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The garden is an architectural art form as well as a mirror of man's relationship with nature, and as exemplary of the style of an age as its literature or art. This program follows the stages of Western civilization as it explores the various styles of gardens through the ages.
43) Eco-architecture
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Contains twenty-two essays in which the authors debate issues related to eco-architecture, such as its benefits to humans and impact on the environment and how it can be encouraged and is being implemented.
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Unveiling the man behind the myth. Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo created three of the art world's greatest icons: the statue of David, the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. This revealing drama documentary traces his development from angry young man to pride of Rome. His prodigious talent has led people to describe him as more divine than human. Modern experts reproduce elements of his...
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The Gonzagas and Mantua were, in their heyday, largely one and the same: together they emerged from the Middle Ages, became strong, fortified their strength, and learned to decorate their fortifications, pitted brother against brother and sons against fathers while fostering artists from Mantegna and Donatello to Titian and Rubens. Popes and kings were houseguests, Tasso and Ariosto lived here. This program revisits the centuries of history that were...
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The production of home construction materials like concrete uses a very high amount of raw materials. What can we deduce from the adaptability of animals and plants that would help us create a more sustainable world today? The second episode in this four part series deals with the real estate of nature: plants and sponges. Just as human dwellings they are bound to locations and forced to find the best survival strategy on their "land." Over millions...
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Despite Hollywood depictions of Egyptian taskmasters and expendable foreign slaves, historians have developed more complex theories about the people who raised the pyramids. Evidence suggests that Egyptian labor forces which took shape some 4,500 years ago helped launch early waves of urbanization. And as burial grounds, bakeries, and other finds are unearthed, we learn more about daily life on one of history's most intriguing construction sites....
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Through more than 500 projects, Glenn Murcutt-winner of the Pritzker Prize and the Alvar Aalto Medal-has demonstrated a very personal interpretation of modernist idiom that both respects the environment and embraces local tradition. In this program, Murcutt, author/architect Francoise Fromonot, and others speak on topics such as the architect's formative years; the transparency, luminosity, refined structural form, and exquisite detail that characterize...
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Starting when the first explorers laid eyes on the incomparable Sphinx, theories have proliferated about who built it and why. In this program, Zahi Hawass, of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities; Egyptologist Fayza Haikal; Kathryn Bard, editor of The Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt; authors Paul Jordan and Robert Schoch; and others employ the latest scientific scholarship and research to dispute those many theories while addressing...
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It has long been held that ancient Egyptians viewed the east bank of the Nile as life on Earth and the west bank as life in the hereafter, a vision that strictly ruled their urban planning. But recent archaeological digs at Thebes have revealed a somewhat different story. This program examines the houses of priests and other structures that indicate bustling activity on the funereal west bank-among the temple complexes as well as at Deir el-Medina,...
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Set in the heart of the Puuc hills, the imposing remains of Uxmal-Thrice Built, in the Yucatec Mayan language-testify to that city's extraordinary past. This program travels to the Yucatan Peninsula to explore the ruins of this significant Mayan cultural center. Aerial photography captures the magnitude of the site, while a ground-level inspection homes in on details such as the long-nosed Chac masks and carved mosaic facades associated with Mayan...
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To travel the Mediterranean is to sail into a past that scattered Roman temples in Lebanon, Greek theaters in Jordan, and Phoenician houses in Tunisia. This program studies the unifying influence of the Mediterranean on the civilizations that flourished on its shores. Vivid archaeological footage and computer-generated animation capture distant echoes of the clash of conquest and the jingle of commerce that once resonated from end to end of this ocean...
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In ancient Greece, Delphi held a central position between Attica, governed from Athens, and the Peloponnese, ruled by Sparta. Using the ruins at Delphi as a lens, this program views the continuous struggle for power that characterized the Greek city-states through accounts of the "big dig" carried out between 1892 and 1902 and recent archaeological studies conducted by researchers at the French School of Athens. Home to the Pythic games, elaborate...
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This program traces Greek civilization from the Minoans to the city-states dominated by Athens. The Trojan War, Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis are discussed as major historical turning points. The rise of the Roman Empire and its 500-year dominance of Europe and the Mediterranean are attributed to its engineering and architectural expertise and military prowess. Emperor Diocletian, Constantine, and the invasion of the Visigoths are discussed in...
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The Decapolis was a group of ten cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, and Gerasa, known also in antiquity as Antioch on the Golden River and today as Jerash, is the best-preserved of them all. In this program, Jean-Francois Salles and other members of the French Institute of the Near East-Amman exhibit their efforts at Gerasa, including the ongoing stone-by-stone restoration of the immense Temple of Zeus. The rich history of this region-a...
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The fusion of Mayan construction techniques with later elements from central Mexico makes Chichen Itza one of the most important examples of the Mayan-Toltec civilization in Yucatan. In this program, archaeological footage and computer re-creations spotlight prominent locations in the city, including the imposing Pyramid of Kukulcan, the Temple of the Warriors, the circular observatory known as El Caracol, the largest ball court in Mesoamerica, and...
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Thriving in the shadows of the Roman and Parthian Empires, the polyglot oasis town of Palmyra, "the Venice of the Sands," grew rich on the caravan trade between northern Syria and Babylonia. In this program, archaeological footage and 3-D computer-generated images enable viewers to step into that bustling multicultural center, with its busy streets, temples to ancient gods, and silent tombs. In addition, the socioeconomic history of the region is...
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Considered the most imposing Hellenistic site in Jordan, the Qasr al-Abd at Iraq al-Amir was the dream of Hyrcanus, an unscrupulously ambitious member of the influential Tobiad family. With the assistance of architect Francois Larche, of the National Center of Scientific Research, this program virtually reconstructs the ornate but uncompleted palace-ironically, a symbol of Hyrcanus' failed aspirations. Fawzi Zayadine, of the Jordanian Department of...
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"Presents ideas for using a wide variety of LEGO elements to create architectural features like columns, doors, windows, and walls. Includes helpful photographs that show you how to achieve the look, adapt it to your build, and make it your own"--