HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Greek Architecture
Contents
• Overview
• Greek Orders
• Optical Correction
• Temples
• Acropolis
• Agora
• Town Planning
• Residences
Aegean in 2nd millennium BCE
Minoan civilization – 3000-1380 BCE
Mycenaean period – 1600 to 1100 BCE

Hellenic Period – 800 to 323 B.C.

Hellenistic Period – 323 to 30 B.C.

Early Greek Civilization

OVERVIEW
Discovery of freedom through democracy
brought impetus to search the truth-leading to-
development of philosophy, science, mathematics, logic
and law.

• Freedom and spiritual values were symbolized in

temples;

• Freedom of speech led to Houses of People or

council chambers;

• The community needs led to Assembly Houses,

OATs and the Agora or the market place;
OVERVIEW
• The climate varied between rigorous cold and relaxing heat .This attractive
situation encouraged an open air, communally oriented attitude to life, which
assisted the development of Greek democracy.

But in direct contrast, however , the domestic Greek world was that of privacy
within the ubiquitous courtyard house;

The hot sun and sudden showers were causes for buildings with colonnaded
porticos.

• Meeting took place in open air, new indoor meeting places such as council hall
(bouleuterion) were designed with an advent of advanced construction
Technique;

• Large scale open air theatrical ceremonies were also performed initially at the foot
of conveniently sloping natural auditoria.

• Their religion was based on worship of natural phenomena.

OVERVIEW
The ancient Greek architectural characters has a great impact because of readily
availability of high quality marble.

• Worked on a fine details, marble was the medium by which Greek architecture
attained standards of perfection seldom reached in later history.

• The importance of civic buildings were conceived as three dimensional, free

standing sculptural objects.

• Unlike the civic buildings minimal effort and concern for domestic comfort. Houses
were rudimentary and either grouped by chance or rigidly organized along basic
grid line.
 ARCHITECTURE

Hellenic Period – 800 to 323 B.C.

Hellenistic Period – 323 to 30 B.C.
 Hellenic Period – 800 to 323 B.C.
Commenced circa 800 BC, (with substantial works of architecture
appearing from about 600 BC) and ended with the death of
Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

Hellenistic Period – 323 to 30 B.C.

Hellenic culture was spread widely, throughout lands conquered
by Alexander, and then by the Roman Empire which absorbed
much of Greek culture.
It refers to the art and architecture associated with the extended
empire of Alexander and his successors.
It differs by shifting away from the staid traditions associated
with region around Athens.
GREEK COLUMN ORDERS

DORIC
IONIC
CORINTHIAN
 GREEK COLUMN ORDERS
Introduced by a Roman architect, Marcus Vitruvius
Defined column styles and entablature

Order of Architecture
A set or rules or principles for designing buildings.

Classical order of architecture

An approach to building design established in Greece or Rome during the Classical
period, roughly 850 BC through 476 AD.

How Classical Architecture Began

Great buildings were constructed according to precise rules
Marcus Vitruvius (De Architectura, or Ten Books on Architecture) believed
Builders used mathematical principles when constructing temples
Without symmetry and proportion, no temple can have a regular plan
Wood Features in Stone

• By the 6th Century BC, stone

replaced wood in the
construction of important
temples.
• Designs still reflected their
origins in wood, however.
• The trigyph, which alternates
with the metapes, began as
wooden beam ends.
 1) Tympanum
DORIC 2) Acroterion
Basic Order in Greek Architecture –used by 3) Cyma
Spartans
4) Cornice
1. Column –height is 7 D –plinth, dado and
stylobate 5) Mutules
Shaft–20 flutes and arrises 6) .
General Inter columnation–2 D 7) Frieze
Distinctive Capital –Abacus and Echinus
8) Triglyph
2. Entablature –consists of Architrave, Frieze
and Cornice 9) Metope
a) Architrave –¾ D, flat moulding called taenea 10) Regulae
Regula–short band with six ‘guttae’(small cone 11) Guttae
like blocks)
b) Frieze –¾ D, contains Triglyph and Metope. 12) Taenia
Triglyph–formed by two V-shaped channels 13) Architrave
with similar half channels on both ends which 14) Capital
are rounded at top.
15) Abacus
Metopes–square shaped space between
Triglyph 16) Echinus
c) Cornice –½ D high –crowning part, projects 17) Column
beyond frieze 18) Fluting
Acroteria–for ornamentatal block
19) Stylobate
• Doric columns stood directly on the flat pavement (the stylobate) without a base
• Vertical shafts were fluted with 20 parallel concave grooves
• Smooth capital that flared from the column to meet a square abacus
• Carried the horizontal beam(architrave)
• The Parthenon has the Doric design columns.
IONIC
Named after the Ionians of ancient
Greece
1. Column –9 D, has a base, moulded
base consists of upper and lower torus-
separated by Scotia and fillets
Shaft has 24 flutes –diminishes to 5/6 D
at its top.
General Intercolumniations 4 D
Remarkable for its volute(capital)
2. Entablature –2 D
a) Architrave–¾ D, triple fasciae(three
beams)
b) Frieze–¾ D, either plain or
ornamented
c) Cornice–½ D, similar treatment like
Doric
Rainwater sprouts in the shape of lion’s
heads
Ionic Order is more ornate than the
Doric –grace, refinement of outlines
and elegance as compared to Doric
Order
IONIC
• More slender and more ornate
than the Doric style
• Scroll-shaped ornaments on the
capital
• A pair of volutes
• Stands on a base of stacked disks
• Shafts are usually fluted, but can
be plain

