Atlas Trail
Turning Points in Architecture
A chronological walk through the moments that reset architecture's own idea of itself, from an ancient Roman treatise to a cathedral's twenty-first-century restoration.
Stop 1 of 10.
Milestones
Around the first century BC, the only complete architectural treatise to survive antiquity.
Stop 2 of 10.
Milestones
1452: the first work of architectural theory since antiquity, modelled on Vitruvius.
Stop 3 of 10.
Milestones
1666: Christopher Wren rebuilds London in brick and stone after the Great Fire.
Stop 4 of 10.
Milestones
1851: Joseph Paxton's prefabricated iron and glass hall for the Great Exhibition.
Stop 5 of 10.
Milestones
1885: the conventional first skyscraper, and a disputed one.
Stop 6 of 10.
Milestones
1919: Walter Gropius founds the school that set the terms of modern design education.
Stop 7 of 10.
Milestones
1964: the modern principles of conservation, adopted in Venice.
Stop 8 of 10.
Milestones
1972: the demolitions Charles Jencks called the day modern architecture died, a verdict itself disputed.
Stop 9 of 10.
Milestones
1973: Jorn Utzon's sail roofs open, fourteen years after he resigned from the project.
Stop 10 of 10.
Milestones
2024: Notre-Dame reopens after the most watched act of architectural conservation ever undertaken.
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