Monday, February 17, 2020

Discuss the three imperial mosques (Suleymaniye, Selimiye, & Sehzade) Essay

Discuss the three imperial mosques (Suleymaniye, Selimiye, & Sehzade) designed by the Ottoman architect Sinan - Essay Example He spent his childhood in Agirnas, a village near Kayseri, until he joined the â€Å"masters of carpenters† (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). He learned the craft there until 1512 (Matthews 2011), when, at the age of twenty two (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011), he joined the royal army (Matthews 2011) and got recruited into the Corps of Ottoman Standing Troops (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). As a cavalry officer (Matthews 2011), he traveled far and wide in the empire, to places such as Egypt, Persia, Damascus, and Baghdad (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). He visited architectural wonders and ruins, and according to his own statement, learned something from every building and every ruin (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). He was quickly ranked as a construction officer (Matthews 2011). As an army engineer, he constructed bridges and forts (Matthews 2011), which proved to be very successful and architecturally sound. As his reputation built, he was promoted to the rank of the head of royal architects (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011), or the Architect of the Abode of Felicity in 1538 (Matthews 2011), at the age of fifty (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). As he built, his reputation rose (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). ... Sinan’s work include an eclectic range of construction projects, from hospitals to mosques and from asylums to bridges (Matthews 2011). However, his most prominent accomplishments remain the great mosques that he designed and constructed (Matthews 2011). Sinan generally designed the larger mosques mostly as complexes with hospitals, schools, libraries, almshouses, and public baths (Matthews 2011). Three of his greatest masterpieces, the Sehzade, Suleymaniye, and Selimiye mosques (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011) are discussed in detail later in the paper. Most of his work is influenced by the Hagia Sophia (Matthews 2011), with a weightless central dome supported by windows (Matthews 2011), an interior that is flooded with light due to those windows (Matthews 2011), pillars, buttresses, and minarets (Matthews 2011). One of his unique projects is the urban mosque complex next to the harbor in the Kadirga Liman quarter (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011), the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque Complex, started in 1571 and finished in 1572 (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). The challenge of the fifty six feet dropping landscape (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011) is met with great ingenuity (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011) and expertise by Sinan, which can be viewed as a refreshingly changing landscape view (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011) as the complex is accessed by a number of entries through narrow and winding lanes (Turkish Cultural Foundation 2011). In the Hagia Sophia, Sinan added two large minarets at the Western end (An Architectural Wonder 2008), and to the southeast of the building, the mausoleum of Selim II in 1577 (An Architectural Wonder 2008). Later, he added a dias for sermons (An Architectural Wonder 2008), a minbar in the Sultan’s

Monday, February 3, 2020

The Automobile Industry in the US in 1920s Essay

The Automobile Industry in the US in 1920s - Essay Example In 2009, China successfully challenged its position, taking over as the second largest producer. Currently, America stands third in mass production of automobiles [1]. At the onset of the American automobile industry, a large number of manufactures came on the scene, and vigorously vied for the domination of the local market. However, towards the end of the 1920s, only three major companies had managed to control the market. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler were the big players in the country. These companies continued to thrive strongly, even after the Great Depression and the advent of the World War 2. In the 1970s, a mishmash of rocketing oil costs, fervent competition from foreign brands, and tightening government laws greatly affected the companies negatively. From then on, the companies experienced widely fluctuating fortunes, but by 2008, the business was undergoing severe havoc. This resulted to the fall of General Motors and Chrysler, who had to file for bankruptcy. The Fo rd Company managed to stay afloat all through these trying periods, and is currently gaining momentum to regain its lost glory [2]. The Ford Company came into being from the original idea of its owner and founder, Henry Ford. Currently, the company stands second among the world’s biggest automobile producers. The multinational conglomerate is now currently worth about $167 billion dollars. Though the company specialized in automobiles, it now also runs Ford Credit, a venture that rakes in around $3 billion dollars annually. In addition, it also possesses The Hertz Corporation, which is the biggest car-rental company in the world. The corporation now produces a wide range of vehicle brands. These include Ford, Mercury,... This essay discusses the automobile industry, that is a huge part of the engineering sector and is involved in the devising, growth, production, and selling of vehicles. It is one of the major industries in the world in terms of economic worth and revenue. The definition of the industry, though broad, is limited to the production and sale of automobiles, and does not include after-sales services like repair and maintenance. The industry is laden with events and milestones that marked its start and evolution to what it is currently. Firstly, the researcher dicusses the onset of the American automobile industry and mentiones companies, such as Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, that were the big players in the United States in the 1920s. The researcher discusses the Great Depression that happened in the late 1920s and severely depleted General Motors’ financial strength. This was what that gave the Ford Company a much-needed lifeline. The General Motors’s market share al l but disappeared, thereby greatly depleting its income avenues. The market stake of the Ford Company shot up drastically. In conclusion, the researcher states that Ford company managed to survive through the trying times mainly due to the backing of its continuous perfect performance of its financial services sector. However, reclaiming its position as the world’s biggest automotive producer is not an easy task. The frequency of changing technology and fluctuation of markets will certainly be a problem for most companies.