Curated playlist
Architectural history
- Roman architectural revolutionRoman builders poured concrete into curved molds to make domes stone could not easily form.
- Baroque architectureBaroque architecture began as the Catholic Church's visual answer to Protestantism.
- Modern architectureThe Nazis closed the Bauhaus in 1933, calling it a training ground for communists.
- Renaissance architectureEight different quarters of Florence each built one segment of Brunelleschi's cathedral dome.
- Gothic architectureGothic began as an insult, not a compliment. Builders called the style opus Francigenum, meaning French work.
- Roman concreteLime lumps in Roman concrete were once blamed on sloppy mixing, but they help it heal.
- History of architectureThe history of architecture begins with a nest, not a building. Orangutans build ones with roofs, blankets and pillows.
- ManuelineManueline churches in Portugal have stone columns carved to look like coiled rope.
- Italian RenaissanceLorenzo the Magnificent survived an assassination attempt at Easter mass in 1478, but his brother Giuliano did not.
- Villa rusticaA Roman villa rustica was a working farm, not a pleasure palace. The word rustica set it apart from leisure retreats.
- Palladian architecturePalladio looked at Roman ruins and saw a set of governing laws, not rubble.
- VihāraVihāra is the Sanskrit and Pāli word for a dwelling, and most often it names a Buddhist monastery. The Indian state of Bihar takes its own name from this word, because Buddhist monasteries once stood there in such numbers. A term for a…
- Ancient Roman architectureRoman builders poured concrete into reusable wooden frames. It let them build fast without carving every stone by hand.
- Architecture of RussiaPeter the Great banned stone building across Russia in 1714. He wanted workers and materials sent to Saint Petersburg.