Paragraph on “How can we learn history from architecture?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

How can we learn history from architecture?

A style of architecture is simply a type of structure, built for a particular need, with available materials, and by the known methods of design and construction of the day.

What remains today of architecture, or buildings, of earlier times, not only tells us what kind of bricks and mortar, timber or other materials were used for building, but also how people lived.

So, in a way, it is living history ! It is possible to see from the written historical records that the way man lived -how he worked, how well he was paid or rewarded, how wealthy he was, how he entertained himself and how much he was learning – all greatly influenced what kind of house and public building he constructed. Also whether he was at peace or at war.

For instance, the magnificent Classical Period of the Romans – which was a long period of peace when they erected tall, well-balanced, beautifully columned, buildings – came to a quick end when the Roman Empire fell in the fifth century after Christ. For they were no longer settled enough to devote time to the development of the art of architecture.

In the eighteenth century too, the elegant and simple Georgian style of architecture flourishing in England, came to an abrupt end. This was due to the beginning of thy’ Industrial Revolution in the late I7oos – when machines were first organised for use in industry. Quite suddenly, a different class of society had money and wanted to build grand houses. This resulted in a change to an extravagant, elaborate and bold style, that was representative of the vitality that the new machine age gave to industry, and the people involved in it.

Today, in cities, there is a style of architecture called high-rise. You probably know these buildings as sky-scrapers — huge tall blocks of offices or flats some having as many as 100, or more, floors. These came to be built because twentieth century man, in many parts of the world, was running out of ground space, as more and more people came to live and work in cities. So, with the help of modern technology he found a way of housing more people over the same area of land.