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THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE The Seven Lamps of Architecture - John Ruskin Submitted by – Vaibhav Mudgal Vishant Tyagi Kamal Kant Tyagi

John Ruskin- The Seven Lamps of Architecture

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Page 1: John Ruskin- The Seven Lamps of Architecture

THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE

The Seven Lamps of Architecture - John Ruskin Submitted by –

Vaibhav Mudgal Vishant TyagiKamal Kant Tyagi

Page 2: John Ruskin- The Seven Lamps of Architecture

John ruskin

• The English critic and social theorist John Ruskin (1819-1900) more than any other man shaped the esthetic values and tastes of Victorian England.

• His writings combine enormous sensitivity and human compassion with a burning zeal for moral value

• John Ruskin's principal insight was that art is an expression of the values of a society

• He's been called a "weirdo" and "manic-depressive“• "strange and unbalanced genius“

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Important writings

• “The Seven Lamps of Architecture, Ruskin awakened interest in medieval Gothic architecture.

• “The Stones of venice”• The 19th century Gothic Revival period of architectural

design in England, better known as Victorian Gothic, was in large part due to the writings of John Ruskin.

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Ruskin’s influence on architecture

• John Ruskin rebelled against formal, classical art and architecture.

• Ruskin championed the asymmetrical, rough architecture of medieval Europe.

• His passionate writings heralded the Gothic Revival movement in Britain and paved the way for the Arts & Crafts movement in Britain and the United States.

• Like William Morris and other Arts & Crafts philosophers, John Ruskin opposed industrialization and rejected the use of machine-made materials.

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Important styles

Gothic revival architecture:- features• Pointed windows with decorative tracery• Grouped chimneys• Pinnacles Battlements and shaped parapets • Leaded glass • Quatrefoil and clover-shaped windows• Asymmetrical floor plan

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Important styles

Arts and crafts movement :- features• Wood, stone, or stucco siding• Low-pitched roof• Exposed roof rafters• Porch with thick square or round columns• Exterior chimney made with stone• Open floor plans; few hallways• Numerous windows• Some windows with stained or leaded glass• Beamed ceilings• Built-in cabinets, shelves, and seating

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The lamp of memory –the seven lamps of architecture

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In 1849 John Ruskin published an article called The Seven Lamps of Architecture. In this he distills the essence of the Gothic Revival down to seven “lamps”. They are as follows:• Sacrifice• Truth• Power• Beauty• Life• Memory• Obedience

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• These aren’t guides for how to create a building. These are the foundations for building with integrity, at least to the mind of John Ruskin

• The lamp of Life is all but forgotten. John Ruskin valued the contribution of the individual artist and craftsmen. There is little in the way of current building activity, whether modern or traditional, that can be said to draw value from the contribution of its craftsmen. Mass production has won the day.

• The architectural concepts presented here are like that. They are paradigms not laws. They provide viewpoints, but in the end most people will not understand the concepts. They will simply look at a building and think “I like that” or “What were they thinking?” They are not an unworthy audience for not understanding the concept. The concept was deficient or it was applied incorrectly, or perhaps there are some things that will always simply be a matter of taste.

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Sacrifice –Let me borrow from the Bible to explain this. “Do everything as unto the Lord”. Do it well as if you were trying to please God with your design and craft.

Obedience - “The architecture of a nation is great only when it is as universal and as established as it language”. John Ruskin asserted that England should have one school of architecture, a type of Gothic that was peculiarly English.

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Power – A building is a shape, a mass. Its immensity in comparison to man has its own effect apart from its ornamentation. The architect’s job is to display this shape to its best effect.

Life – This has less to do with the building as it is, but rather the building as it was formed. Building should be made with human hands, and by this he means skilled human hands, masons and carvers and carpenters. The life of the builder must be in the building. Those who build their own houses can relate to this. Ruskin was against the mass production of buildings and any innovation that decreased the skill content of the buildings.

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Memory – Buildings (and houses) should reflect the culture and what went on before. They in turn will inform the culture that follows. John Ruskin was not a big fan of innovative disruption. Even gradual change is something to be distrusted. In some ways he was the ultimate cultural conservative.

Truth – Your buildings should be honest in how they present themselves. No fancy facades hiding poor construction. No wood pretending to be stone.

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Beauty – Here John Ruskin refers to skin and ornamentation. He draws heavily on nature, because nature is our school master for beauty. Therefore art in our buildings should be imitative of the forms and lines and shapes we see in nature. If a column seems beautiful it is because we see them all around us in the stems of plants. If a pointed arch is pleasing to the eye it is because that shape was first pleasing as the shape of a leaf. He also castigates some ornamentation that is not imitative of nature, such as the Greek Key, a running spiral design common in some Greek architecture.

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Thankyou

References –• Book “the seven lamps of architecture”