Four Elements Of Architecture By Gottfried Semper

Gottfried Semper was a major figure in the field of Interior designing. He was an architect and an art critic who contributed majorly to the study of interiors .He proposed his ideas and thoughts in his book, “Four elements of architecture”, in the year 1952 and it was a huge success. In his book, he developed the theory that origin of architecture could be dated back to the primitive era when human civilization was at its peak. As compared to the modern ideology that architecture consists of structures made from materials, his theory revolved around the four main elements of the primitive era that were essential to human life. They included enclosure, mound, hearth, and roof. Semper correlated these elements and claimed that basic architectural design of any building or structure is derived from these elements only. In the primitive era, when man began to settle down, he first created a bon fire around which he could sit and prepare meals which were an essential requirement for survival.Semper proposed that other three elements, roof, mound, and enclosure were created to enclose or cover up the fire that formed the very basis of architectural designs today. According to him, the other elements were just a means to defend the sacred fire that was considered to be the most essential element for survival of human life. His theory was instrumental in proposing the basic idea that social and symbolic values of a society are responsible