Map of Architecture

Places on this map

• Saqqara

  The royal necropolis of ancient Egypt. Here Imhotep built the Step Pyramid for the pharaoh Djoser — the first large-scale stone structure in the world, making real for the first time the idea of "building permanently in stone."

  Connected figures: Imhotep

• Athenian Acropolis

  The sacred hill of Greek civilization. Here Ictinus and Callicrates built the Parthenon, and Mnesicles the Propylaea — the highest model of classical proportion and aesthetics, still a symbol of Western civilization.

  Connected figures: Ictinus · Callicrates · Mnesicles

• Rome

  City of classical and Baroque architecture. Here Vitruvius wrote The Ten Books and Apollodorus built the Forum of Trajan; fifteen centuries later Bramante, Michelangelo, Bernini, and Borromini built the Renaissance and the Baroque into the Eternal City.

  Connected figures: Vitruvius · Apollodorus of Damascus · Donato Bramante · Michelangelo · Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola · Gian Lorenzo Bernini · Francesco Borromini

• Constantinople

  Architectural capital of Byzantium and the Ottomans. Here Isidore and Anthemius raised the floating dome of Hagia Sophia; a thousand years later the Ottoman master Sinan built mosque after mosque under the same sky, striving all his life to surpass it.

  Connected figures: Isidore of Miletus · Anthemius of Tralles · Mimar Sinan

• Saint-Denis

  Birthplace of Gothic architecture. Here Abbot Suger rebuilt the abbey church, combining pointed arch, flying buttress, and great stained-glass windows to let sunlight pour into a church for the first time — the soaring, light-filled Gothic space was born.

  Connected figures: Abbot Suger

• Amiens

  Summit of French High Gothic. The Amiens Cathedral designed by Robert de Luzarches has a nave over forty metres high, the tallest Gothic nave in France, like a forest of stone growing toward the sky.

  Connected figures: Robert de Luzarches · William of Sens

• Florence

  Cradle of the Renaissance. The cathedral Arnolfo began left a huge void none could dome for a century, until Brunelleschi built the red dome with a stroke of genius — the first thunderclap of the Renaissance. Alberti too wrote his theory here.

  Connected figures: Filippo Brunelleschi · Leon Battista Alberti · Arnolfo di Cambio

• Vicenza

  Palladio’s city. In the Veneto he built the Villa Rotonda and a series of elegant classical buildings, and wrote the Four Books of Architecture — through which "Palladianism" crossed the ocean to shape centuries of Anglo-American public building.

  Connected figures: Andrea Palladio

• Prague

  City of the Late Gothic. Here Peter Parler built St Vitus Cathedral and the Charles Bridge, breaking convention with intricate net vaults and carving his own bust into the church — foretelling the architect’s leap from anonymous craftsman to named master.

  Connected figures: Peter Parler

• Versailles

  Symbol of French absolute power. Mansart expanded the Palace of Versailles into the most dazzling stage of royal power, designing the Hall of Mirrors of seventeen great mirrors and seventeen arched windows — ablaze with light, the model courts across Europe rushed to imitate.

  Connected figures: Jules Hardouin-Mansart

• Paris

  Battleground of modern and contemporary architecture. Le Corbusier built modernist textbooks near here, Piano and Rogers turned the Centre Pompidou’s "insides" out, and Pei raised the glass pyramid before the Louvre that shocked the whole city.

  Connected figures: Le Corbusier · Renzo Piano · I. M. Pei

• London

  After the Great Fire of 1666, Wren rebuilt the grand dome of St Paul’s; three centuries later Foster raised landmarks like the "Gherkin" in steel and glass High-Tech — the classical and the high-tech in dialogue.

  Connected figures: Christopher Wren · Norman Foster

• Barcelona

  Gaudí’s fantastical city. Drawing from nature’s curves, he studded the whole city into an organic dream; the Sagrada Família, still under construction, grows skyward like a forest of stone — "the straight line belongs to man, the curve to God."

  Connected figures: Antoni Gaudí

• Chicago

  Birthplace of the skyscraper. The steel frame and elevator let buildings grow skyward for the first time; here Sullivan proclaimed "form follows function," Wright made his start, and Mies later raised the "glass box" that defined the world.

  Connected figures: Louis Sullivan · Frank Lloyd Wright · Mies van der Rohe

• Bilbao

  Origin of the "Bilbao effect." With shining titanium curves Gehry built the wave-curling Guggenheim, single-handedly bringing this declining industrial town back to life — one building changed the fate of a city.

  Connected figures: Frank Gehry

• Basel

  Home of Herzog & de Meuron. From here the Swiss pair set out, and with a near-obsessive exploration of material and the "skin" of buildings created contemporary masterpieces like Beijing’s "Bird’s Nest" and London’s Tate Modern.

  Connected figures: Herzog & de Meuron

• Chang'an

  Capital of the Sui and Tang. Here Yuwen Kai planned and built Daxing (Tang Chang’an) — strictly symmetrical, holding a million people, the largest, most advanced city of its day and the model Japan’s ancient capitals rushed to imitate.

  Connected figures: Yuwen Kai

• Kaifeng

  Capital of the Northern Song. Here Li Jie compiled the Yingzao Fashi, setting standardized design rules for Chinese timber architecture with a module system "taking the cai as the ancestor" — an Eastern classic answering the West’s Vitruvius.

  Connected figures: Li Jie

• Beijing

  City of Ming and Qing imperial building. Kuai Xiang directed the building of the Forbidden City, honored as "Kuai Lu Ban"; the Lei family headed the imperial design office for eight generations; and earlier, the Nepalese Aniga raised the White Pagoda here.

  Connected figures: Kuai Xiang · The Lei Family · Aniga

• Suzhou

  City of the Chinese classical garden. Ji Cheng made gardens here and wrote the world’s first garden treatise, the Yuanye, with its ideal "though made by man, as if opened by heaven" — boundless landscape conjured in a small space of rockery and winding path.

  Connected figures: Ji Cheng

• Tokyo

  Stage of contemporary Japanese architecture. Tange raised the wave-like Yoyogi Gymnasium for the 1964 Olympics, fusing tradition and the modern; after him Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, and a constellation of others made Japanese architecture world-renowned.

  Connected figures: Kenzo Tange · Toyo Ito · Tadao Ando