Buildings With Ionic Columns:

The Erechtheum, Athens
Doric columns on the first level,
Ionic columns on the second
level, and Corinthian columns on
the third level
CORINTHIAN
• Emerged as an offshoot of the Ionic
style about 450 BCE
• Distinguished by its more decorative
capitals
1. Column –10 D height
Base –½ D high, similar to Ionic
Shaft–circular and tapered to 5/6 D at
top
24 flutes separated by fillets
General Inter columnation–3 D
Distinctive capital –perhaps evolved
from a basket placed on the root of
acanthus plant
2. Entablature –2.25 D high –and bears
a close resemblance to the Ionic Order.
a) Architrave –¾ D, divided into three
fasciae
b) Frieze –¾ D, ornamented by
continuous sculptures
c) Cornice –¾ D, dentils and corona –
antefixal ornament
CORINTHIAN
• Corinthian capital was much taller being
ornamented with a double row of
acanthus leaves topped by voluted
tendrils.

• Typically, it had a pair of volutes at each

corner, thus providing the same view from
all sides
• The ratio of the column-height to column-
diameter in Corinthian temples is usually
10:1 (compare Doric 5:1; Ionic 9:1), with
the capital accounting for roughly 10
percent of the height.
OPTICAL CORRECTIONS
IMPORTANT STRUCTURES
TEMPLES
•Unlike modern churches or mosques, Greek temples were not meant to be meeting
places for congregations.

•They were homes for the community’s god or goddess and a place to keep offerings

•A cult image was centrally located within a naos, or chapel.

•In the mild climate of Greece, ceremonies generally took place outdoors.

•Even the alter, upon which sacrifices were made, were outside the temple structure.
 Characteristics
• ORIENTED TOWARDS THE EAST
• NAOS ( it refers to the Cella, i.e. the inner chamber of a temple which houses a cult
figure)
• PRONAOS ( is the inner area of the portico, situated between the portico's colonnade or
walls and the entrance to the cella, or shrine)
• AND EPINAOS (OPISTHODOMOS) - a room in the rear of the cella of an ancient Greek
temple
• SURROUNDED BY OPEN COLONNADE
• ENTRANCE DOORS on the east and west walls
• WINDOWS WERE RARE
• PEDIMENT
• TYMPANUM
• TIMBER ROOFS covered with MARBLE OR TERRACOTTA TILES
• ANTIFIXAE ORNAMENT at the end of the roof tiles
Greek Temple Plans
Typical floor plan incorporated a colonnade of columns (peristyle) on all four sides; a
front porch (pronaos), a back porch (opisthodomos).

Categorized based on their ground plan and the way in which the columns are arranged.

1. The simplest form of greek temple is the temple in antis or in anta, in which the
“naos” or “cella” is preceded by a “pronaos” or “antechamber” flanked by forward
projections “antea” of its side walls. There are also examples of a double anta temple,
with antea at each side.

2. Prostyle temple is a temple that has columns only at the front

3. Amphiprostyle temple has columns at the front and the rear.

4. One of the more unusual plans is the tholos, a temple with a circular ground plan

5. Temples with a peripteral arrangement have a single line of columns arranged all
around the exterior of the temple building.

6. Dipteral temples simply have a double row of columns surrounding the building.
 Important Structures – The Acropolis

• The most famous Greek

buildings topped the
Athenian Acropolis.

