Discoverer of GENIUS ARCHITECTURE THEORY?

Question

Theory of Architecture

Answer 1

There is little information or evidence about major architectural theory in antiquity, until the first century BCE, with the work of Vitruvius. This does not mean, however, that such works didn't exist. Many works never survived antiquity, and the burning of the Alexandria Library shows us a very good example of this.

Vitruvius was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BCE. He was the most prominent architectural theorist in the Roman Empire known today, having written De architectura, known today as The Ten Books of Architecture, a treatise written of Latin and Greek on architecture, dedicated to the emperor Augustus. It is the only surviving major book on architecture from classical antiquity. Probably written between 27 and 23 BCE, it is the only contemporary source on classical architecture to have survived. Divided into ten sections or "books", it covers almost every aspect of Roman architecture, from town planning, materials, decorations, temples, water supplies, etc. The famous orders of architecture that we can see in every classical architecture are rigorously defined in the books. It also gathers three fundamental laws that Architecture must obey, in order to be so considered: firmitas, utilitas, venustas: firmness, commodity (in the sense of functionality), and delight. The rediscovery of Vitruvius' work had a profound influence on architects of the Renaissance, prompting the rise of the Renaissance style. Renaissance architects, such as Niccoli, Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti, found in "De Architectura" their rationale for raising their branch of knowledge to a scientific discipline.