ʿAwālī

Table of Contents

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Discover

Periodical Cicada, Adult, Magicicada spp. Requires 17 years to complete development. Nymph splits its skin, and transforms into an adult. Feeds on sap of tree roots. Northern Illinois Brood. This brood is the largest emergence of cicadas anywhere

Why Do Some Cicadas Appear Only Every 17 Years?

Cuban Bee Hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) single adult male, Zapata peninsula, Cuba, Caribbean.Bee hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world.

Queen Mab’s Stable: 7 of the Smallest Animals

Los Angeles Police Department wanted flyer on Elizabeth Short, aka the "Black Dahlia," who was brutally murdered in January 1947. The FBI supported the Los Angeles Police Department in the case, including by identifying Short through her fingerprints that

America’s 5 Most Notorious Cold Cases (Including One You May Have Thought Was Already Solved)

Gerald R. Ford playing golf during a working vacation on Mackinac Island in Michigan, July 13, 1975. Gerald Ford.

9 U.S. Presidents with the Most Vetoes

Turtle, tortoise, reptile. Uses assets 88582 & 89606

What’s the Difference Between a Turtle and a Tortoise?

Figure 13: A Maxim machine gun, belt-fed and water-cooled, operated by German infantrymen, World War I.

7 Deadliest Weapons in History

The Colosseum, Rome, Italy. Giant amphitheatre built in Rome under the Flavian emperors. (ancient architecture; architectural ruins)

New Seven Wonders of the World

ʿAwālī

Bahrain

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

ʿAwālī, municipality in the state and emirate of Bahrain, on central Bahrain island, in the Persian Gulf. Founded in the 1930s by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), it is situated just north of Bahrain’s oil fields and southwest of the country’s oil refinery, one of the largest in the world. The municipality was built to house the main offices, headquarters staff, and foreign executives and employees of BAPCO. ʿAwālī (Arabic: “High Places”) was laid out in the pattern of a Western small town or suburban development, with trees and gardens in the midst of the hostile desert. The expense and difficulty of maintaining such surroundings is emphasized by the fact that all water must be piped from sources several miles away. Furthermore, the settlement is built on a rocky outcrop; a pneumatic drill must be used to penetrate the overlying rock strata before a tree can be planted. The population of ʿAwālī decreased sharply in the 1960s and early 1970s as the company replaced the expatriate Westerners, who resided there, with Bahrainis living elsewhere in the country. Pop. (latest est.) 1,769.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna.

architecture

Table of Contents

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Jeanne Gang on the future of architecture

For Students

architecture summary

architecture

Written by James S. Ackerman, Roger Scruton•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Key People:: Peter Smithson; Pierre de Meuron; Jacques Herzog; Louis Skidmore; Martin Roche

Related Topics:: Western architecture; Indian architecture; Iranian architecture; governmental architecture; industrial architecture

See all related content

architecture, the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. The practice of architecture is employed to fulfill both practical and expressive requirements, and thus it serves both utilitarian and aesthetic ends. Although these two ends may be distinguished, they cannot be separated, and the relative weight given to each can vary widely. Because every society—settled or nomadic—has a spatial relationship to the natural world and to other societies, the structures they produce reveal much about their environment (including climate and weather), history, ceremonies, and artistic sensibility, as well as many aspects of daily life.

The characteristics that distinguish a work of architecture from other built structures are (1) the suitability of the work to use by human beings in general and the adaptability of it to particular human activities, (2) the stability and permanence of the work’s construction, and (3) the communication of experience and ideas through its form. All these conditions must be met in architecture. The second is a constant, while the first and third vary in relative importance according to the social function of buildings. If the function is chiefly utilitarian, as in a factory, communication is of less importance. If the function is chiefly expressive, as in a monumental tomb, utility is a minor concern. In some buildings, such as churches and city halls, utility and communication may be of equal importance.

The present article treats primarily the forms, elements, methods, and theory of architecture. For the history of architecture in antiquity, see the sections on ancient Greece and Rome in Western architecture; as well as Anatolian art and architecture; Arabian art and architecture; Egyptian art and architecture; Iranian art and architecture; Mesopotamian art and architecture; and Syro-Palestinian art and architecture. For later historical and regional treatments of architecture, see African architecture; Chinese architecture; Japanese architecture; Korean architecture; Oceanic art and architecture; Western architecture; Central Asian arts; Islamic arts; South Asian arts; and Southeast Asian arts. For a discussion of the place of architecture and architectural theory in the realm of the arts, see aesthetics. For related forms of artistic expression, see city; interior design; and urban planning.

Use

The types of architecture are established not by architects but by society, according to the needs of its different institutions. Society sets the goals and assigns to the architect the job of finding the means of achieving them. This section of the article is concerned with architectural typology, with the role of society in determining the kinds of architecture, and with planning—the role of the architect in adapting designs to particular uses and to the general physical needs of human beings.