History of Architecture 101

Abstract

This paper documents research in the field of virtual archaeology as an assist in teaching history of architecture. Virtual archaeology or re-creating ancient worlds digitally is not a new item. While the virtual reconstructions of Cahokia on the Mississippi or the Royal Cemetery at Ur in Iraq have provided us with glimpses of how those ancient sites might have looked, the ‘quality' of the digital end product has been lacking and not well used within the structure of traditional history of architecture classes. This is because virtual archaeology is in its infant stages. And, architectural historians are just beginning to use digital tools. This paper makes the point that in order to truly develop the bases of a new cognitive science, virtual archaeology has to incorporate a willingness to achieve higher digital modeling and rendering qualities. And, it has to be well integrated into history of architecture classes. In other words, our ability to explore, to interpret and to appropriately use digital tools needs to aspire to greater and more penetrating abilities to reconstruct the past. This paper presents the theoretical reconstruction of the Aztec Templo Mayor in Mexico and how this research project was integrated into the course ‘Pre-Columbian Architecture'. Students in this class have been fascinated not only by the use of animated sections, visualizations and animations, but how these new digital approaches helped them grasp and appreciate the very significant architectural contributions of the early inhabitants of the Americas.