A Universal Language in Stone and Steel: Architectural Poetics, Globally Considered

Professor Nathaniel Walker, Ph.D., presents a lecture introducing students to a broader conception of the "classical," in this recording from June 2019. Nathaniel posts the argument that classicists working today would do well to demonstrate how their work speaks a universal language of value to the greater human family.

When one hears the phrase “classical architecture,” it is usually the forms of the Classical Mediterranean that come to mind: Greco-Roman columns and pediments, with perhaps a sprinkling of Egyptian pyramids and a dash of Assyrian tile. There are, however, other cultural periods that have been described as “classical”—scholars speak of Classical Chinese culture, the Classic Maya, and the Classical period of Ile-Ife in ancient Nigeria. Great achievements in art and architecture have taken place all over the world, and there are striking similarities between different traditions, including the architectural poetics of structural elaboration, human-scaled proportion, and ornamental pattern. These similarities are meaningful, because they point to the kinship shared by all human beings.

About the Instructor:
Dr. Nathaniel R. Walker is Assistant Professor of Architectural History at the College of Charleston. He earned his Ph.D. at Brown University in the History of Art and Architecture, an MA in Architectural History from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and a BA in History (with a minor in German) at Belmont University.

Nathaniel specializes in the history of public space such as squares and streets, particularly in the United States and Europe, but he has also worked with the urban forms of the Classic Maya and with Chinese Daoist architectural representations. He has focused many of his studies on the relationships between architecture, urban planning, and utopian dreams of progress and futurity that proliferated in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, film, advertising, and other media.

Nathaniel’s upcoming book Victorian Visions of Suburban Utopia has entered the production phase for publication later this year with Oxford University Press. In addition his co-edited book with Elizabeth Darling, Suffragette City: Women, Politics, and the Built Environment, has just been nominated for the Colvin Medal, one of Britain’s highest honors for architectural history books.

About the ICAA:
The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (ICAA), is a national nonprofit promoting the practice, understanding and appreciation of classical design.

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