Authors

Taranenko Anatoly Yu.
EVOLUTION OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF OBSERVATORIES

Architecton: Proceedings of Higher Education №2 (38) June, 2012

The article presents a study and analysis of the principal characteristics of the architecture of observatories such as spatial structure, materials, and building practices, and compares them with space exploration technologies, methods and objectives at different historical stages. Based on his study, the author distinguishes three basic periods in its evolution - "structural", "formal", and "spatial", and provides examples of observatories illustrating these periods with their characteristic features and distinctions identified. The author also identifies tendencies in the development of architectural astronomical structures.

The evolution of the architecture of observatories demonstrates logical dynamics determined by the evolution of technology in astrophysical research.

Each of the periods is characterised by the domination of certain properties of architecture used as a special toolkit:

– «structural» period – structural properties of architecture;
– during the «formal» period, use was made mostly of form generation properties of architecture, whereby the objective was to deal with forms of spatial compositions and imagery variations;
– during the «spatial» period, it is the potentialities of architecture as an aggregate of spatial and temporal characteristics that have found predominant use.