HISTORY O F ARCHITECTURE I MODULE

ND
NO. 7
A.Y. 2015 - 2016 2 Semester

GREEK ARCHITECTURE (PART 2)

I. Building Types
A. TEMPLES
- Most important Greek building that had finest building materials and the richest
decoration.
- Most complex of architectural form and was designed not to hold worshippers, but as
symbolic dwelling of the gods.

1. PLAN
- Usually rectangular in plan.
- Lifted on a podium an in plan has colonnades on all its external sides.
- The number of columns is always even to allow the location of the entrance in the
center.
- It always faces east so that the rising sun would light the statues inside.

PARTS OF A TYPICAL GREEK TEMPLE

 NAOS – or cella, os the central cult structure which usually contained a cult
stone of the deity.
 PRONAOS and OPISTHODOMOS
- Created by protruding side walls of the cella and two columns placed
between them.
- A door allows the cella to be accessed from the pronaos but no door was
made for the opisthodomos, its existence is necessitated entirely by
aesthetic considerations to maintain the consistency of the peripteral temple
and to ensure its vewability from all sides.
- The execution of the front has to be repeated at the rear.
 ADYTON – restricted space at the far end of the cella backing up on the
opisthodomos.
 PERISTASIS
- The complex formed by the naos, pronaos, opisthodomos and adyton is
enclosed on all four sides, usually a single row, rarely a double one, of
columns.
 PTERON – a surrounding portico which offered shelter to visitors of the
sanctuary and room for cult procession

TEMPLE PLANS(Based on column arrangement)

ANTA
in architecture, slightly projecting column at the end of a wall,produced by either a thickening o
f the wall or attachment of aseparate strip. The former type, commonly flanking porches ofGre
ek and Roman temples, is a masonry vestige of thewooden structural posts used to reinforce th
e brick walls ofsuch early antique temples as the Heraeum of Olympia (c. 600BC).
1. IN ANTIS – 1 – 4 columns between the antae, usually 2 columns in front.
2. AMPHI ANTIS – 1-4 columns between antae, usually 2 columns in front and
back.
3. PROSTYLE – having a portico of columns in front.
4. AMPHI PROSTYLE - having a portico of columns in front and back.
5. PERIPTERAL – a single file of columns surrounding the Naos wall.
6. PSEUDO PERIPTERAL – flank of columns attached to the Naos wall.
7. DIPTERAL – 2 lines of columns surrounding the Naos wall.
8. PSEUDO DIPTERAL – 2 lines in front and rear, single line at the sides.

TEMPLES BASED ON NUMBER OF FRONT COLUMNS

1. 1 – henostyle
2. 2 – distyle
3. 3 – tristyle
4. 4 – tetrastyle
5. 5 – pentastyle
6. 6 – hexastyle
7. 7 – heptastyle
8. 8 – octastyle
9. 9 – enneastyle
10. 10 – decastyle

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A.Y. 2015 - 2016 2 Semester

11. 11 – dodecastyle

3. EXTERIOR
- Were designed to be admired from the outside rather than the interior.
- Greek temples usually have twice the number of columns in front plus one by the
side. Ex. A hexastyle column has 6 in front and 13 on its sides (6x2)+1 = 13
- Colonnades define a portico around the temple.
 INTERCOLUMNIATION – the distance given between columns.
By triglyps:
1. MONOTRIGLYPH – an interval of one triglyph between columns.
2. DITIGLYPH – an interval of two triglyphs between columns.
3. POLYTRIGLYPH – an interval of more than two triglyph.
4. INTERIOR
- The interior rectangular space or naos is formed by a pair of colonnades on the long
side creating a processional space and at its head is the statue of the god whom the
temple is dedicated.
- Generally dark with only the entrance as a source of light.
- Lighting was made through door openings, skylights, artificial lighting (oil lamps)
and clerestory concealed in the roof.

TYPES OF TEMPLES (based on the columns used)

 DORIC TEMPLE
- Based on the Doric order.
- Built during the archaic period of Greek civilization.
- 9 columns on the front , while 18 on its sides.
- Appear heavy in comparison with later temples.
- The columns have a bulge, pointing to the practice of optical correction or
entasis.
- Capitals are also huge, heavy and very wide.
 IONIC TEMPLE
- Based on the ionic order.
 CORINTHIAN TEMPLE

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HISTORY O F ARCHITECTURE I MODULE
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A.Y. 2015 - 2016 2 Semester

- Was not widely used during the Greek period.

