general
architecture has also been subjected to centuries of
weathering and depredation. The monument consists of a
number of structural elements, mostly circular in plan. On
the outside is a circular ditch, with a bank immediately within
it, all interrupted by an entrance gap on the northeast,
leading to the Avenue. At the center of the circle is a stone
setting consisting of a horseshoe of tall uprights of sarsen
(Tertiary sandstone) encircled by a ring of tall sarsen
uprights, all originally capped by horizontal sarsen lintels.
Within the sarsen stone circle were also configurations of smaller and lighter bluestones (igneous
rock of diabase, rhyolite, and volcanic ash), but most of these bluestones have disappeared.
Additional stones include the so-called Altar Stone, the Slaughter Stone, two Station stones, and
the Heel Stone, the last standing on the Avenue outside the entrance. Small circular ditches
enclose two flat areas on the inner edge of the bank, known as the North and South barrows, with
empty stone holes at their centers.

Archaeological excavations since 1950 suggest three main periods of building--Stonehenge I, II,
and III, the last divided into phases.

In Stonehenge I, about 3100 BC, the native Neolithic people, using deer antlers for picks,
excavated a roughly circular ditch about 98 m (320 feet) in diameter; the ditch was about 6 m (20
feet) wide and 1.4 to 2 m (4.5 to 7 feet) deep, and the excavated chalky rubble was used to build
the high bank within the circular ditch. They also erected two parallel entry stones on the
northeast of the circle (one of which, the Slaughter Stone, still survives). Just inside the circular
bank they also dug--and seemingly almost immediately refilled--a circle of 56 shallow holes,
named the Aubrey Holes (after their discoverer, the 17th-century antiquarian John Aubrey). The
Station stones also probably belong to this period, but the evidence is inconclusive. Stonehenge I
was used for about 500 years and then reverted to scrubland.

During Stonehenge II, about 2100 BC, the complex was radically remodeled. About 80 bluestone
pillars, weighing up to 4 tons each, were erected in the center of the site to form what was to be
two concentric circles, though the circles were never completed. (The bluestones came from the
Preseli Mountains in southwestern Wales and were either transported directly by sea, river, and
overland--a distance of some 385 km [240 miles]--or were brought in two stages widely separated

24
in time.) The entranceway of this earliest setting of bluestones was aligned approximately upon
the sunrise at the summer solstice, the alignment being continued by a newly built and widened
approach, called the Avenue, together with a pair of Heel stones. The double circle of bluestones
was dismantled in the following period.

The initial phase of Stonehenge III, starting about 2000 BC, saw the erection of the linteled circle
and horseshoe of large sarsen stones whose remains can still be seen today. The sarsen stones
were transported from the Marlborough Downs 30 km (20 miles) north and were erected in a
circle of 30 uprights capped by a continuous ring of stone lintels. Within this ring was erected a
horseshoe formation of five trilithons, each of which consisted of a pair of large stone uprights
supporting a stone lintel. The sarsen stones are of exceptional size, up to 9 m (30 feet) long and
50 tons in weight. Their visible surfaces were laboriously dressed smooth by pounding with stone
hammers; the same technique was used to form the mortise-and-tenon joints by which the lintels
are held on their uprights, and it was used to form the tongue-and-groove joints by which the
lintels of the circle fit together. The lintels are not rectangular; they were curved to produce all
together a circle. The pillars are tapered upward. The jointing of the stones is probably an
imitation of contemporary woodworking.

In the second phase of Stonehenge III, which

probably followed within a century, about 20
bluestones from Stonehenge II were dressed and
erected in an approximate oval setting within the
sarsen horseshoe. Sometime later, about 1550 BC,
two concentric rings of holes (the Y and Z Holes,
today not visible) were dug outside the sarsen circle;
the apparent intention was to plant upright in these
holes the 60 other leftover bluestones from
Stonehenge II, but the plan was never carried out.
The holes in both circles were left open to silt up over the succeeding centuries. The oval setting
in the center was also removed.

The final phase of building in Stonehenge III probably followed almost immediately. Within the
sarsen horseshoe the builders set a horseshoe of dressed bluestones set close together,
alternately a pillar followed by an obelisk followed by a pillar and so on. The remaining unshaped
60-odd bluestones were set as a circle of pillars within the sarsen circle (but outside the sarsen
horseshoe). The largest bluestone of all, traditionally misnamed the Altar Stone, probably stood
as a tall pillar on the axial line.

About 1100 BC the Avenue was extended from Stonehenge eastward and then southeastward to
the River Avon, a distance of about 2,780 m (9,120 feet). This suggests that Stonehenge was still
in use at the time.

Why Stonehenge was built is unknown, though it probably was constructed as a place of worship
of some kind. Notions that it was built as a temple for Druids or Romans are unsound, because
neither was in the area until long after Stonehenge was last constructed. Early in the 20th century,
the English astronomer Sir Norman Lockyer demonstrated that the northeast axis aligned with the

25
sunrise at the summer solstice, leading other scholars to speculate that the builders were sun
worshipers. In 1963 an American astronomer, Gerald Hawkins, purported that Stonehenge was a
complicated computer for predicting lunar and solar eclipses. These speculations, however, have
been severely criticized by most Stonehenge archaeologists. "Most of what has been written
about Stonehenge is nonsense or speculation," said R.J.C. Atkinson, archaeologist from
University College, Cardiff. "No one will ever have a clue what its significance was."

(Taken from http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/stonehenge.html)

B. EXERCISE 1: TOPIC SENTENCE

Determine the topic sentence of each paragraph in the previous reading passage.

Paragraph 1:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 2:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 3:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

26
 _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 4:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 5:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 6:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 7:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

27
 _______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 8:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

Paragraph 9:
Topic Sentence:

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________

C. EXERCISE 2: SUBJECT, VERB, AND OBJECT OF A SENTENCE

Determine the subject, verb, and object of each topic sentence determined in the
previous exercise.

28
D. EXERCISE 3: VOCABULARY BUILDERS
Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. to pilfer (V) a debris (N) 1.

2. depredation (N) b slaying (N) 2.

3. rubble (N) c supporting (Adj) 3.

4 slaughter (N) d having smaller upper part 4

(Adj)
5. to dismantle (V) e to steal (V) 5.

6. linteled (Adj) f illogical (Adj) 6.

7. lintel (N) g spare (Adj) 7.

8. tapered (Adj) h destruction (N) 8.

9. leftover (Adj) i beam (N) 9.

10. unsound (Adj) j to take to pieces (V) 10.

