Meso-American architecture

A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | 2000 | 700+ words | Copyright

Meso-American architecture. Architecture of the Aztec, Mayan, and other Central-American civilizations of the first millennium BC until the Spanish Conquest of C16. Most surviving structures had a ritualistic function, and included flat-topped pyramidal platforms with ramps and/or steps leading to the summit. Many buildings had sculpted friezes, borders, and panels, and the simple rectilinear blocky forms of the temples bore a resemblance to European stripped Classical buildings of C18 and later, while the formal symmetrical geometry of layouts and complexes (including settlements such as the great city of Teotihuacán (c. C1–C8), near Mexico City) had ceremonial roads and a grid-iron plan. Meso-American architecture had a considerable influence on aspects of Art Deco.

Bibliography

Cruickshank (ed.) (1996);
Jane Turner (1996)

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JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Meso-American architecture." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Meso-American architecture." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O1-MesoAmericanarchitecture.html

JAMES STEVENS CURL. "Meso-American architecture." A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. 2000. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O1-MesoAmericanarchitecture.html

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