Art Deco architecture is the glamorous, geometric style of the 1920s and 1930s, the look of stepped skyscraper crowns, sunburst motifs, chrome, coloured terracotta and bold lettering across a cinema front. It took its name from a 1925 exhibition in Paris and within a decade had spread to New York, Shanghai, Mumbai, Sydney and a […]
Author Archives: Archtene
An axonometric drawing shows a building from above and at an angle, with every parallel line kept parallel and every dimension measurable. It sits between the plan and the perspective: you get the roof, two walls and the floor plan in one image, without any vanishing points. That is why juries often spend longest on […]
An architectural elevation drawing is the building seen straight on, one face at a time, with no perspective. It shows heights, openings, materials, roof lines and how the building meets the ground, and it is usually the drawing a jury or a client looks at first, because it is the closest thing to what they […]
The plan tells you how a building is organised. The section tells you how it feels. It is the drawing that shows ceiling heights, how light drops into a room, where the ground sits and how people move between levels, and a good one can carry a whole crit on its own. That is also […]
Romanesque is the direct predecessor to Gothic; the Explained format is proven and this fills the chronological gap.
Architectural Styles, Blog
Neoclassical Architecture Explained: Order, Symmetry, and Democratic Ideals
Neoclassical Architecture Explained: Order, Symmetry, and Democratic Ideals Neoclassical architecture is one of the most influential movements in the history of the built environment. Emerging in the mid-eighteenth century as a deliberate return to the principles of ancient Greece and Rome, it shaped the way nations expressed power, civic identity, and democratic aspiration through buildings. […]
Blog
Abu Dhabi’s Architectural Identity: Key Buildings, Design Strategies & What Architects Can Learn
Abu Dhabi Architecture: Key Buildings, Design Strategies and What Architects Can Learn Abu Dhabi is often overshadowed by Dubai in architectural conversations. Dubai’s skyline — defined by supertall towers, artificial islands and spectacle-driven development — tends to dominate discussions about architecture in the UAE. But Abu Dhabi has pursued a fundamentally different path, one that […]
Gothic Architecture Explained: Structural Innovation, Light, and Verticality Gothic architecture is not merely a style defined by pointed arches and tall spires. It is a complete structural system — one invented to serve a specific theological vision. Between roughly 1140 and 1500, builders across Europe developed an interdependent set of structural innovations that allowed them […]
Havana’s Crumbling Grandeur: Colonial, Art Deco, and Revolutionary Architecture Few cities on earth compress so many centuries of architectural ambition into such a compact urban footprint — and fewer still have preserved that layering through sheer economic standstill. Havana is not a museum. It is a living city where colonial palaces, Art Deco towers, Modernist […]
Rammed Earth Architecture: Process, Performance, and Contemporary Projects One of humanity's oldest construction techniques is experiencing a genuine resurgence in contemporary architectural practice. Rammed earth — compacted layers of raw earth built up within formwork — has been used for thousands of years. Sections of the Great Wall of China were built with it. The […]