29
 LESSON 4
GREAT PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

30
A. READING

History of Giza
Standing at the base of the Great Pyramid, it is hard to imagine
that this monument—which remained the tallest building in the
world until early in this century—was built in just under 30 years. It
presides over the plateau of Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, and is
the last survivor of the Seven Wonders of the World. Five thousand
years ago Giza, situated on the Nile's west bank, became the royal
necropolis, or burial place, for Memphis, the pharaoh's capital city.
Giza's three pyramids and the Sphinx were constructed in the
fourth dynasty of Egypt's Old Kingdom, arguably the first great
civilization on earth. Today, Giza is a suburb of rapidly growing
Cairo, the largest city in Africa and the fifth largest in the world.

About 2,550 B.C., King Khufu, the second pharaoh of the fourth
dynasty, commissioned the building of his tomb at Giza. Some
Egyptologists believe it took 10 years just to build the ramp that
leads from the Nile valley floor to the pyramid, and 20 years to construct the pyramid itself. On
average, the over two million blocks of stone used to build Khufu's pyramid weigh 2.5 tons, and
the heaviest blocks, used as the ceiling of Khufu's burial chamber, weigh in at an estimated nine
tons.

How did the ancient Egyptians move the massive

stones used to build the pyramids from quarries both
nearby and as far away as 500 miles? This question
has long been debated, but many Egyptologists
agree the stones were hauled up ramps using ropes
of papyrus twine. The popular belief is that the
gradually sloping ramps, built out of mud, stone, and
wood were used as transportation causeways for
moving the large stones to their positions up and
around the four sides of the pyramids.
Khufu's son, Khafre, who was next in the royal line, commissioned the building of his own
pyramid complex which includes the Sphinx. Menkaure, who is believed to be Khafre's son, built
the third and smallest of the three pyramids at Giza. Giza, however, is more than just three
pyramids and the Sphinx. Each pyramid has a mortuary temple and a valley temple linked by long
causeways that were roofed and walled. Alongside Khufu and Khafre's pyramids were large boat-
shaped pits and buried boats that were presumably meant to aid the pharaoh's journey to the
afterlife. As yet, no vessels have been found beside Menkaure's tomb. In addition, cemeteries of
royal attendants and relatives surround the three pyramids. The entire plateau is dotted with
these tombs, called mastabas, which were built in rectangular bench-like shapes above deep
burial shafts.

31
 The Nile was used to transport supplies and building
materials to the pyramids. During the annual
flooding of the Nile, a natural harbor was created by
the high waters that came conveniently close to the
plateau. These harbors may have stayed water-filled
year round. Some of the limestone came from Tura,
across the river, granite from Aswan, copper from
Sinai, and cedar for the boats from Lebanon. The
foundations of the pyramids were laid with limestone
blocks mined by masons using copper chisels.
Contrary to popular belief, the Egyptians built the
Giza pyramids up from the bedrock of the plateau, not over a flat sandy base. Khufu, in fact, was
built around a small rock knoll. Building stones were predominantly limestone and granite, while
mudbrick was used earlier for mastabas. Mudbrick was also used to build later Middle Kingdom
Pyramids. A brilliant white limestone provided the final outer layer for the Giza pyramids, creating
what must have been an awesome if not blinding sight to those who gazed upon these massive
structures. Limestone was used for all but the lowest course of outer casing on Khafre and the
lower 16 courses of Menkaure. These lower casings were made of granite.

The outer casing stones have disappeared from all three pyramids except the very top of Khafre.
This is thought to be due to natural erosion and human intervention; the precious white limestone
was torn away from the faces of the pyramids and used in the construction of buildings in Cairo.
There is good evidence that Khafre's bottom course of granite casing was being stripped as early
as ancient Egypt's 19th Dynasty, and as early as the 12th century A.D., limestone was quarried
from the Giza Pyramids for the construction of buildings in Cairo.

Giza's pyramids are oriented to face the four cardinal directions: true north, south, east, and west.
Their entrances are all on the north side, and the temples of the pyramids are on the east side.
Today, through the work of archaeologist Mark Lehner and his colleagues, a topographical and
archaeological survey of the Giza plateau is being produced by the Giza Plateau Mapping Project.

(Taken from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pyramid)

B. EXERCISE 1: ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH W-H QUESTION WORDS

Answer each following question based on the previous reading passage.

1. Why did Giza become what so called the royal necropolis for Memphis five thousand years
ago?
__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

32
 __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

2. How long did it take to build a pyramid?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

3. How did the ancient Egyptians move the massive stones used to build the pyramids from
quarries?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

4. How did the ancient Egyptians supplies and building materials to the pyramids?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

33
5. How did the outer casing stones disappeared from all three pyramids?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

C. EXERCISE 2: SUBJECT, VERB, AND OBJECT OF A SENTENCE

Determine the subject, verb, and object of each sentence you have written as your
answer in the previous exercise. If the subject and verb of your sentence are not clear,
revise your sentence(s).

D. EXERCISE 3: VOCABULARY BUILDERS

Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. to preside (V) a to order (V) 1.

2. necropolis (N) b basic (Adj) 2.

3. to commission (V) c stone excavation site (N) 3.

4 quarry (N) d mound (N) 4

5. to haul up (V) e because of (prep) 5.

6. annual (Adj) f part (N) 6.

7. knoll (N) g to lay (V) 7.

8. course (N) h to drag up (V) 8.

9. due to (prep) i yearly (Adj) 9.

10. cardinal (Adj) j graveyard (N) 10.

34
 LESSON 5
BOROBUDUR

35
A. READING

History
Construction

There is no written record of who built Borobudur or of its intended purpose. The construction
time has been estimated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and
the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the eight and ninth centuries. Borobudur
was likely founded around 800 AD. This corresponds to the period between 760–830 AD, the
peak of the Sailendra dynasty in central Java, when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan
Empire. The construction has been estimated to have taken 75 years and been completed during
the reign of Samaratungga in 825.

There is confusion between Hindu and Buddhist rulers in Java around that time. The Sailendras
were known as ardent followers of Lord Buddha, though stone inscriptions found at Sojomerto
suggest they may have been Hindus. It was during this time that many Hindu and Buddhist
monuments were built on the plains and mountain around the Kedu Plain. The Buddhist
monuments, including Borobudur, were erected around the same time as the Hindu Shiva
Prambanan temple compound. In 732 AD, the Shivaite King Sanjaya commissioned a Hindu
Shiva lingga sanctuary to be built on the Ukir hill, only 10 km (6.2 miles) east of Borobudur.

