PRINCIPLES

OF

DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURE

TRACED,

IN OBSERVATIONS ON BUILDINGS.

LETTER I.

Origin of Architecture-Five principal Classes of Architecture.-Utility the foundation of Design in all Archi·tecture.-Design controlled by materials.—First buildinge in each class of Architecture.

HEN after our conversations on the prin

WHEN

ciples of Design in Architecture, you desired me to put in writing my thoughts on the subject, you were aware not only that I was not an architect, but moreover that I never had applied myself to the study of architecture with anything like the devotion of a Lord Burlington or a Thomas Hope, and that I was far from pretending to either architectonic science or building skill like theirs. But I must acknowledge to you a farther deficiency: loving the art as I do, and valuing your commands as I do, I cannot undertake the labor of such reference to books, whether within my

past reading, or beyond it, as would be requisite, even had I in greater amount other requisites, for the perfection of a treatise on the subject. Complying with your desire then, as far as I readily can, the store in my mind, such as it is, must principally serve me. You however could nearly calculate both my means and my deficiencies when you urged your requisition; and so, using, as I best may, what I possess, I proceed to our subject.

To obtain the Principles of an art we must consider its Purposes; and, in tracing these we shall be led of course to advert to its Origin.

Architecture, for its Purposes, may be divided, I think, under five classes: Sacred, Civil, Military, Domestic, and Monumental.

For the origin of architecture, we may look to he wants of our first forefathers. The need of protection against heat, cold, and rain, and, as the very first family increased in number, the desire of occasional privacy, would urge to the exertion of human ingenuity in building.

Yet perhaps RELIGION may have excited attempts toward architecture as soon as even the physical wants of naked man. We read of Sacrifice among the first memorials of times after the fall; and again, after the flood, the building of an Altar is the first matter recorded. When Man, sub

jected to Death, was reduced to take, as a boon, the permission to destroy and devour his fellowcreatures, for the support of his own precarious life, the degradation was softened, and correction of his vitiated mind was at the same time provided, by sacrifice; giving to the bloody business of preparing the meal, the dignity, and mixing with it the devotion, of a religious ceremony. The altar, originating from this institution, was the first structure for religious purposes; and remained the only one, we read of, for some ages. Not in sacred writ alone, but among the earliest memorials of heathen nations also, with frequent mention of the altar, we find no notice of any other building for religious ceremony.

CIVIL ARCHITECTURE appears to have arisen very early, with the multiplication of mankind. According to the computation of the most authoritative chronologers, it was but about a century after the flood when a CITY is recorded to have been built. The very expression, a city, implies civil architecture, or building for the common purposes of a numerous society.

MILITARY ARCHITECTURE would have its origin not probably before, yet not, in any likelihood, long after civil. It was the resource of the more honest and more civilized, of increasing and spreading mankind, for defence against the violence of the ruder and more profligate.

The need of providing permanence for memory of interesting transactions, together with the desire of honoring the illustrious dead, and transmitting their fame to posterity, produced a fifth kind of architecture, the Monumental.

The First particular Building, of which notice has been preserved in hiftory, is that extraordinary one, described in the account of the first city, the tower of Babel. The term tower generally implies military purpose, but none such is here any otherwise indicated. Monumental purpose is clearly mentioned; which may have been combined with military purpose, or civil, or both; though the monumental alone is declared. The tower of Babel however may claim to be the first PUBLIC building noticed in the history of the world.

Architecture, in all its branches, originating from the wants of mankind, the first Principle of DESIGN in building must be UTILITY. The chief object of Domestic architecture is private or domestic convenience; of Sacred, convenience for religious ceremony; of Civil, public convenience, a fitness for the common purposes of many families, associated in one community, and under one government; of Military, the end is safety, whether of a single family, or any more numerous society; of Monumental it is indication of facts, and preservation of memory of them.

The PURPOSE being decided, materials, accommodated to that purpose must be found; and these will powerfully controll the DESIGN. Wood, stone, brick, and unbaked earth, severally require different proportions of supporting to supported matter. Two beams of small diameter will bear a long beam resting on them, and much structure of wood above. In building with stone, far less interval can be allowed between the supporting pillars, or piers, and the beam which is to bear the superstructure, though but a roof. Hence Two differing Styles of Design arise.

Very extensively over the world, Timber would be the material most readily brought to use; and therefore, especially for DOMESTIC BUILDING, first or principally used. Probably, in most countries, the first houses nearly resembled the American wigwam, or hut; composed of poles arranged circularly, with the larger end fixed int the ground, and the smaller bound together at top; such thatching being added as the country offered. Our great master, Vitruvius, has supposed primeval dwellings to have been nearly of this description; and the Irish cabin, at this day, is hardly one full step in architecture beyond.

But, for the SACRED ARCHITECTURE of the early ages, the altar being its principal, if not only object, the power of bearing fire was a requisite quality, and wood therefore inadmissible.