College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Architecture 170 - Fall 1996 - Dell Upton - September 10
I. Egyptian Building Design and Construction. A. Architects in Ancient Egypt. High government officials were royal ÏarchitectsÓ by virtue of their office, but some did design buildings. Exs.: Imhotep (Dynasty III architect of ZoserÌs complex), Senmut/Senenmut (Dynasty XVIII architect of HatshepsutÌs funerary temple). Drawings on papyrus and ostrakon/limestone flakes. The architectÌs knowledge.B. The Egyptian Proportional System, based on axiality, and a proportional relations derived from the human body: cubit, palm, fathom. C. Egyptian Building Technology. Tools: level, plumb bob. Methods of finding north, leveling site, laying out building. Constructing large buildings; use of ramps.
II. New Kingdom Architecture. A. Continuity and Change in Tomb Building. Extension of expectations of afterlife beyond royalty. Justification and life with Osiris. Murals and inscriptions in tombs; shawabti figures.
B. Rock-Cut Tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Need to protect body for afterlife leads to increased elaboration of embalming procedures and ultimately by hiding the tomb. Valley of the Kings, Western Thebes: remote location of royal and aristocratic tombs separated from valley temples; the peak called al-Qorn.
C. Mentuhotep and Hatshepsut. The glorification of the valley temple in compensation: Mortuary Temple of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II, Dynasty XI [2134-1991 BCE], Deir-el-Bahari (Mentuhotep Plan; Mentuhotep Reconstruction). Note: courts and and ramps, formal plantings, colonnaded hall, pyramid. Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, Dynasty XVIII [1570-1314 BCE], Deir-el-Bahari. Note: upper and lower courts, ramps, shrines to Hathor, Anubis, Amon, Punt hall, Birth hall, sanctuary. The temple as a coordinated architectural assemblage and as a response to the site.
D. The Egyptian Temple in the New Kingdom. Temple of Amon-Re, Mut and Khonsu, Luxor, built by order of Amenhotep III, Dynasty XVIII and Ramses II, Dynasty XIX [1314-1197 BCE]. Note: pylons, open courts, colonnade, hypostyle hall, sanctuary. View of West Pylon, Luxor.
III. Urban Life and Domestic Architecture in Egypt. Planned and informal towns: Akhetaten/Tell-el-Amarna, new capital of Amenophis IV/Akhenaten, Dynasty XVIII. Worker suburb. Note: regular north-south streets, identical houses, enclosed by wall. Deir-el-Medina: town built for workers on tombs in Valley of the Kings, Dynasty XVIII. Note: traditional planning principles in less regular town.
Domestic architecture. Worker Houses at Deir-el-Medina. Note: long narrow plan with entrance court, pillared hall with dais, storage/bed room, kitchen court. Town houses in Thebes. Urban and suburban houses at Akhetaten/Tell-el-Amarna. Related image, Deir-el-Bahari Housing.
IV. Egypt and the World.
A. Nubia: Kerma, Kush, and Mero‘. Urban states and civilizations along the Nile in Nubia (present-day Sudan). Kerma, ca. 16C BCE. Napata, capital of the Kingdom of Kush (ca. 9C BCE) melds into Meroitic state, based at city of Mero‘, ca. 4C BCE to 4C CE. A center of trade, politics, and metal-working whose architecture and culture were based on synthesis of local, Egyptian, and Roman ideas. Ex.: Lion Temple of Natakamani and Amanitere, Naqa/Naga, Sudan, 1C BCE-1C CE (Naqa, exterior carved wall).
B. Architectural Legacies. Egyptian architecture in the classical, Renaissance, and modern worlds.