Developments in Architecture

Paper Summary:

In this paper the author examines the different types of architecture that are becoming more popular today. He looks at a number of articles and books that have been written about differing architectural styles. The author specifically looks at Indonesian architecture as having been influenced by Islam, India and the Middle East. The paper continues with a look at the number of art museums that have been built in the United States in the past three decades that have prompted critics and historians to devote increasing attention to the museum as a major architectural genre and not just a place to exhibit artifacts. The paper concludes with a story about the new type of architecture where homes are built inside gravel pits. These pits are a result of overgrazed land that was later mined and abandoned. So what would have been wasted land is becoming a new architectural phenomenon in response to the new social ideals in American culture.

From the Paper:

"These museums altered the civic environment. While their stylistic origins were for the most part French, they grew out of the great international fairs of the period, which were often conspicuously embellished with buildings designed for the display of art. Much of Steffensen-Bruce's discussion is directed toward the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, "arguably the single most influential event in the history of American fin-de-siecle culture." Not only was its Fine Arts Palace the sole building of the Fair constructed in semi-permanent form (the walls were brick, the exterior covering made of reinforced plaster), the layout of the fairgrounds themselves constituted a major innovation in urban planning that in turn affected the City Beautiful movement--a dual accomplishment instrumental in the development of the American art museum during the last years of the century."

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