Construction of Buddhist temples, including Borobudur, at that time was possible because
Sanjaya's immediate successor, Rakai Panangkaran, granted his permission to the Buddhist
followers to build such temples. In fact, to show his respect, Panangkaran gave the village of
Kalasan to the Buddhist community, as is written in the Kalasan Charter dated 778 AD. This has
led some archaeologists to believe that there was never serious conflict concerning religion in
Java as it was possible for a Hindu king to patronize the establishment of a Buddhist monument;
or for a Buddhist king to act likewise. However, it is likely that there were two rival royal dynasties
in Java at the time—the Buddhist Sailendra and the Saivite Sanjaya—in which the latter
triumphed over their rival in the 856 battle on the Ratubaka plateau. This confusion also exists
regarding the Lara Jonggrang temple at the Prambanan complex, which was believed that it was
erected by the victor Rakai Pikatan as the Sanjaya dynasty's reply to Borobudur, but others
suggest that there was a climate of peaceful coexistence where Sailendra involvement exists in
Lara Jonggrang.

Abandonment

Borobudur lay hidden for centuries under layers of volcanic ash and jungle growth. The facts
behind its abandonment remain a mystery. It is not known when active use of the monument and
Buddhist pilgrimage to it ceased. Somewhere between 928 and 1006, the center of power moved
to East Java region and series of volcanic eruptions took place; it is not certain whether the latter
influenced the former but several sources mention this as the most likely period of abandonment.

36
Soekmono (1976) also mentions the popular belief that the temples were disbanded when the
population converted to Islam in the fifteenth century.

The monument was not forgotten completely, though folk stories gradually shifted from its past
glory into more superstitious beliefs associated with bad luck and misery. Two old Javanese
chronicles (babad) from the eighteenth century mention cases of bad luck associated with the
monument. According to the Babad Tanah Jawi (or the History of Java), the monument was a
fatal factor for a rebel who revolted against the king of Mataram in 1709. The hill was besieged
and the insurgents were defeated and sentenced to death by the king. In the Babad Mataram (or
the History of the Mataram Kingdom), the monument was associated with the misfortune of the
crown prince of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in 1757. In spite of a taboo against visiting the
monument, "he took what is written as the knight who was captured in a cage (a statue in one of
the perforated stupas)". Upon returning to his palace, he fell ill and died one day later.

Rediscovery

Following the Anglo-Dutch Java War, Java was

under British administration from 1811 to 1816. The
appointed governor was Lieutenant Governor-
General Thomas Stamford Raffles, who took great
interest in the history of Java. He collected
Javanese antiques and made notes through
contacts with local inhabitants during his tour
throughout the island. On an inspection tour to
Semarang in 1814, he was informed about a big
monument deep in a jungle near the village of
Bumisegoro. He was not able to make the
discovery himself and sent H.C. Cornelius, a Dutch engineer, to investigate.

In two months, Cornelius and his 200 men cut down trees, burned down vegetation and dug away
the earth to reveal the monument. Due to the danger of collapse, he could not unearth all
galleries. He reported his findings to Raffles including various drawings. Although the discovery is
only mentioned by a few sentences, Raffles has been credited with the monument's recovery, as
one who had brought it to the world's attention.

Hartmann, a Dutch administrator of the Kedu region, continued Cornelius' work and in 1835 the
whole complex was finally unearthed. His interest in Borobudur was more personal than official.
Hartmann did not write any reports of his activities; in particular, the alleged story that he
discovered the large statue of Buddha in the main stupa. In 1842, Hartmann investigated the
main dome although what he discovered remains unknown as the main stupa remains empty.

37
 The first photograph of Borobudur by Isidore van Kinsbergen (1873) after the monument was cleared up.

The Dutch East Indies government then commissioned F.C. Wilsen, a Dutch engineering official,
who studied the monument and drew hundreds of relief sketches. J.F.G. Brumund was also
appointed to make a detailed study of the monument, which was completed in 1859. The
government intended to publish an article based on Brumund study supplemented by Wilsen's
drawings, but Brumund refused to cooperate. The government then commissioned another
scholar, C. Leemans, who compiled a monograph based on Brumund's and Wilsen's sources. In
1873, the first monograph of the detailed study of Borobudur was published, followed by its
French translation a year later. The first photograph of the monument was taken in 1873 by a
Dutch-Flemish engraver, Isidore van Kinsbergen.

Appreciation of the site developed slowly, and it served for some time largely as a source of
souvenirs and income for "souvenir hunters" and thieves. In 1882, the chief inspector of cultural
artifacts recommended that Borobudur be entirely disassembled with the relocation of reliefs into
museums due to the unstable condition of the monument. As a result, the government appointed
Groenveldt, an archeologist, to undertake a thorough investigation of the site and to assess the
actual condition of the complex; his report found that these fears were unjustified and
recommended it be left intact.

Architecture
Borobudur is built as a single large stupa, and when viewed
from above takes the form of a giant tantric Buddhist mandala,
simultaneously representing the Buddhist cosmology and the
nature of mind. The foundation is a square, approximately
118 meters (387 ft) on each side. It has nine platforms, of
which the lower six are square and the upper three are circular.
The upper platform features seventy-two small stupas
surrounding one large central stupa. Each stupa is bell-shaped
and pierced by numerous decorative openings. Statues of the
Buddha sit inside the pierced enclosures.

38
 Approximately 55,000 m³ (1,942,307 cubic feet) of stones
were taken from neighbouring rivers to build the
monument. The stone was cut to size, transported to the
site and laid without mortar. Knobs, indentations and
dovetails were used to form joints between stones. Reliefs
were created in-situ after the building had been completed.
The monument is equipped with a good drainage system
to cater for the area's high stormwater run-off. To avoid
inundation, 100 spouts are provided at each corner with a
unique carved gargoyles (makaras).

Borobudur differs markedly with the general design of other structures built for this purpose.
Instead of building on a flat surface, Borobudur is built on a natural hill. The building technique is,
however, similar to other temples in Java. With no inner space as in other temples and its general
design similar to the shape of pyramid, Borobudur was first thought more likely to have served as
a stupa, instead of a temple. A stupa is intended as a shrine for the Lord Buddha. Sometimes
stupas were built only as devotional symbols of Buddhism. A temple, on the other hand, is used
as a house of deity and have inner spaces for worship. The complexity of the monument's
meticulous design suggests Borobudur is in fact a temple. Congregational worship in Borobudur
is performed by means of pilgrimage. Pilgrims were guided by the system of staircases and
corridors ascending to the top platform. Each platform represents one stage of enlightenment.
The path that guides pilgrims was designed with the symbolism of sacred knowledge according to
the Buddhist cosmology.

Half cross-section with 4:6:9 height ratio for foot, body and head, respectively.