- Became very popular during the Roman period.
- Originally for temples dedicated to gods but were gradually extended to civic and
government buildings.

B. CIVIC BUILDINGS
1. THEATERS
- Open air structures, hollowed out of the slope of a hillside.
- Had a bank of seats steps created from the side of the hill commanding a view to the
landscape.

PARTS OF A GREEK THEATER

a. ORCHESTRA - normally a level circular space where the chorus would dance,
sing and interact with the actors who were on the stage near the skene.
b. THEATRON – viewing place normally usually part of the hillside overlooking the
orchestra and often wrapped around a large portion of the orchestra.
c. SKENE – building behind the stage. There was also access to the roof of the
skene from behind, so that actors playing gods and other characters could
appear on the roof if needed.
d. PARODOS – passageways. Paths by which the chorus and some actors made
their entrance and exits. The audience also used them to enter and exit before
and after the performance.

2. STOA – long colonnade building used around public spaces and as shelters and as
religious shrines.
3. PRYTANEUM – senate house used by dignitary of the city and also as a place where the
distinguished visitors and citizens may be entertained.
4. BOULEUTERION
- Where the Boule or council of the city state met.
- A covered chamber fitted with banks of seats like a theatre.
5. ASSEMBLY HALL – used by the citizens in general.
6. ODEION – a kindred type to the theatre. A building in which musician perform their
works for the approval of the public and competed for prizes.
7. STADIUM – a foot racecourse in the City, normally founded on convenient natural
ground.
8. HIPPODROME – similar to stadium but longer used for horse and chariot racing. It was
the prototype of the Roman Circus.
9. PALAESTRA – a wrestling school.
10. GYMNASIUM – training facility for competitors in public games.

C. DOMESTIC BUILDINGS
1. HOUSES
- Constructed of mud bricks
- Were of courtyard type, with rooms arranged around a courtyard.
- Houses vary according to standing in the society.

D. CITY PLANNING AND DESIGN

- City form of were two types: ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT and GRID-IRON STREET PLAN
- Towns had fixed boundaries and some were protected by fortifications.
- Much of the town was devoted to public use.
- Site planning and design was centered on the appreciation of buildings from the outside.
- The location of buildings was therefore such that it could command a good view to it.

THREE PARTS OF OF A GREEK CITY

1. ACROPOLIS city of temples
- It is the location where all the major temples of a city are located.
- Was built to glorify the gods.
- High places were considered to be important and sacred.
2. AGORA
- Most important gathering place in a Greek city.
- Started as an open area where the council of the city met to take decision.
- Buildings define the enclosed space and transformed it into a place for combines
social, commercial and political activities.
- Usually located on a flat ground for ease of communication.
- In many cities located near the Acropolis.

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3. TOWN
- Where the people lived.
- Was the domain of women, who did not have any public role.
- Made up of only residential houses usually constructed of mud bricks.

4. PROPYLAEA
- Monumental gates or entranceways to a specific space, usually to a temple or
religious complex and as such they acted as a symbolic partition between the
secular and religious parts of a city.

E. OTHERS
1. NAVAL BUILDINGS – ship-sheds; stores
2. CHORAGIC MONUMENT - large, freestanding pedestal that formed the display base for
an athletic or choral prize won at an ancient Greek festival.
3. PERIBOLUS – a court enclosed by a wall, especially one surrounding a sacred area such
as a temple, shrine or altar
4. HERMES - a sculpture with a head, and perhaps a torso, above a plain, usually squared
lower section, on which male genitals may also be carved at the appropriate height.
were placed at crossings, country borders and boundaries as protection.

II. Building Examples

1. TEMPLE OF ZEUS, Olympia
- A fully developed Classical Greek temple of the Doric order.
- Was constructed by the architect LIBON, who carved the metopes and triglyph friezes
topped by pediments with scultures.
- The main structure was of local limestone that was unattractive and poor quality but
coated with stucco to give it an appearance of marble.
- Doric peripteral temple, 6 x 13 columns on a crepidoma is the platform on which the
superstructure of the building is erected of 3 unequal steps. An east opening cella, with
pronaos and opisthodomos both distyle in antis. Two rows, each of 7 Doric columns with
superimposed Doric columns, divided the cella into 3 aisles. The statue on its enormous
base was separated from public access by a barrier which ran between the columns of
the side aisles and across the cella at the 2nd column and behind the statue base. The
temple was approached by a ramp on the east.

