Building unique architectures

[Johnny.JJ]

Let this thread serve as a venture into the process of exploring new architectonic styles, as for our beloved world-building.

Any (semi)realistic world functions as a set of interconnected variables. Architecture is no exception to this. And so the following applies:

All the buildings are built within the limitations of the masons, manpower and the available technology
The buildings are only constructed from what's available - i.e. using the (most) common construction material in the area
The buildings serve as shelters to the inhabitants, overcoming the challenges of the environment in the area; expanding on this idea, the city must be built in a particularly strategic way, in order for it to utilize the natural resources of the area
A collection of buildings - a city, a community - may have to protect itself from harmful influences, such as the raiders and savage armies in its vicinity (raising the defenses and adapting these defenses to the local style of war)
A city has a social dimension - all the buildings serve people and their needs; a collectivist society may benefit from huge, free-for-all grouping types of buildings, whilst a highly stratified society may adopt architectural ways of segregating the rich from the poor, etc.
... and mayhaps more? (specify the dynamics, and I'll add the to the list)


So many variables ... isn't it tiresome? Pedantic? Could be. But on the flip side of the coin, creating a functioning architecture creates waaaaay more than just a few buildings. In world building, a well-done architecture helps fleshing out the whole culture and serves as a useful shortcut for designing whole cities!

Now, based on the aforementioned items, let's try to design a few unique architectures!

Grumpy man's note: those majestic "fantasy" sky-castles are nice to look at; but otherwise than that, they have no real application, I'm afraid (unconstructable, unsustainable, unusable).

A solid, down-to-earth example of a cool, inspiring architecture is a Sumerian ziggurat (https://www.google.com/search?q=ziggurat&source=lnms&tbm=isch&biw=1400&bih=946&sei=rqMZUJXxNIeHswbExIDwAw). Even so, we don't want to be copying the architecture of the Sumerian to the bone, do we?

In a creative effort (as in creating something new), do you have an idea / a concept / a design of a solid architectural theme?
As for that theme, any kinds of environments and societies are allowed, of course - but you better specify them, to translate the overall theme of the civilization to the other readers.

Since this is an architectonic thread, an architectonic contribution composed of words would be nice ... but sketches, concepts and all sorts of drawings would be even better.

[NichG]

For the constraints to give rise to interesting results, an interesting basic environment or challenge must be posed. So here's one to think about:

The world is hollow, but even within its shell things are drawn to the Maw that whirls at its center. Starting 1000ft down, there is a thin, uniform layer of what is known as Eternal Rock, a highly rigid, self-healing stratum that supports the weight of the world. Eternal Rock loses its self-healing properties when removed, but retains its very high shear modulus and compressive modulus (it fails under tension, like cement). Things poke down through the Eternal Rock, as it cannot heal over intrusions, and these provide access to the depths of the world for surface-dwellers.

At varying depths within the world are layers of useful fluids, an inner sea of sorts. The topmost layer is a very low density, nearly clear substance: Amberoil. Amberoil, when mixed with spirits, burns with a clean orange flame for ten times longer than an equivalent amount of tallow or other oils. On its own, Amberoil is inert. Fifty feet below that is a layer of water about 50ft deep. Below that is a layer of a black liquid called Sculptor's Marvel. Sculptor's Blessing hardens into stone when exposed to sufficiently bright light, and can be melted by heating up to 120C - it is about twice as dense as water.

There may be more layers, but lets stop here.

Given a culture from the surface with access to intrusions into the Eternal Rock and small amounts of said substance (since it only regrows slowly, is hard to extract, etc), what would their buildings look like, assuming they wanted to harvest the materials in the underseas? I'm thinking relatively low magic (D&D spells 2rd level and below, so levitating construction crews are still possible but would be a limited resource for certain hard parts in the construction, as they couldn't levitate for long), and highly refined 'basic' engineering (like Inca stoneworking skills mixed with Rennaisance Europe architectural understanding).

Building descending structures that could withstand their own tension should be pretty different than building upright structures that need to withstand compression, both in order of building and in what the structures actually need to look like.

[Johnny.JJ]

Is this it?
http://s10.postimage.org/toz6dzei1/hollow_world.jpg


Building descending structures that could withstand their own tension should be pretty different than building upright structures that need to withstand compression, both in order of building and in what the structures actually need to look like.
Is that so? Well, why don't you provide us with some illustrations of architectonic examples of such construction methods?

[NichG]

I was thinking of the Amberoil and Sculptor's Marvel as layers of a layered sea, so they should all be under the Eternal Rock. Sort of like seas on cold moons or other planets, when there are multiple common liquid phases they sort by density.

If you search google for 'tensile architecture' you find a bunch of structures that are built with tension rather than compression in mind. A good example of these are tents of various sorts (though they don't have to fight gravity the same way this descending city would have to). In tents and the like they tend to be minimal surfaces, so you get these shallowly curved segments supported by rigid beams.

Some examples:

http://img.archiexpo.com/images_ae/photo-mg/frame-supported-tensile-structure-61166-1713469.jpg

http://www.cepolina.com/tensile_structure_cone.html


For a descending city, I'd imagine you'd have a bunch of support wires the same way you do a suspension bridge. These'd have to be decent under tension and have a good elastic range before plastic/failure, or any little motion of the earth would cause the whole city to fall. They'd be embedded in the Eternal Rock, I'm thinking around 45 degrees or so from the structures, perhaps in a 3-point support kind of configuration.

One problem is, I'm not sure what this proposed culture might have that would do for these wires. Steel might have to do.

Building these things would also be quite an adventure. I imagine you'd do it like a spider builds a web - maybe create a horizontal support frame of these wires (think something like a polygon made from wires that are shallow catenaries), hook secondary wires over those lines for support, and drop an access line down the center for the builders. Things would then be suspended in the middle of the wire web and built up along the access line sort of like a big rock-candy city.

[Big Meany]

I don't see any reason that actual spider silk couldn't be used in place of steel cables. It also may add an interesting dimension to your world. Spider-riding engineers (perhaps appearing fearsome but wholly passive after supposed eons of domestication)

As previously mentioned, building supports more like a spider web is a fantastic idea and, in theory, a sound one.