Little is known about the architect Gunadharma. His name is actually recounted from Javanese
legendary folk tales rather than written in old inscriptions. He was said to be one who "... bears
the measuring rod, knows division and thinks himself composed of parts." The basic unit
measurement he used during the construction was called tala, defined as the length of a human
face from the forehead's hairline to the tip of the chin or the distance from the tip of the thumb to
the tip of the middle finger when both fingers are stretched at their maximum distance. The unit
metrics is then obviously relative between persons, but the monument has exact measurements.
A survey conducted in 1977 revealed frequent findings of a ratio of 4:6:9 around the monument.
The architect had used the formula to lay out the precise dimensions of Borobudur. The identical

39
ratio formula was further found in the nearby Buddhist temples of Pawon and Mendhut.
Archeologists conjectured the purpose of the ratio formula and the tala dimension has calendrical,
astronomical and cosmological themes, as of the case in other Buddhist temple of Angkor Wat in
Cambodia.

The main vertical structure can be divided into three groups: base (or foot), body, and top, which
resembles the three major division of a human body. The base is a 123x123 m² square in size
and 4 meters (13 ft) high of walls. The body is composed of five square platforms each with
diminishing heights. The first terrace is set back 7 meters (23 ft) from the edge of the base. The
other terraces are set back by 2 meters (7 ft), leaving a narrow corridor at each stage. The top
consists of 3 circular platforms, with each stage supporting a row of perforated stupas, arranged
in concentric circles. There is one main dome at the center; the top of which is the highest point of
the monument (35 meters (115 ft) above ground level). Access to the upper part is through
stairways at the centre of each side with a number of gates, watched by a total of 32 lion statues.
The main entrance is at the eastern side, the location of the first narrative reliefs. On the slopes of
the hill, there are also stairways linking the monument to the low-lying plain.

The monument's three divisions symbolize three stages of mental preparation towards the
ultimate goal according to the Buddhist cosmology, namely Kamadhatu (the world of desires),
Rupadhatu (the world of forms), and finally Arupadhatu (the formless world). Kamadhatu is
represented by the base, Rupadhatu by the five square platforms (the body), and Arupadhatu by
the three circular platforms and the large topmost stupa. The architectural features between three
stages have metaphorical differences. For instance, square and detailed decorations in the
Rupadhatu disappear into plain circular platforms in the Arupadhatu to represent how the world of
forms - where men are still attached with forms and names - changes into the world of the
formless.

In 1885, a hidden structure under the base was accidentally discovered. The "hidden foot"
contains reliefs, 160 of which are narrative describing the real Kamadhatu. The remaining reliefs
are panels with short inscriptions that apparently describe instruction for the sculptors, illustrating
the scene to be carved. The real base is hidden by an encasement base, the purpose of which
remains a mystery. It was first thought that the real base had to be covered to prevent a
disastrous subsidence of the monument through the hill. There is another theory that the
encasement base was added because the original hidden foot was incorrectly designed,
according to Vastu Shastra, the Indian ancient book about architecture and town planning.
Regardless of its intention, the encasement base was built with detailed and meticulous design
with aesthetics and religious compensation.

(Taken and abridged from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur)

40
B. EXERCISE 1: ANSWERING IMPERATIVE QUESTIONS.
Answer each following question based on the previous reading passage.

1. Describe the social conditions in Java during the time of Borobudur construction.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

2. Explain the reason of the abandonment of Borobudur.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

3. Explain Raffles’ role in the rediscovery of Borobudur.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

4. Describe the concept of Buddhism cosmology behind the design of Borobudur.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

41
 __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

5. Describe the role of Gunadharma in Borobudur construction.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

C. EXERCISE 2: VOCABULARY BUILDERS

Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. reign (N) a desertion (N) 1.

2. ardent (Adj) b suspected (Adj) 2.

3. abandonment (N) c place of worship (N) 3.

4 insurgent (N) d to assume (V) 4

5. alleged (Adj) e devoted (adj) 5.

6. inundation (N) f to collapse (V) 6.

7. shrine (N) g symbolic (Adj) 7.

8. to conjecture (V) h stream of water (N) 8.

9. metaphorical (Adj) i time in power (N) 9.

10. to subside j rebel (N) 10.

42
 LESSON 6
FENG SHUI

43
A. EXERCISE 1: ANSWERING QUESTIONS WITH W-H QUESTION WORDS
Answer each following question based on the reading passage.

1. How is the history of feng shui?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

2. When did The history of luopan begin?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

3. What is the purpose of feng shui?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

4. How is polarity expressed in feng shui?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

44
 __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

5. What is bagua?

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

B. READING

Introduction
Early feng shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe and it
is inseparable from an understanding of political power in premodern China. Chinese often used
the celestial poles determined by the pole stars to determine the north-south axis of settlements.
This technique explains why Shang palaces at Xiaotun lie 10° east of due north. In some cases,
as Paul Wheatley observed, they bisected the angle between the directions of the rising and
setting sun to find north. This technique provided the more precise alignments of the Shang walls
at Yanshi and Zhengzhou.

Currently Early Yanshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest evidence for feng shui.
Professor David Pankenier and his associates reviewed astronomical data for the time of the
Banpo dwellings (4000 BCE) to show that the asterism Yingshi (Lay out the Hall, in the Warring
States period and early Han era) corresponded to the sun's location at this time. Centuries before,
the asterism Yingshi was known as Ding. It was used to indicate the appropriate time to build a
capital city, according to the Shijing. Apparently an astronomical alignment ensured that Banpo
village homes were sited for solar gain.

The grave at Puyang (radiocarbon dated 5,000 BP) that contains mosaics of the Dragon and
Tiger constellations and Beidou (Dipper) is similarly oriented along a north-south axis. The
presence of both round and square shapes in the Puyang tomb, and at Hongshan culture
ceremonial centers, suggests that the gaitian cosmography (heaven-round, earth-square) was
present in Chinese society long before it appeared in the Zhou Bu Suan Jing.

45
Cosmography that bears a striking resemblance to modern feng shui compasses (and
computations) were found on a jade unearthed at Hanshan (c. 3000 BCE). The design is linked
by Li Xueqin to the liuren astrolabe, zhinan zhen, and Luopan.

All capital cities of China followed rules of Feng Shui for their design and layout. These rules were
codified during the Zhou era in the "Kaogong ji" (Manual of Crafts). Rules for builders were
codified in the "Lu ban jing" (Carpenter's Manual). Graves and tombs also followed rules of Feng
Shui. From the earliest records, it seems that the rules for the structures of the graves and
dwellings were the same.

History
Emperor Di Ku was said to dabble in astronomy. Shun consulted the stars before he assumed the
throne. There were feng shui devices before the invention of the magnetic compass, which
occurred comparatively late in the long history of feng shui. According to the Zhouli the original
device may have been a gnomon, although Yao, Huangdi, and other figures were said to possess
devices such as the south-pointing chariot.

