Journal of Architectural Engineering Technology
Open Access

The limitless power of a word is the reflection of human’s inner feelings, wishes and dreams. It is considered as spiritual means that implements human dreams and wishes in this way. Attraction, wonder, astonishment, inspiration, creation, discoveries are symbols of human value and they become real literary art with the help of a language. Therefore, a language is thought as the word art of literature. A language is complicated and multi-featured kind of literary art. Human’s secret feelings, inner delicate thoughts and various spiritual states, which cannot be seen by eyes, heard by ears, touched by hands, tasted by a tongue, smelled by a nose are expressed with words of a language. This mighty power turns into a language through a soul and turns into human value through a language respectively. World languages are symbols of goodness and victory that is gained over evilness.

A language fulfils the role of a spiritual bridge situating among people and helps to understand selves, to recognise national mind and worldview deeply. All human qualities get into a human soul with the help of a mother’s lullaby. A mother tongue is considered as the spirit of a nation. As outstanding Uzbek writer Abdulla Oripov mentioned: “A language and literature is the mirror of life reflecting the existence of the nation to which they belong. Losing national language is equal to losing national spirit.”

In the progress of a modern industrial society, a language develops human thought through its communicational role. Human value form culture. Nowadays active verbal communications turn to be important means in increasing the prestige of languages in an international level. The usage of a particular language in different fields (for instance, computer and IT technologies, exact sciences, medicine, economics, etc.) with special terms develops this language considerably. Respectively it provides many chances for multilingual speakers to open the doors of goodness in an international sphere.

In addition to the thoughts mentioned above, one real example should be given here. In 2008, UNICEF held a competition of young deputies in the company “The Parliament of Children” (in Uzbekistan). The issue of electing one of the representatives (among 17-18 aged members) for being a leader was raised during one of the annual seminars of the company. Two Uzbek boys’ nominations were put in the election. The first representative presented his speech in Uzbek (his mother tongue), English and Russian fluently and accurately. His speech was easy to understand for all voters, besides for foreigners, too. According to the fact, more than 131 different nations live in Uzbekistan. The second representative presented his speech only in the Uzbek language. He handed out brochures, which had English and Russian translations of his speech. It is natural that the influence of brochures was not as strong as the influence of oral speech. As a result, the first representative won in the election. To sum up this situation, it is very important not only knowing a language, but also explaining own ideas in the language orally. Great Uzbek poet Alisher Navoi’s following saying should be mentioned here: “Ignoring the language-being careless about the nation”.

It is obvious that knowing many languages open many doors. However, every country in the world should take care of its own language that was handed from ancestors, enrich and give it to young generation.

Architectural heritage is considered as the appearance of a language without words in literary arts. Unique architectural heritage of the East, Egyptian pyramids, Taj Mahal in Figures 1 and 2 many other ancient monuments are priceless wealth as the symbols of language nations. One can realise and enjoy human’s delicate feelings with the help of them. One of such kinds of art is the language of architecture. Architecture is the symbol of beauty in which a word becomes powerless. Architecture is a language, which we can find out about the culture of a nation, its historic heritage, state politics, and the people’s economic and social conditions through it without words.

Figure 1: Unique architectural heritage of the East, Egyptian pyramids.

Figure 2: Unique architectural heritage of the Taj Mahal.

One philosopher said that: “Architecture is music that stays firmly on a stone. Architecture is the chronology of the nation. It speaks when neither literature, nor proverbs and no other heritage cannot speak about its nation”.

Kings, nations and states used the language of “architecture” from the old times to show the quantity of their power.

In early times, architecture served to defend a country, and nowadays it is being used to represent their power. Great political leader Amir Timur mentioned that: “If you doubt our power, look at our buildings (which we constructed)” [1].

According to the reality of bitter history, colonial totalitarian ideas tried to win humanity with robbing of nation’s language, soul, mentality and spirituality.

However, one cannot keep a language under ideological cover. A language is the battle of a soul! It wants to fly as a bird, it is the symbol of freedom, and it is human’s latest hope.

Cages with chains cannot stop its might; oppositely they provide it daring and bravery. In this case languages lead souls to freedom, call to the unity of compatible dreams and break the chain of caged soul into pieces.

It is pity that public buildings were constructed according to colonial totalitarian ideas of the state politics in soviet times.

But, since 1991 (Architecture of independence time) buildings have been constructing in modern style (Figure 3).

Figure 3: State Museum of Temurids History which was built in 1996, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, as an architecture of independence time.

