Sustainable design and construction with natural terracotta through the ages

Religious applications of terracotta

Terracotta has been made since the Paleolithic era. There are countless religious human and animal figures, each of which had its own ritual or religious function within the various cultures in Southeastern and Central Europe, such as the figurines from Minoan Crete and the Pakistani goddess figures from the period 3000 BC. and 1500 BC. Also the in 3000 BC. terracotta works of art from Avanos in Turkish Cappadocia were made of clay from the river Kizilirmak that runs right through the city.

Later, in Greek antiquity (8th century BC), the Greek philosophy of bringing together the four earthly elements in terracotta (earth and water: the raw materials and air and fire: the firing process) was beautifully represented in the thorough and careful finishing and decoration of the Greek vase work. The stylization of natural motifs (Mycenaean vase work), the geometric and symmetrical figures (from the Geometric period) and the later Attic vase work, with which Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. played a leading role in the production of terracotta, are typical examples of this. In India and China, terracotta was also seen in a philosophical light: the Indians were convinced of the beneficial effects of terracotta on the human body and such philosohical ideas could also be attributed to the immense Terracotta Warriors, which were given as a grave gift to the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi in the Iron Age (221 BC – 206 BC).

A more diverse application of terracotta can be found in the water nimphs used by the Romans between 150 and 175 BC. which were placed near fountains, the gliraria used for keeping and fattening dormice which were considered a delicacy at the height of the Roman Empire, and for artistic Campana reliefs from the 1st century BC. to mid-2nd century AD.

Terracotta in art and architecture

Terracotta has been used since the Bronze Age. Cylindrical terracotta pipes made on Santorini may have served for drainage purposes. The Romans used terracotta, which they had long known was far less dangerous than when drainage pipes were made of lead, to pump water to the fountains of their Minoan palaces. Also, in the same province of Shaanxi where the Terracotta Army was found, an earthenware drainage pipe was found that measured up to 10 feet per section.

Although the temples since the 6th century BC. were mainly built in sustainable natural stone following “the Greek structure as the most perfect structure”, terracotta has also been used in architecture over the centuries. Temples, churches and facade ornaments were covered with terracotta, both for constructive and for decorative purposes. The octagonal ‘Basilica’ of San Vitale church in Ravenna, considered one of the most important representatives of Byzantine art and architecture and commissioned in 521 by Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, was the first to use extruded hollow terracotta tubes for the construction of the dome. Later, this use of terracotta in architecture evolved into modern structural clay tiles to build roofing, walls and floors, especially in fire-resistant applications.

To a lesser extent, terracotta was used in the Greek Doric order. The forms of the traditional wooden construction were still present, but terracotta plates were only used for the cladding of the important parts and for the roofing. A good example of a Doric temple is the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, where the columns are typical of Doric architecture. In Etruscan architecture, wood construction was also covered with terracotta roof tiles until the end of the 6th century BC, following the “Architectura” or “Ten Books on Architecture” by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (ca. 25 BC).

During the Middle Ages little innovation was realized in the use of terracotta in European architecture. Even in the first monasteries that arose between the 5th and 11th centuries, for which the basilica (the Romanesque church with a transept as an addition to symbolize the cross) became the basic form, terracotta was not used noteworthy.

However, in Northern Europe in the 12th century, the use of red brick (washed and oxidised baked river clay containing iron oxide) took on importance. Not long after, the Brick Gothic style developed in Northern Europe within Gothic architecture, a style characterized by the lack of architectural sculpture (due to the local lack of natural stone types such as granite, basalt lavas, limestone, sandstone and marble) and the frequent application of creative divisions of walls, stone bonds, built-up ornaments and alternation of stone colors and plaster. Marienburg Castle or Malbork Castle in Poland is a fine example of Brick Gothic. It is the largest brick Gothic building. A typical example of the characteristic style in which brick masonry was interspersed with natural stone bacon layers is the St. Peter’s Church in Oirschot, The Netherlands, built in 1268, which is built in brick with tuff stone layers that give the church a striking appearance.

In the 13th century, tin glaze was first used as an opaque white background for Maiolica ceramics. The earthenware owes its name to the island of Mallorca, along which the trade in pottery between the producing Middle East and Italy took place. In the Renaissance, Italian maiolica was brought into production in several places in northern and central Italy. The type of pottery evolved into ‘faience‘ in France to make it resemble Chinese porcelain, where the tin-glaze base was covered with a translucent layer of glaze containing lead and tin oxides, which was then fired again.

It was not until the 20th century that innovative architectural applications for terracotta were seen again, for example as formwork for the concrete and for cladding walls, as used in the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels.

Terracotta was also used in the construction of the 18th century Cathedral of St. Augustine in Florida, albeit limited to the terracotta tiled roof.