As Derek Walters observed, "The luopan was originally a scientific instrument, used for
astronomical observation." The oldest excavated examples of instruments used for feng shui are
liuren astrolabes. These consist of a lacquered, two-sided board with astronomical sightlines.
Liuren astrolabes have been unearthed from tombs that date between 278 BC and 209 BC. The
markings are virtually unchanged from the astrolabe to the first magnetic compasses.

Since the invention of the magnetic compass for use in Feng Shui, some feng shui disciplines
require the use of a compass. This compass could be a Luopan (Chinese Feng Shui compass of
the types San Yuan, San He, and Zong He) or one of the earlier versions such as a south-
pointing spoon (zhinan zhen).

The history of the Luopan compass takes us back to the Zhou dynasty (770-476 BCE), when
emperor Shing combined the knowledge of the compass with that of the I-ching. The compass
consists of a magnetic needle that point towards magnetic north not true north. The foundation of
the I-ching is in the trigrams.

The trigrams are the set of three broken and/or solid lines that you typically find around a Chinese
mirror. In Traditional Compass techniques these trigrams determine the divination of fortune. The
traditional Luopan has 36 rings of information. These trigrams occupy the first circle of the luopan.
How these rings line up with the compass and the combination of the reading of these rings
determines your fortune.

Foundation theories
The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human built environment on spots with
good qi. The "perfect spot" is a location and an axis in time. Some areas are not suitable for
human settlement and should be left in their natural state.

46
Some current techniques can be traced to Neolithic China, while others were added in later times
(most notably the Han dynasty, the Tang, and the Ming). Today, to determine a perfect spot, local
manifestations of qi must be assessed for quality. Quality is determined by observations and by
using a compass (Luopan).

Qi (ch'i)

Qi is a difficult word to translate and is usually left untranslated. Literally the word means "air". In
feng shui, "Qi" means "flow of energy". Max Knoll suggested in a 1951 lecture that qi is a form of
solar radiation.

A Loupan is used to determine many things. One of those being to detect the direction of the flow
of qi. Compasses reflect local geomagnetism which includes geomagnetically induced currents
caused by space weather. It could be said that feng shui assesses the quality of the local
environment and the effects of space weather -- that is, feng shui is qimancy, or qi divination.

Beliefs from the Axial Age, feng shui among them, hold that the heavens influence life on Earth.
This seems preposterous to many people, yet space weather exists and can have profound
effects on technology (GPS, power grids, pipelines, communication and navigation systems,
surveys), and the internal orienting faculties of birds and other creatures. Atmospheric scientists
have suggested that space weather creates fluctuations in market prices.

Polarity

Polarity is expressed in feng shui as Yin and Yang. The polarity within feng shui is buildings of the
living (yang) and buildings of the dead (yin).

Magnetic north and Luopan compass

The stability of Magnetic North is critical for the accuracy of reading your fortune with a compass.
Earth has an electromagnetic field. Our solar sun also has an electromagnetic field. Our solar sun
goes through 11 year cycles of solar fluctuations called solar flares that create solar wind. In 2003
two of the strongest flares ever were recorded. This solar wind creates a vibration that disturbs
the electromagnetic field of the earth.

Magnetic North and True North (the Earth’s axis) are not the same. Magnetic North moves an
average of 40 kilometers every year. In the last 100 years Magnetic North has moved
approximately 1200 kilometers. Due to solar flares, Magnetic North is always in constant
movement, creating conflicting readings on a compass.

Bagua (eight symbols)

Two diagrams known as bagua (or pa kua) loom large in feng shui, and both predate their
mentions in the Yijing or I Ching. The Lo (River) Chart (Luoshu, or Later Heaven Sequence) and
the River Chart (Hetu, or Early Heaven Sequence) are linked to astronomical events of the sixth
millennium BCE, and with the Turtle Calendar from the time of Yao. The Turtle Calendar of Yao

47
(found in the Yaodian section of the Shangshu or 'Book of Documents') dates to 2300 BCE, plus
or minus 250 years. It seems clear from many sources that time, in the form of astronomy and
calendars, is at the heart of feng shui. In Yaodian, the cardinal directions are determined by the
marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals.

East: the Bluegreen Dragon (Spring equinox) --- Niao (Bird), α Hydrae
South: the Red Bird (Summer solstice) --- Huo (Fire), α Scorpionis
West: the White Tiger (Autumn equinox) --- Xu (Emptiness, Void), α Aquarii, β Aquarii
North: the Dark (Mysterious) Turtle (Winter solstice) --- Mao (Hair), η Tauri (the Pleiades)

The bagua diagrams are also linked with the sifang (four directions) method of divination used
during the Shang dynasty. The sifang is much older, however. It was used at Niuheliang, and
figured large in Hongshan culture's astronomy. And it is this area of China that is linked to
Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, who allegedly invented the south-pointing spoon.

(Taken and abridged from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui)

48
C. EXERCISE 3: VOCABULARY BUILDERS
Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. celestial (Adj) a a two-sided board with 1.
astronomical sightlines (N)
2. constellation (N) b foresight (N) 2.

3. to dabble (V) c to appear (V) 3.

4 a lacquered (N) d combustion of the sun (N) 4

5. divination (N) e assemblage (N) 5.

6. manifestation (N) f ability (N) 6.

7. preposterous (Adj) g to experiment (V) 7.

8. faculty (N) h absurd (Adj) 8.

9. solar flares (N) i materialization (N) 9.

10. to loom (V) j extraterrestrial (Adj) 10.

49
D. EXERCISE 4: THE USAGE OF W-H QUESTION WORDS
Match these W-H question words in column A below with the usage given in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. What a Asking process 1.

2. Who b Asking person(s) as an 2.

object
3. Where c Asking reason 3.

4 When d Asking thing(s) 4

5. Why e Asking possession 5.

6. Which f Asking person(s) as a 6.

subject
7. Whom g Asking option 7.

8. Whose h Asking place 8.

9. How i Asking time 9.

50
 LESSON 7
LE CORBUSIER

51
A. EXERCISE 1: ANSWERING IMPERATIVE QUESTIONS
Answer each following question based on the reading passage.

1. Describe Le Corbusier’s early career.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

2. Explain the design concept of the Maison "Citrohan".

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

3. Explain Le Corbusier’s concept to deal with the growing Parisian slums.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

4. Describe Le Corbusier’s five points of architecture.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

52
 __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

5. Explain Le Corbusier’s concept of modular.

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

53
B. READING

LE CORBUSIER
(1887-1965)

By Ann Mette Heindorff

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, who chose to be known as Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 –

August 27, 1965), was a Swiss-born architect, designer, urbanist, writer and also painter, who is
famous for his contributions to what now is called Modern Architecture. In his 30s he became a
French citizen.