It defines the freedom of the language and human souls [2]. The soviet ideology runs the totalitarian politics which had the basis of colonial ideas that was focused to abolish the language and culture of the East countries. It caused to damage our ancient and rich country. At that time the borders connecting the republics of Central Asia with each other was projected in the way: if they achieve independence and mark their boundaries they would have disagreements about them; because they were connected with each other by transportation ways, bridges and magisterial ways very toughly, and separating them from each other might cause economic, social and political arguments. Nowadays, the problems of the HPS (Hydroelectric Power Station) situating in the territory of Tajikistan Republic and dried-up Aral Sea take place in boundaries between the republics of Central Asia in various areas, and at the same time, they are ways connecting these countries to each other. They are obvious examples showing peculiarities of that politics.

Therefore, architecture is connected not only creating a building, but also founding civilized infrastructure that has influence into the whole social, economic and political life of a state.

Each age has its own architecture. Because, buildings are constructed according to the unity of one age beliefs and ideas and the life of this architecture is dependent on “the mood” of the following generation. Ancient Egyptian pyramids can be given as historic examples. In earlier ages, according to the traditions of the Egyptians they buried a dead body in a tomb that had a pyramid shape. Then, when kings called themselves “pharaohs” (God’s sons), they began to construct huge pyramids as mausoleums (Figure 4).

Figure 4: The character of the pharaoh, the generic term for the king of Egypt, appears throughout the Hebrew Bible.

Architecture has big influence on the environment, our surrounding world, human mind and its ideology. In this case, architecture is counted as one of the important factors, which includes nature too.

One of the genetic law that all know - the world surrounding us has the power, which can influence human psychology and world outlook considerably and we admit it.

World outlook includes education, the environment, nation, and the most important thing - common national ideas. The main thing is that architecture is the arm influencing society strongly, but the owners of this arm are not architects, but state leaders.

Listeners of architecture's words are society and people that live in it [3].There are many languages, various cultures; different thoughts and beliefs, but there are also notions like international culture, architecture, literature that can be understood by everyone.

The variety of ideas is not expressed only by mind, but it is also reflected in the construction of social life. Therefore, if the ideas differ from each other more, the variety of architectural monuments, their attraction and beauty increase more and more.

It is clear that any architecture is the result of human’s cultural creation. The reflection of this culture is the language of this nation. Souls can recognise each other with the help of a language. One can convey it with the help of a soul in a society.

For example, Taj Mahal in India or Gardens of Versailles Palace in France in Figure 5 are expressions of love without words [4].

Figure 5: Gardens of Versailles Palace in France.

That is why, we must acknowledge that architecture is not only a notion that has the power of expression, but also it protects us from outer harm.

The feature of a language is felt in humanity! What can identify the image of humanity? In architectural view, giving helpful hand to a nation that suffered from tsunami, earthquake and other natural disasters without reproach is one good example for humanity.

What is the reflection of crudeness? As an architect I would demonstrate it with the example of the sorrowful picture of Livia and Iraq, which was flourished once very much, but destroyed by sabotage and terroristic acts in later years in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Destroyed by sabotage and terroristic acts in Livia.

During many centuries eastern mentality and traditions, Christian ideas and images are pictured in rare works of art and architecture. According to the geographical state and cultural heritage, Central Asia influenced to the joining of scientific, cultural and religious thoughts between East and West; besides it supplied a great part to the treasure of the world culture. In this way, tolerance has deep historic roots in Uzbekistan. This value is considered an unusual peculiarity of relations between people. For many years in the area of Central Asia, especially in Uzbekistan many nations have been living friendly despite they have various religions, cultures, traditions and customs.

Today, in the republic of Uzbekistan there are many people having Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Judaism, Buddhism and other religions who live with Moslems in peace. Islam University and Religious Seminary actively works in Tashkent. There are several religious mosques and churches of Pravoslav, Catholic, Judaism, Buddhism and other religions in this country in Figure 7. Sunna and Shia Muslims have been living together here for many ages. All nations mentioned above attend each other’s weddings and other ceremonies; they have tolerance for each other. Inner cooperation of those various nations and religions, besides their interrelations with the society, are the main basis of forming and keeping tolerant traditions in Uzbekistan’s spiritual and social life.

Figure 7: Polish Catholic church, Cathedrals of Uzbekistan, Sights of Tashkent.

While our group of students was travelling in Versailles Higher Architecture School in Paris to have practical achievements, we got excitement from the beauty of nature and attractiveness of architectural monuments in France. Despite of big differences in nations’ languages, religions, races and cultures living there, wonderful sight and ancient architectural monuments in Paris appealed us to understand the philosophy of eastern and western cultures. After that, we began to comprehend one another without any words and definitions; and the impressions of this trip are kept in our memories for the whole life. These pictures of those memories were marks of the cultures’ unity, which had become wordless bridges between nations.

