From Classical to Modern
A broad line from domes, arches, and load-bearing walls to iron, glass, and skeletal frames.
The Parthenon’s proportions, the Pantheon’s concrete dome, and Hagia Sophia’s pendentives represent classical ways of making large interiors from masonry and curved surfaces. Section drawings begin to reveal their load paths.
The flying buttresses of Notre-Dame and Chartres send lateral thrust outward to make higher windows and thinner walls. Gothic architecture is structural as well as ornamental.
The Eiffel Tower and Crystal Palace mark the industrial transition in which iron and glass became monument and exhibition hall. Prefabrication and trusses enabled assembled vastness.
Villa Savoye, the Seagram Building, and curtain-wall towers then shift load to frames and lighten the envelope. This guide is a brief history of load paths, not a travel schedule.
