Architectural History: The Architecture of Hogwarts - Essay Example

Though most castles are glorious and impressive as they are, ordinary people would not be filling the halls of Hogwarts Castle, and therefore required a building that truly played up on the magical surroundings of this magical school. Hogwarts Castle is located in Scotland and is built in the midst of a forest and surrounded by a large lake. As castles are naturally old and follow the architectural styles of the eras that they were built in, and Hogwarts Castle is no exception, it was important to create or find a castle that could do justice to J.K. Rowling’s imagination.

It also became pivotal that this castle had the characteristics that Rowling was looking for when building this magical school in her mind (Sibley, 2010). This was especially critical when the films first began to be put into production. Rowling could easily picture the perfect castle in her mind, but it was another thing entirely to find a building that could be used as Hogwarts for a film. The best place to start was by seeing what castles currently populated the world; due to the age of most castles, especially those overseas, both Rowling and the film crews decided that it would be easier to look for a castle rather than create the designs for a to-scale model castle.

One of the most important things that had to be kept in mind when looking for castles was how old Hogwarts Castle was assumed to be. Though never mentioned in the books or films, it can be assumed that the castle is, at the least, a few thousand years old given the often-recited history of the school founders throughout the course of the novels. When determining a suitable castle, it was decided that the outside of the castle could not be compromised in regard to its appearance, so set designers and J.K. Rowling set out to find a real castle that could stand in for the exterior shots of the film (Shapiro, 2007). Another