He was a pioneer in theoretical studies of modern design and was dedicated to providing better
living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. His career spanned five decades, with his
iconic buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and one structure each in
North and South America. He was also an urban planner, painter, sculptor, writer, and modern
furniture designer.

Life
Early life and education, 1887-1913

He was born as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small town of

Neuchâtel canton in north-western Switzerland, in the Jura mountains, which is just five
kilometres across the border from France. He attended a kindergarten that used Froebelian
methods.

Le Corbusier was attracted to the visual arts and studied at the La-Chaux-de-Fonds Art School
under Charles L'Éplattenier, who had studied in Budapest and Paris. His architecture teacher in
the Art School was the architect René Chapallaz, who had a large influence on Le Corbusier's
earliest houses.

In his early years he frequently would escape the somewhat provincial atmosphere of his
hometown by traveling around Europe. About 1907 he travelled to Paris, where he found work in
the office of Auguste Perret, the French pioneer in reinforced concrete. Between October 1910
and March 1911 he worked near Berlin for the renowned architect Peter Behrens, where he might

54
have met Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius. He became fluent in German. Both of
these experiences proved influential in his later career.

Later in 1911 he would journey to the Balkans and visit Greece and Turkey, filling sketchbooks
with renderings of what he saw, including many famous sketches of the Parthenon, whose forms
he would later praise in his work Vers une architecture (1923).

Early career: the villas, 1914-1930

Le Corbusier taught at his old school in La-Chaux-de-Fonds during World War I, not returning to
Paris until the war was over. During these four years in Switzerland, he worked on theoretical
architectural studies using modern techniques. Among these was his project for the "Dom-ino"
House (1914-1915). This model proposed an open floor plan consisting of concrete slabs
supported by a minimal number of thin, reinforced concrete columns around the edges, with a
stairway providing access to each level on one side of the floor plan.

This design became the foundation for most of his architecture for the next ten years. Soon he
would begin his own architectural practice with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967), a
partnership that would last until 1940.

In 1918 Le Corbusier met the disillusioned Cubist painter, Amédée Ozenfant, in whom he
recognised a kindred spirit. Ozenfant encouraged him to paint, and the two began a period of
collaboration. Rejecting Cubism as irrational and "romantic," the pair jointly published their
manifesto, Après le Cubisme and established a new artistic movement, Purism. Ozenfant and
Jeanneret established the Purist journal L'Esprit Nouveau.

Pseudonym adopted, 1920

In the first issue of the journal, in 1920, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret adopted Le Corbusier, an
altered form of his maternal grandfather's name, "Lecorbésier", as a pseudonym, reflecting his
belief that anyone could reinvent oneself. Some architectural historians claim that this pseudonym
translates as "the crow-like one." Adopting a single name to identify oneself was in vogue by
artists in many fields during that era, especially among those in Paris.

Between 1918 and 1922 Le Corbusier built nothing, concentrating his efforts on Purist theory and
painting. In 1922 Le Corbusier and Jeanneret opened a studio in Paris at 35 rue de Sèvres.

His theoretical studies soon advanced into several different single-family house models. Among
these was the Maison "Citrohan", a pun on the name of the French Citroën automaker, for the
modern industrial methods and materials Le Corbusier advocated using for the house. Here, Le
Corbusier proposed a three-floor structure, with a double-height living room, bedrooms on the
second floor, and a kitchen on the third floor. The roof would be occupied by a sun terrace. On

55
the exterior Le Corbusier installed a stairway to provide second-floor access from ground level.
Here, as in other projects from this period, he also designed the façades to include large
expanses of uninterrupted banks of windows. The house used a rectangular plan, with exterior
walls that were not filled by windows, left as white, stuccoed spaces. Le Corbusier and Jeanneret
left the interior aesthetically spare, with any movable furniture made of tubular metal frames. Light
fixtures usually comprised single, bare bulbs. Interior walls also were left white. Between 1922
and 1927, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret designed many of these private houses for clients
around Paris. In Boulogne-sur-Seine and the 16th arrondissement of Paris, Le Corbusier and
Pierre Jeanneret designed and built the Villa Lipschitz, Maison Cook (see William Edwards Cook),
Maison Planeix, and the Maison La Roche/Albert Jeanneret, which now houses the Fondation Le
Corbusier.

Le Corbusier took French citizenship in 1930.

Forays into urbanism

For a number of years French officials had been unsuccessful in dealing with the squalor of the
growing Parisian slums, and Le Corbusier sought efficient ways to house large numbers of
people in response to the urban housing crisis. He believed that his new, modern architectural
forms would provide a new organisational solution that would raise the quality of life of the lower
classes. His Immeubles Villas (1922) was such a project that called for large blocks of cell-like
individual apartments stacked one on top of the other, with plans that included a living room,
bedrooms, and kitchen, as well as a garden terrace.

Not merely content with designs for a few housing blocks, soon Le Corbusier moved into studies
for entire cities. In 1922, he also presented his scheme for a "Contemporary City" for three million
inhabitants (Ville Contemporaine). The centrepiece of this plan was the group of sixty-story,
cruciform skyscrapers built on steel frames and encased in huge curtain walls of glass. They
housed both offices and the apartments of the most wealthy inhabitants. These skyscrapers were
set within large, rectangular park-like green spaces. At the very middle was a huge transportation
centre, that on different levels included depots for buses and trains, as well as highway
intersections, and at the top, an airport. He had the fanciful notion that commercial airliners would
land between the huge skyscrapers. Le Corbusier segregated the pedestrian circulation paths
from the roadways, and glorified the use of the automobile as a means of transportation. As one
moved out from the central skyscrapers, smaller multi-storey, zigzag blocks set in green space
and set far back from the street, housed the proletarian workers. Le Corbusier hoped that
politically-minded industrialists in France would lead the way with their efficient Taylorist and
Fordist strategies adopted from American models to reorganise society.

In this new industrialist spirit, Le Corbusier began a new journal called L'Esprit Nouveau that
advocated the use of modern industrial techniques and strategies to transform society into a more
efficient environment with a higher standard of living on all socioeconomic levels. He forcefully
argued that this transformation was necessary to avoid the spectre of revolution, that would
otherwise shake society. His dictum "Architecture or Revolution", developed in his articles in this

56
journal, became his rallying cry for the book Vers une architecture (Towards an Architecture,
mistranslated into English as Towards a New Architecture), which comprised selected articles
from L'Esprit Nouveau between 1920 and 1923.

