Inka Architecture   

The Inka stonefitters worked stone with a precision unparalleled in human history; their architects clearly esteemed functionality above decoration; yet their constructions achieved breathtaking beauty through austerity of line and juxtaposition of masses. The Inka seem to have presaged Mies Van der Rohe's philosophy of "less is more".

The dominant stylistic form in Inka architecture is a simple, but elegantly proportioned trapezoid, which serves the dual ends of functionality and severely restrained decoration.

Trapezoidal doorways, windows, and wall niches are found in Inka constructions of all types, from the most finely wrought temples to crudely built walls in unimportant buildings. The doorways and windows are obviously functional, and the niches probably served a variety of functions as yet unidentified by the archeologists. Placement of these trapezoidal openings was primarily functional, but occasionally, esthetic arrangements might dominate the placement of the trapezoids, if there was no conflict with functionality.

Perhaps the single field in which the Inka builders allowed fancy to supercede function is in their playful handling of flowing water. Sparkling streams cascade from stone spouts, sometimes decorated with carved designs, into joyfully splashing basins, then flow through quite unnecessarily complex stone channels to pour into the next fountain (or bath, as the fountains are sometimes referred to) and so on from fountain to fountain, one after the other.

The Inkas employed the sight and sound of water as an element of architectural design and evidently enjoyed demonstrating their mastery over the course of this essential fluid.

Materials, stonecutting, and construction methods:

The working of the stone medium with which the Inkas built. They built with locally available rock, from limestone to granite. However, the "local" supply might be several kilometers distant and involve a transportation problem that would have daunted a less capable people..

Inka walls:

What the Inkas must have considered their very finest stonework is found, naturally, in their most important buildings, their temples. Temple walls are battered (inwards sloping), and constructed of finely hewn ashlars laid in courses that get progressively thinner upwards. This creates a wall with a wonderfully stable and pleasing appearance, and which is, in fact, highly resistant to seismic shaking. .

Inka doors and windows:

Inka doorways, windows, and wall niches are trapezoidal. Some were simple, but elegant, trapezoidal openings. The finest doorways, called "double jamb doorways", have a recessed lip several inches wide inside the outer trapezoid. This inner lip was, in most cases, a design element that indicated an important doorway to a high status site. Such a jamb might also have facilitated the emplacement of a wooden door to close the opening. That doors were used to close some Inka doorways is indicated by a variety of carved stone devices apparently used to hold a door in place. Simple stone rings carved in both sides of doorways probably were used to tie a bar or other largely symbolic barrier in place, to indicate a closed area.

Roofing materials and techniques:

Most Inka buildings were rectangular, featuring steeply sloping gable walls at the narrow ends, which served to support the roofing. Roofs were thatched, over a framework of rafters and purlins running from a ridge pole at the apex, down to the stone eaves walls. Thatched roofs are common in Andean peasant dwellings today, and the chroniclers of the conquest left no doubt that thatch was employed by the Inkas on even their finest constructions.