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(b London, April 1, 1794; d Ely, Oct 16, 1845).

English architect. He was born into a wealthy and cultured family related to the Disraelis and the Ricardos, and he trained in John Soane’s office (1810–16), receiving what was then probably the best architectural education available in England, as in his watercolour of the staircase of Gower House, London (1813; London, Soane Mus.; see Chambers, william, fig.). In 1816 he began a tour of Italy and Greece, which was recorded in letters to his family (untraced; typescript London, Soane Mus.) and in drawings and sketches (London, Soane Mus.; see Jordan). After travelling via Paris to Turin, Florence, Rome, Venice and Vicenza, a meeting with C. R. Cockerell in Rome (1817) persuaded him to visit Greece; during 1818 he went via Naples to Thessaly, Constantinople and Athens, returning to Rome via Sicily.

In June 1819 Basevi was back in London at a moment when building activity was expanding after the depressed years immediately following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. His earliest commissions were minor alteration works for family friends or business acquaintances. In ...

Bazaar, which is rooted in Middle Persian wāzār and Armenian vačaṟ, has acquired three different meanings: the market as a whole, a market day, and the marketplace. The bazaar as a place is an assemblage of workshops and stores where various goods and services are offered.

Primitive forms of shops and trade centres existed in early civilizations in the Near East, such as Sialk, Tepe in Kashan, Çatal Hüyük, Jerico, and Susa. After the 4th millennium BC, the population grew and villages gradually joined together to shape new cities, resulting in trade even with the remote areas as well as the acceleration of the population in towns. The advancement of trade and accumulation of wealth necessitated the creation of trade centres. Trade, and consequently marketplaces, worked as the main driving force in connecting separate civilizations, while fostering a division of labour, the diffusion of technological innovations, methods of intercultural communication, political and economic management, and techniques of farming and industrial production....

Neo-classical style of architectural and interior design; as Egyptomania or Egyptiennerie it reached its peak during the late 18th century and early 19th. Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt (1798) coincided with emerging tastes both for monumental and for richly ornamental forms, enhanced by the literary and associational concerns of Romanticism. Unlike its Greek and Gothic counterparts, the Egyptian Revival never constituted a coherent movement with ethical or social implications. Indeed, since its earliest manifestations occurred in the later Roman Empire, the Revival itself can be seen as one in a series of sporadic waves of European taste in art and design (often linked to archaeological inquiry), acting as an exotic foil to the Classical tradition with which this taste was and remains closely involved (see fig.). On a broader plane of inquiry, the study of Egyptian art and architecture has continued to promote a keen awareness of abstraction in design and a decorative vocabulary of great sophistication. These are among the most enduring contributions of ancient Egypt to Western art and design. ...

Site in Tajikistan, 25 km west of Dushanbe above the confluence of the Khanaka River and the Kafirnigan River. The pisé walls of the fortress, arched gateways, and flanking towers of fired brick, two madrasas, and the nearby mosque date from the 16th–19th century, when the fortress was the residence of the Hissar bek. Excavations (1980–1982) by Ye. V. Zeymal’ revealed that the fortress was erected on an artificial hill comprising occupation layers dating at least from the 3rd–2nd century bce onward. The large Tup-khona burial ground containing Yueh-chih and Kushana burials (1st century bce–3rd century ce) was clearly associated with the inhabitants of the Hissar site. Another burial ground near Hissar appears to be earlier than the 7th century ce in date. The tentative identification of the Hissar Fortress with the town of Shuman, mentioned in written sources of the 10th–12th century, has not yet been substantiated by reliable evidence. The site is now a historical and archaeological museum reserve, and the finds are housed in the Tajikistan Academy of Sciences, Donish Institute of History, Archaeology, and Ethnography in Dushanbe....

A category of buildings designed to house retail and shopping. It includes arcades, department stores, shopping malls, strip centres, and big-box stores. Retail architecture exists in small towns, big cities, and suburbs: anywhere people congregate. It is as ubiquitous in time and space as the organized exchange of goods for money. It is distinguished from commercial architecture, which, in real estate and architectural practice, can refer more generally to any property that produces income for its investors or owners but does not refer to a building’s architectural function (i.e. retail).

Buildings housing commercial activity have existed since antiquity. Anthropologists have described exchange halls and commercial structures in many cultures, including Roman, Aztec, Tang dynasty China, and Mesopotamian. During the medieval and Renaissance periods, market halls and exchanges were built in cities such as Antwerp, Bruges, London, and Venice, sheltering trading activities at ground level and municipal government functions above (...

(b Rome, Aug 6, 1697; d Rome, Feb 9, 1751).

Italian architect. A contemporary of Luigi Vanvitelli, Ferdinando Fuga and Giovanni Battista Piranesi, he participated in the architectural embellishment of Rome that transformed its appearance in the early and middle decades of the 18th century. His reputation is largely tied to a single work, however: the Trevi Fountain.

Salvi showed an early interest in philosophy and mathematics, as well as studying medicine and anatomy and writing poetry. In 1717 he was admitted to the Accademia degli Arcadi, the prestigious literary society founded in Rome by Christina, Queen of Sweden. The influence of the Arcadians encouraged Salvi to value Renaissance models and to explore irregular, picturesque compositions in his designs; he also esteemed 17th-century Roman architecture, from which he learnt how to use the Classical orders to achieve bold sculptural effects. His biographer Niccolò Gabburri recorded that Salvi spent nine years deciding which career to pursue. During this time he attended classes at the Accademia di S Luca given by the painter ...

(b Irancy, Yonne, July 23, 1713; d Paris, Aug 29, 1780).

French architect. The leading Neo-classical architect in 18th-century France, his early career was spent in Lyon. There he built a number of country houses as well as the Hôtel-Dieu, the Loge du Change and the influential Théâtre. His Académie lectures on Classical rules and proportions, Gothic church architecture, Italian Baroque buildings and the latest archaeological discoveries revealed his independence from doctrinaire attitudes and his interest in technical and structural problems. After 1755 he was based in Paris, principally engaged on building the church of Ste-Geneviève (now the Panthéon), an ambitious project plagued with difficulties, which was not completed until after his death.

Born in Burgundy, Soufflot’s training began in Rome. There, in December 1734, he was admitted to the Académie de France through the patronage of the Duc d’Antin. Over the following four years he investigated Classical sites in and around the city, as well as studying Italian Baroque architecture. In ...