The language of human value that is full of beauty and elegance save the world. Architectural monuments were created after learning humankind’s physiological, psychological and other features during many centuries thoroughly. Outstanding French architect Le Corbusier’s work “Modulor” in Figure 8 is a bright example for creating architecture with fitting it to human physiology. Consequently, comprehending humanity is fulfilled by looking at architectural monuments.

Figure 8: French architect Le Corbusier’s work “Modulor”.

Inventing or creating the same thing or making window frames by two persons who live in two different continents without knowing each other altogether at the same time is not just a simple case or because of similarity between their climates, but because of proximity between their cultures. For example, the similarity between the architectural ensemble of Naqsh-e Jahan Square (XVI-XVII centuries) in Isfahan, Iran in Figure 9 and the architectural ensemble of Registan Square (XVI-XVII centuries) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan Figure 10 astonish a man very deeply. It proves that our ancestors’ cultures, languages and souls were similar in history [5].

Figure 9: Architectural ensemble of Naqsh-e Jahan Square (XVI-XVII centuries) in Isfahan, Iran.

Figure 10: Architectural ensemble of Registan Square (XVI-XVII centuries) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan

I realized original similarities between architectural monuments while I was investigating the history of world architecture at institute. The most interesting thing is that those affinities were found in the buildings situating not in the same area or continent, but in different continents.

For instance, when the styles and plans of Santa Maria del-Fiore Cathedral in Florence, Italy and Oljeytu Mausoleum in Sultania, Iran, which were built in the same century, were compared, it was found out that their architectural culture look like each other in many sides (Figure 11).

Figure 11: Facades of Oljeytu Mausoleum in Sultania, Iran (left) and Santa Maria del-Fiore Cathedral in Florence, Italy (right).

There are many affinities between not only architectural cultures of East and West, but also their civilized infrastructure respectively. We can prove this idea with the examples of the main projects of ancient cities Samarkand and Florence.

Main buildings were put into the places in the similar ways in those cities [6]. As a result, eastern and western cultures are not considered to differ from each other fully.

They have mutual unity of human value in their contents. Their architectural monuments prove this thought themselves. Though our languages do not look like each other, we are members of one world humankind. Architectural culture reflecting various human feelings connects different cultures with their long-lasting beautiful magnetism. At the same time, I have become much surer that beauty saves the world exactly.

International globalization, economic-social cooperation and mutual diplomatic interrelations between states cannot be fulfilled without cultural exchanges. It is obvious that one should be very attentive in having trade interrelations with other countries. In old ages, colonialism governed people in a human society, nowadays neocolonialism (occupying and ruling countries in cultural and spiritual ways) is increasing. As an example, remembering the disasters that were made by terrorism is enough to prove it. The convention about “Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage”was accepted in the session of UNESCO, 1972.

However, the Statue of Buddha, which was situated in Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan, was listed in that heritage, it was impossible to protect it from the destroying terroristic acts; and it was the huge damage to the humankind culture in its size of Figure 12. Because, damaging such kind of religious architectural monuments is equal to the attempts to abolish humankind history, architecture and culture respectively.

Figure 12: the empty place of the Statue of Buddha, which was situated in Bamiyan Province, Afghanistan.

These days it is not secret that “The most wonderful architectural monuments of Islamic culture” are destroying in Iraq and Syria. The pieces of the monuments have become the top goods of black markets, unfortunately.

Nowadays Syrian young architects (Marwa al-Sabouni) are not trying to save their cultural heritage, but having “Battle for Home” to save their houses and flats.

World organizations are still in silence. As the results of obtaining Palmyra city by terrorists a number of ancient architectural monuments and buildings were damaged seriously in May 2015 [7].

International trade relations became the lightest means for mutual cooperation and communication in human history, because now not only substantial goods, but also intellectual goods are sold and bought in world markets.

Global citizens must protect their cultural wealth, learn and appreciate the cultural heritage of the world as to develop interrelations between them [8-12].

One must not join to mass culture and follow others without understanding. Besides, for becoming the citizen of the world and finding own role in the common society one should learn history and cultural heritage of the world deeply. The tendency of tolerance helps us to become the citizen of the world [13-17]. Here each person should keep his mentality, respect others culture and language, then he can become the citizen of the world.

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that one can realise other nations’ cultures, religions, and human value thoroughly with learning the history of people’s architecture; because, architecture reflects human feelings and thoughts. Architectural culture can be considered as a separate language. This language does not need translation or interpretation in the world sides. Architectural monuments and buildings can define elegance, which a language cannot do it. Elegance can take away blocks of a language to express ideas. Consequently, there is no nation and language of beauty that was created by human being. It is powerful might loosening us from evilness and crudeness. It is the reflection of human value.