Theoretical urban schemes continued to occupy Le Corbusier. He exhibited his Plan Voisin,
sponsored by another famous automobile manufacturer, in 1925. In it, he proposed to bulldoze
most of central Paris, north of the Seine, and replace it with his sixty-story cruciform towers from
the Contemporary City, placed in an orthogonal street grid and park-like green space. His
scheme was met with only criticism and scorn from French politicians and industrialists, although
they were favourable to the ideas of Taylorism and Fordism underlying Le Corbusier designs.
Nonetheless, it did provoke discussion concerning how to deal with the cramped, dirty conditions
that enveloped much of the city.

In the 1930's, Le Corbusier expanded and reformulated his ideas on urbanism, eventually
publishing them in La Ville radieuse (The Radiant City) of 1935. Perhaps the most significant
difference between the Contemporary City and the Radiant City is that the latter abandons the
class-based stratification of the former; housing is now assigned according to family size, not
economic position. La Ville radieuse also marks Le Corbusier's increasing dissatisfaction with
capitalism and his turn to the right-wing syndicalism of Hubert Lagardelle. During the Vichy
regime, Le Corbusier received a position on a planning committee and made designs for Algiers
and other cities. The central government ultimately rejected his plans, and after 1942 Le
Corbusier withdrew from political activity.

After World War II, Le Corbusier attempted to realize his urban planning schemes on a small
scale by constructing a series of "unités" (the housing block unit of the Radiant City) around
France. The most famous of these was the Unité d'Habitation of Marseilles (1946-1952). In the
1950s, a unique opportunity to translate the Radiant City on a grand scale presented itself in the
construction of Chandigarh, the new capital of the Indian state of (what was then) Punjab. Le
Corbusier was originally brought on to redesign parts of Albert Mayer's master plan, but he ended
up taking over the entire project.

Death

Against his doctor's orders, on August 27, 1965, Le Corbusier went for a swim in the
Mediterranean Sea at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France. His body was found by bathers and he
was pronounced dead at 11 a.m. It was assumed that he suffered a heart attack, at the age of
seventy-eight. His death rites took place at the courtyard of the Louvre Palace on September 1,
1965 under the direction of writer and thinker André Malraux, who was at the time France's
Minister of Culture.

Le Corbusier's death had a strong impact on the cultural and political world. Homages were paid
world-wide and even some of Le Corbusier's worst artistic enemies, such as the painter Salvador
Dalí, recognised his importance (Dalí sent a floral tribute). Then-President of the United States
Lyndon B. Johnson said: "His influence was universal and his works are invested with a

57
permanent quality possessed by those of very few artists in our history". The Soviet Union added,
"Modern architecture has lost its greatest master". Japanese TV channels decided to broadcast,
simultaneously to the ceremony, his Museum in Tokyo, in what was at the time a unique media
homage.

Ideas
Five points of architecture

It was Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929-1931) that most succinctly summed up his five points of
architecture that he had elucidated in the journal L'Esprit Nouveau and his book Vers une
architecture, which he had been developing throughout the 1920s. First, Le Corbusier lifted the
bulk of the structure off the ground, supporting it by pilotis – reinforced concrete stilts. These
pilotis, in providing the structural support for the house, allowed him to elucidate his next two
points: a free façade, meaning non-supporting walls that could be designed as the architect
wished, and an open floor plan, meaning that the floor space was free to be configured into
rooms without concern for supporting walls. The second floor of the Villa Savoye includes long
strips of ribbon windows that allow unencumbered views of the large surrounding yard, and which
constitute the fourth point of his system. The fifth point was the Roof garden to compensate the
green area consumed by the building and replacing it on the roof. A ramp rising from the ground
level to the third floor roof terrace, allows for an architectural promenade through the structure.
The white tubular railing recalls the industrial "ocean-liner" aesthetic that Le Corbusier much
admired. As if to put an exclamation point on Le Corbusier's homage to modern industry, the
driveway around the ground floor, with its semicircular path, measures the exact turning radius of
a 1927 Citroën automobile.

The Modulor

Le Corbusier explicitly used the golden ratio in his Modulor system for the scale of architectural
proportion. He saw this system as a continuation of the long tradition of Vitruvius, Leonardo da
Vinci's "Vitruvian Man", the work of Leon Battista Alberti, and others who used the proportions of
the human body to improve the appearance and function of architecture. In addition to the golden
ratio, Le Corbusier based the system on human measurements, Fibonacci numbers, and the
double unit.

He took Leonardo's suggestion of the golden ratio in human proportions to an extreme: he

sectioned his model human body's height at the navel with the two sections in golden ratio, then
subdivided those sections in golden ratio at the knees and throat; he used these golden ratio
proportions in the Modulor system.

58
Le Corbusier's 1927 Villa Stein in Garches exemplified the Modulor system's application. The
villa's rectangular ground plan, elevation, and inner structure closely approximate golden
rectangles.

Le Corbusier placed systems of harmony and proportion at the centre of his design philosophy,
and his faith in the mathematical order of the universe was closely bound to golden section and
Fibonacci the series, which he described as "[...] rhythms apparent to the eye and clear in their
relations with one another. And these rhythms are at the very root of human activities. They
resound in Man by an organic inevitability, the same fine inevitability which causes the tracing out
of the Golden Section by children, old men, savages, and the learned."

Furniture
Chaise longue 'LC4'

Le Corbusier began experimenting with furniture

design in 1928 after inviting the architect, Charlotte
Perriand, to join his studio. His cousin, Pierre
Jeanneret, also collaborated on many of the designs.
Before the arrival of Perriand, Le Corbusier relied on
ready-made furniture to furnish his projects, such as
the simple pieces manufactured by Thonet.

In 1928 Le Corbusier and Perriand began to put the

expectations for furniture Le Corbusier outlined in his 1925 book L'Art Décoratif d'aujourd'hui into
practice. In the book he defined three different furniture types: type-needs, type-furniture, and
human-limb objects. He defined human-limb objects as: "Extensions of our limbs and adapted to
human functions that are. Type-needs, type-functions, therefore type-objects and type-furniture.
The human-limb object is a docile servant. A good servant is discreet and self-effacing in order to
leave his master free. Certainly, works of art are tools, beautiful tools. And long live the good
taste manifested by choice, subtlety, proportion, and harmony". The first results of the
collaboration were three chrome-plated tubular steel chairs designed for two of his projects, The
Maison la Roche in Paris and a pavilion for Barbara and Henry Church. The line of furniture was
expanded for Le Corbusier's 1929 Salon d'Automne installation, Equipment for the Home.

In the year 1964, while Le Corbusier was still alive, Cassina S.p.A. of Milan acquired the
exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture his furniture designs. Today many copies exist, but
Cassina is still the only manufacturer authorised by the Fondation Le Corbusier.

