Favorite Architecture?

Persian, easily my favorite.  It used to be Chinese but after seeing that stuff in person it all starts to look the same.  Persian and transoxianan architecture however is amazing and has enough variations to keep a ADD type person like me enthralled.  Gothic and Islamic would be my next faovites.

 

Islamic.....

The sheer simplicity of it is beautiful.   I also like Romanesque Churches and Japanese archetecture for the same reason.

 

Edited by Cryptic - 06-Jul-2006 at 20:21

Persian architecture is fairly distinct from other mid eastern kinds but these are islamic persian designs, with the arabic script and all.

Personally i like the classical greek better or at the same level of persian architecture because it just seems so tranquil with a mediterranean setting.

In Iran there are several churches and synagogue that you think to be mosques!

I think there is no such classification as "islamic architecture", it should be classifed as "Ottoman architecture", "Umayyad arch.", "Persian arch.", "Seljuk arch." and "others" because it is very diverse from period to period, from people to people and from states/empires to states/empires styles.

I would say my favorite type of architecture either comes from ancient Roman or Byzantine.

I would have to say Islamic. Persian runs a close second, but some of it is just a little over the top in my opinion.

I'm a big fan of Gothic architecture, including the revival styles like Gothic Revival and also the Tudor Era buildings in Britain (sort of English Gothic) For me, Byzantine comes very close but unfortunately we don't have many secular buildings from the Byzantine period. 

Originally posted by Menumorut Byzantine because it's the expression of a very moral ideology.       Also, it's a such armonious unity between the dogma and their material expression that logicaly cann't be the result of a natural way of thinking.     The Byzantine builders were sort of engineers but like the painters and other artisans were praying when working. We could say that the Byzantine art it's a result of prayer because it's fundaments are not rational, like in the Christian West, bust mystical; it's the product of praying minds. This explain the incredible armony of Byzantine architecture and art.

Well said
I love the way you express yourself btw

Yer, Persian architecture is breath-taking.. very ornate in terms of decorative detail.  I agree with Cryptic in that the Vank Cathedral looks very much like the interior of Agia Sophia.

There's some beautiful structures there, but in terms of general architecture, I would have to say Byzantine, as it also encompasses Classical Greek.

"The Byzantine Empire was no less than a continuation of the Greek world as it had evolved after the age of Alexander the Great.  Even from as early as the reign of Constantine the Great we can identify the Byzantine Empire as the Greek Empire of the middle centuries.
It was filled with works of art that had survived from ancient Greece and with the masterpieces of it's own exquisite craftsmen.

It's architecture also influenced the dome in western cathedrals, mosques, onion domes of Russia.

Edited by Hellios - 04-Oct-2006 at 19:58