• These include:
• the Parthenon
• the Erechtheion
• the Propylaea
• the Temple of Athena
Nike
The Parthenon

• This is the most important and perfectly formed temple on the acropolis.
• Dedicated to Athena, it housed an enormous cult image.
• Built in pentelic marble.
•On the high grounds of the Acropolis, south of temple Athena.
•Architects –Ictinus & Callicrates ; sculptor –Pheidias.
•Rectangular plan measuring 71m X 32m.
• Stands on a crepidoma of 3 steps with tread 70cm &
rise 50cm.
• Designed in octal-style, eight columns in front & back,
columns having base d = 1.9m, h = 10.4m and of the
Doric order.

• The entablature is 3.4m high and curve up in the middle.

•Architrave was ornamented with bronze shields.
•Sculptured metopes are about 1.34m X 1.34m, 14 in
on front, 32 on south and north.
•The frieze lean outward slightly.

• The pediment inclined at 13˚ 30 mins.

• It has floral decoration called Acroteria about 3m high.

• The sloping cornices of the pediment has

ornamentations.
• The Tympana had fine sculptures in bright colors.
The Erechtheion (421 B.C -406 B.C)
• This is a complex building of up to four
distinct spaces.
• It is also built on a slope, so its walls are of
differing heights. the west and north sides
are about 3 m (9 ft) lower than the south
and east sides.
• It is dedicated to Athena Polias and
Poseidon Erechtheus.
• The most distinctive element of this building
is the Porch of the Maidens.
 • It was built entirely of marble
from Mount Pentelikon, with
friezes of black limestone from
The Erechtheum Eleusis which bore sculptures
executed in relief in white
marble.

• On the north side, there is

another large porch with six Ionic
columns, and on the south, the
famous "Porch of the Maidens",
with six draped female figures
(caryatids) as supporting
columns.

• The porch was built to conceal

the giant 15-ft beam needed to
support the southwest corner
over the Kekropion, after the
building was drastically reduced
in size and budget following the
onset of the Peloponnesian war.
The Propylaea

• This is the monumental entry

point to the acropolis.

• Not a temple but a gateway

• Essentially a doric portico

flanked by projecting wings

• It changes its scale as you move

up hill
Temple of Athena Nike

• This is a small temple

dedicated to the victorious
Athena.

• Perched up infront of the

entrance of the Acropolis

• The ratio of height to diameter

of the columns is 7:1 and not
the 9:1 or 10:1 generally
found in Ionic temples.

• Simple sanctuary housed a

wooden statue of Athena
AGORA
Agora
Agora is a public space in Greek cities
contained sustained or intense concentration
of varied activities.

• The Agora was in fact not only a public place,

but the central zone of the city- its living heart.

• A ground for social life, business and politics.

• Being ideally positioned between the main

gate and entrance to the acropolis serves as a
focal point of a planned city.
The Agora
The Agora was the political and commercial heart
• Peristyle Court
• Mint
• South-east Fountain House
• South Stoa I
• Aiakeion
• Strategeion
• Agoraios Kolonos
• Tholos
• Boundary stone
• Monument of the Eponymous Heroes
• Metroon (Old Bouleuterion)
• New Bouleuterion
• Temple of Hephaestus (Hephaestion)
• Temple of Apollo Patroos
• Stoa of Zeus
• Altar of the Twelve Gods
• Stoa Basileios (Royal stoa)
• Temple of Aphrodite Urania
• Stoa Poikile
 THE TOWN PLANNING

The ancient Greek towns were

divided into three parts:

 Places for Gods

 Administration
 Dwelling Houses

The Town had to justify the

requirements of :

 Hygiene
 Defense
 Circulation The heart of the city: Or the central place was to
occupy 5 % of the city area and comprise of the
temple, the assembly hall , the council chambers,
Three Classes of people
council hall, the Agora and the Agora square.
 Craftsmen
All major roads were to meet the Agora Square.
 Soldiers
 Workers
Athens
The Organic Growth
Athens was never planned as a whole;
• Destroyed and reconstructed again over the old city;
• Two main groups of civic building 1) Acropolis, 2)Agora;

• It is considered as the best natural fortress of the ancient world;

• It rises some 300 feet above the general level of the plain, irregularly shaped roughly 350
yards by 140 yards and the long dimension oriented east-west;
Streets were paved and there were
underground drains beneath the
streets.

Maintained reservoirs, but no

water distribution system.

Orientation with respect to the

climate, Principal rooms faced the
south and opened on private
courtyard.
Ancient Athens
Ancient Athens
RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS
Residential Districts
Residences were either grouped
together, in organic growth districts or
rigidly organized along basic grid-iron
lines.

There was a contrast between the

splendor of civic areas and squalor
of housing.

Communal activities were more

important than Home life.

Individual dwellings within the

same grid block were of different
sizes and plans.
Ancient Athens

Priene City Block

Ancient Athens Houses
Houses in Priene