59
Politics

Le Corbusier moved increasingly to the far right of French politics in the 1930's. He associated
with Georges Valois and Hubert Lagardelle and briefly edited the syndicalist journal Prélude. In
1934, he lectured on architecture in Rome by invitation of Mussolini. He sought out a position in
urban planning in the Vichy regime and received an appointment on a committee studying
urbanism, only to have his plans for the redesign of Algiers and other cities completely ignored.
After this defeat, Le Corbusier largely eschewed politics.

Although the politics of Lagardelle and Valois included elements of fascism, anti-semitism, and
ultra-nationalism, Le Corbusier's own affiliation with these movements remains uncertain. In La
Ville radieuse, he conceives an essentially apolitical society, in which the bureaucracy of
economic administration effectively replaces the state.

Le Corbusier was heavily indebted to the thought of the nineteenth-century French utopians
Saint-Simon and Charles Fourier. There is a noteworthy resemblance between the concept of the
unité and Saint-Simon's phalanstery. From Fourier, Le Corbusier adopted at least in part his
notion of administrative, rather than political, government.

Criticisms
Since his death, Le Corbusier's contribution has been hotly contested, as the architecture values
and its accompanying aspects within modern architecture vary, both between different schools of
thought and among practising architects. At the level of building, his later works expressed a
complex understanding of modernity's impact, yet his urban designs have drawn scorn from
critics.

Technological historian and architecture critic Lewis Mumford wrote in Yesterday's City of
Tomorrow, the extravagant heights of Le Corbusier's skyscrapers had no reason for existence
apart from the fact that they had become technological possibilities; the open spaces in his
central areas had no reason for existence either, since on the scale he imagined there was no
motive during the business day for pedestrian circulation in the office quarter. By mating utilitarian
and financial image of the skyscraper city to the romantic image of the organic environment, Le
Corbusier had, in fact, produced a sterile hybrid.

James Howard Kunstler, a member of the New Urbanism movement, has criticised Le
Corbusier's approach to urban planning as destructive and wasteful:

Le Corbusier [was] ... the leading architectural hoodoo-meister of Early High Modernism, whose
1925 Plan Voisin for Paris proposed to knock down the entire Marais district on the Right Bank
and replace it with rows of identical towers set between freeways. Luckily for Paris, the city
officials laughed at him every time he came back with the scheme over the next forty years – and
Corb was nothing if not a relentless self-promoter. Ironically and tragically, though, the Plan

60
Voisin model was later adopted gleefully by post-World War Two American planners, and
resulted in such urban monstrosities as the infamous Cabrini Green housing projects of Chicago
and scores of things similar to it around the country.

The public housing projects influenced by his ideas are seen by some as having had the effect of
isolating poor communities in monolithic high-rises and breaking the social ties integral to a
community's development. One of his most influential critics has been Jane Jacobs, who
delivered a scathing critique of Le Corbusier's urban design theories in her seminal work The
Death and Life of Great American Cities. The city of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, is a planned city
based exclusively on the principles of Le Corbusier. While it is a tranquil and safe city, many
consider it sterile and lacking the community and leisure facilities of other Brazilian cities.
Conversely, other urban schemes heavily influenced by Corbusier such as the Barbican Estate in
London are considered a social success; the Indian city of Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier
himself, is similarly seen as successful.

Influence
Le Corbusier was at his most influential in the sphere of urban planning, and was a founding
member of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM).

One of the first to realise how the automobile would change human agglomerations, Le Corbusier
described the city of the future as consisting of large apartment buildings isolated in a park-like
setting on pilotis. Le Corbusier's theories were adopted by the builders of public housing in
Western Europe and the United States. For the design of the buildings themselves, Le Corbusier
said, "by law, all buildings should be white"[citation needed] and criticised any effort at ornamentation.
The large spartan structures, in cities, but not of cities, have been widely criticised for being
boring and unfriendly to pedestrians.

Throughout the years, many architects worked for Le Corbusier in his studio, and a number of
them became notable in their own right, including painter-architect Nadir Afonso, who absorbed
Le Corbusier's ideas into his own aesthetics theory. Lúcio Costa's city plan of Brasília and the
industrial city of Zlín planned by František Lydie Gahura in the Czech Republic are notable plans
based on his ideas, while the architect himself produced the plan for Chandigarh in India. Le
Corbusier's thinking also had profound effects on the philosophy of city planning and architecture
in the Soviet Union, particularly in the Constructivist era.

Le Corbusier was heavily influenced by the problems he saw in the industrial city of the turn of the
century. He thought that industrial housing techniques led to crowding, dirtiness, and a lack of a
moral landscape. He was a leader of the modernist movement to create better living conditions
and a better society through housing concepts. Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities of Tomorrow
heavily influenced Le Corbusier and his contemporaries.

61
Le Corbusier deliberately created a myth about himself and was revered in his lifetime, and after
death, by a generation of followers who believed Le Corbusier was a prophet who could do no
wrong. But in the 1950s the first doubts began to appear, notably in some essays by his greatest
admirers such as James Stirling and Colin Rowe, who denounced as catastrophic his ideas on
the city. Later critics revealed his technical incompetence as an architect, such as Brian Brace
Taylor, whose book "Armée du Salut" went into great detail about Le Corbusier's machiavellian
activities to create this commission for himself, his many ill-judged design decisions about the
building's technologies, and the sometimes absurd solutions he then proposed. More recently still
there has been much discussion about Le Corbusier's dubious right-wing politics, and his open
flirtation with Fascism in the 1930s, when he tried to persuade Benito Mussolini to commission
him to design a new capital city for Ethiopia after Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935 using nerve-
gas, in breach of League of Nations rules.

Some critics believe that Le Corbusier is no longer the central figure of modernism he was once
believed to be. That against the background of a wide-ranging critical reassessment of the whole
phenomenon of modernity, he is only one of a number of influential figures of the time. Yet others
maintain that he is not only central to modernism, but to the still lingering possibility of a poetic
architecture.

(Taken and abridged from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Corbusier)

62
C. EXERCISE 3: VOCABULARY BUILDERS
Match each following vocabulary (in column A) used in the reading passage with the
appropriate word or phrase which has similar meaning in column B.

NO A B ANSWER
1. canton (N) a concept (N) 1.

2. concrete slab (N) b front elevation (N) 2.

3. manifesto (N) c to explain (V) 3.

4 pseudonym (N) d district (N) 4

5. façade (N) e influential (Adj) 5.

6. squalor (N) f to avoid (V) 6.

7. to elucidate (V) g excessive (Adj) 7.

8. to eschew (V) h block of concrete (N) 8.

9. extravagant (Adj) i dirtiness (N) 9.

10. seminal (Adj) j alias (N) 10.

63