Taxonomy of Architectural Styles and Movements Worldwide Since 8500 BC

Abstract

An appropriate taxonomy of architectural styles and movements worldwide, since 8500 BC, is provided to be utilized as a basis for the digital documentation of buildings and other architectural constructions. Architecture is classified in unities, so that each one of them is relatively autonomous. Each architectural style or movement corresponds to a particular culture (tribe, religion, ideology), to a particular geographic region (landscape, climate, available materials), to particular functional needs and demands, and to a particular technology. The number of proposed unities is 119. The same classification criteria are applied upon all geographical areas and periods, so that the same scale is provided.