History Of Architecture I - Lesson 3: Mesopotamia

1. The rise of the city in Mesopotamia
new spatial concepts of social life:
from the city space to the private home
new public symbols:
temples versus palaces

2. 3500-3000 BC
PROTOLITERATE PD
Compact and protected cities
Temples and Ziggurat became
types
Short terms leaders
3000-2300 BC
EARLY DYNASTIC PD
Kingship was established
Monumental palaces
UP TO 1600 BC
LATER SUMERIAN PD
Rise of empire with city state in
competition
Third Dynasty of Ur and most
important Ziggurat never built
1350-600 BC
ASSYRIAN PD
Northern part of Mesopotamia
flourished and became
dominant in the region
Assyrians imposed a new urban
culture in which their palaces
were more important than
temples

3. CITIES
The city of Ur in the Later Sumerian period

4. URBAN FABRIC
Street network
Urban blocks
Courtyard houses

5. HOUSING TYPES

6. HOUSING TYPES

8. Map of the city of Nippur in the 1500 BC
TEMPLES

9. TEMPLES
Approaching the
PROTOLITERATE PD
Formation of an
archetype for the temple
building and the idea of
the corner as a bastion
Temple of Eridu from
5000 BC to 3800 BC

10. TEMPLES
PROTOLITERATE PD
The idea of the Ziggurat
as a sacred landmark
Platform as a sloped
wall
Typical temple plan
Irregular sequence of
ramps and stairs

11. White Temple of Warka in its natural context, 3500 3000 BC

12. TEMPLES
EARLY DYNASTIC PD
An urban temple
At Khafaje from 3000 to
2750 BC
The idea of the
courtyard as the main
worship space

13. TEMPLES
EARLY DYNASTIC PD
An another urban temple

14. TEMPLES
LATER SUMERIAN PD
The Ziggurat is a
monumental urban
landmark
Social spaces and
symbolical references of
mountains where
Sumerians deities lived

16. Ziggurat of Ur-Nammur

17. Tower of Babel, Bruegel the Elder, 16th
century.

18. PALACES
1350-600 BC
ASSYRIAN PD
The city of Khorsabad
represented a new political
and cultural condition in
which the king built a city in
the city, called citadel.
Within this walled part of
the city was built the
palace. The ziggurat is now
less important than the
palace.

21. PALACES
Versus
ZIGGURATS.
UR VS KHORSABAD

23. PLANNED CITIES
WITH ORTHOGONAL LAYOUTS:
MOHENJO-DARO
(Pakistan)
Around 2500 BC

26. PLANNED CITIES
WITH ORTHOGONAL
LAYOUTS:
El Kahun
(Lower Egypt)
Around 19th
century BC