Master Builders of Byzantium

Robert Ousterhout, who studies Byzantine architecture, primarily the churches built in the Constantinople area between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, identifies the most common problems in design and construction processes. Analyzing written evidence, archaeological records, and especially the surviving structures, he concludes that Byzantine architecture was much more creative and innovative than previously thought.
Ousterhout describes how the masters selected, produced, and used all materials, from bricks and mortar to roof tiles, from foundations to domes. He positions the richly decorated church interiors, covered with marble slabs, mosaics, and frescoes, along with their complex iconographic programs, within the framework of the master builder's perspective. Ousterhout also refers to masters in Russia, the Balkans, and Israel. Robert Ousterhout is a professor of Byzantine Art and Architecture in the Department of Art History at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Ancient Studies.