Pantheon & Eiffel Tower: Architectural Marvels
Pantheon
Sheet Added
Author: Emperor Hadrian
Customers: The Emperor Hadrian
Date: 118-125 AD
Previous Building: Temple built by Agrippa, 27 BC
Location: Campus Martius, Rome
Description
Construction: Architrave and surrounded apparatus; isodom.
Building Materials: Concrete, brick, wood.
Decorative Materials: Stone, marble, stucco.
Brief Description: Monumental building with a large dome, combining architrave architecture with straight lines and rounded arches. Abundant and luxurious decor.
Formal Analysis
Supporting Elements: Thick walls at the bottom, decreasing towards the top. Niches shaped as blind openings on the lower ground floor. Windows providing interior gallery light. Concrete cylinder drum with 3 floors. Arches within the wall distribute the dome’s weight.
Supported Elements: Portico with 8 monolithic columns supporting a Corinthian entablature. 8 pillars support the entire structure. The pillars are Corinthian pilasters and columns with decorative niches.
Supported (Covered) Elements: Hemispherical dome with a large window illuminating and ventilating the building. The lack of drainage channels forced the bending of water flows to the ground.
Decorative Elements: Polychrome colored marbles, sculptures in niches, coffered ceilings decorated with bronze plates, bronze dome covering. Spacious interior.
Plan: Rectangular plant with a circular addition.
Plant Parts and Elements: Octagonal portico divided into three circular naves. Cella with 8 pillars and 7 niches concentrating the weight. Symmetry/fragmentary rate in columns, pillars, and niches. Exterior space.
Facade: The building stands on a podium with a grand central staircase. Above are monolithic columns. Above the frieze is the inscription of Agrippa. A triangular pediment (now lost) is in the background. The rectangular body transitions between the rectangular pronaos and the circular cella. The dome is almost hidden from a frontal viewpoint.
Facade: Symmetry, rhythmic columns, balance between vertical and horizontal. The elevation or section can be viewed from the outside; the dome’s drum hides the interior.
Authority and Architectural Style
Other Works by the Author: Not specified.
Style of the Era: Coliseum, Maison Carrée.
Architectural Style: Trajan’s Column (propaganda style building).
Depth:
1. Systematic use of arches and vaults, creating more extensive and versatile interior spaces, spanning large distances and heights with overlapping arches. Use of domes.
2. Materials used: stone, marble, brick, mortar, or concrete (a resistant mixture of lime and sand), and wood.
3. Use of Greek orders, as well as Tuscan (Doric with smooth shaft and base) and composite (with elements of Ionic and Corinthian volutes, acanthus-leaf).
4. Different types of masonry: opus quadratum and opus caementicium.
Innovations: Union of two different plants; extraordinary dome dimensions; influence of the Greek tholos (circular temple); oriental influence in the use of the dome.
Content and Interpretation
Character of the Building: Public and religious.
Meaning: Temple to all gods. It symbolizes Roman cosmology: the dome is divided into five rings (planets), each ring with 28 coffers (lunar month). The oculus represents the sun illuminating the rotating dome shape.
Metaphorical Element: Rome as the center of world civilization.
Dedication: Also dedicated to deified emperors, mirroring the power of the current emperor, Hadrian.
Symbols: Niches dedicated to planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn), the Sun, and the Moon, with statues of each. Square and circular decoration aims to represent earth gods and men, respectively.
Purpose
Purpose: Religious and propaganda.
Contributions: Renaissance and Baroque (Florence Cathedral, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane in Rome). Neoclassicism: Pantheon.
Eiffel Tower
Identification
Author or School: Gustave Eiffel (although two engineers, Koechlin and Sauvestre, proposed the initial project).
Dates: 1887-1889
Building Type: Public
Period: Iron Architecture
Location: Paris
Description
Materials Used: Wrought iron.
Construction System: Industrial materials.
Measurements: 320m x 125m
Formal Analysis
Supporting Elements: 4 large pillars forming a square, reinforced by four arches reminiscent of iron bridges (Eiffel’s specialty).
Supported Elements: Vertical structure rising like a needle towards the tower’s center, locating the axis of gravity and providing balance and stability. This profile resists wind.
Exterior Space: A pyramid-shaped path with three platforms, giving a sense of lightness despite weighing 10,100 tons. The pyramid has a great verticality, but a gradual curvature towards the interior is visible. The metal structure is lightweight and made of crossbeams. Empty spaces at the base of the 1st floor provide transparency. The four sides are identical and symmetrical.
Authorship and Style
Style: Defining elements, influences, and relationships. The use of iron as the sole material provides various structural and decorative forms. This work relates to Impressionist painting technique. Eiffel’s core work was the construction of metal bridges. Designing and directing the construction of the Staatsbahn railway station (Budapest), exhibition pavilions in Paris (1867 and 1878), the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, and the Eiffel Tower (built for the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris) summarizes his long experience in bridge building, culminating in the most representative monument of 19th-century civil engineering.
Content and Significance
Function of the Building: Political, administrative, decorative.
Symbolic Elements: Symbol of power; tallest building of its time; symbol of French power and advancement in construction techniques; symbol of Paris; symbol of the triumph of new architecture.
Purpose and Function
Purpose: Memorial. Relationship: The material allowed for the construction of a large building.