2. THE PARTHENON, Athens 447BC- 438BC (Construction)

- An octastyle temple with 8 columns in front and 17 columns by its side.
- In the Parthenon we also find the best example of the application of entasis.
- Dedicated to Athena where an ivory gold statue of goddess, 11 meters tall carved by
Phidas once stood in the noasor inner sanctuary.
- It had two rooms in plan; the TREASURY, which is most often empty and the NAOSOR
inner sanctuary.
- The statue reached the wooden roof of the temple.
- Parts of the inside and outside of the Parthenon were once painted.
- The inside of the temple was often not used and processions and ceremonies were held
outside.
- A peripteral octastyle Doric temple with Ionic architectural features, standing on a
platform or stylobate of three steps.
- In common with other Greek temples, It is of post and lintel construction and is
surrounded by columns ("peripteral") carrying an entablature. There are eight columns
at either end ("octastyle") and seventeen on the sides.
- The temple’s alter was placed on the Eastern side.
- During the Christian period, the Parthenon was used as a church
- Later the Turks converted it into a Mosque.
- In 1687, the Turks used it to store ammunition and when they were attacked by the
Venetians, it exploded.
- In 1801 An English man gathered the broken pieces and shipped them to the British
museum in England
- There is a double row of columns at either end.
- The colonnade surrounds an inner masonry structure, the cella, which is divided into two
compartments.
- At either end of the building the gable is finished with a triangular pediment originally
filled with sculpture.

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- The columns are of the Doric order, with simple capitals, fluted shafts and no bases.
- Above the architrave of the entablature is a frieze of carved pictorial panels (metopes),
separated by formal architectural triglyphs, typical of the Doric order.
- Around the cella and across the lintels of the inner columns runs a continuous
sculptured frieze in low relief. This element of the architecture is Ionic in style rather
than Doric.
- Measured at the stylobate, the dimensions of the base of the Parthenon are 69.5 by 30.9
metres (228 by 101 ft). The cella was 29.8 metres long by 19.2 metres wide
(97.8 × 63.0 ft), with internal colonnades in two tiers, structurally necessary to support
the roof. On the exterior, the Doric columns measure 1.9 metres (6.2 ft) in diameter and
are 10.4 metres (34 ft) high. The corner columns are slightly larger in diameter. The
Parthenon had 46 outer columns and 23 inner columns in total, each column containing
20 flutes. (A flute is the concave shaft carved into the column form.)
- The stylobate has an upward curvature towards its centre. of 60 millimetres (2.4 in) on
the east and west ends, and of 110 millimetres (4.3 in) on the sides.
- The roof was covered with large overlapping marble tiles known asimbrices and tegulae.
- The Parthenon is regarded as the finest example of Greek architecture.
- The stylobate is the platform on which the columns stand. As in many other classical
Greek temples,
- It has a slight parabolic upward curvature intended to shed rainwater and reinforce the
building against earthquakes. The columns might therefore be supposed to lean
outwards, but they actually lean slightly inwards so that if they carried on, they would
meet almost exactly a mile above the centre of the Parthenon; since they are all the
same height, the curvature of the outer stylobate edge is transmitted to the
architrave and roof above:
- The metopes of the east side of the Parthenon, above the main entrance, depict
the Gigantomachy(mythical battles between the Olympian gods and the Giants).

3. THE ERECHTHEUM, Athens 421 BC - $06 BC (Construction)

- The elegance and delicate forms of the Erechtheion contrast sharply with the
neighboring Parthenon that counter-balances the architectural complex with its majestic,
Doric presence.
- The temple faces east and its entrance is lined with six long Ionic columns.
- To the north and west the wall of the temple drops dramatically to almost twice the
altitude of the front and south side’s. The west and north sides are about 3 m (9 ft)
lower than the south and east sides.
- The temple is unusual in that it incorporates two porches (prostaseis); one at the
northwest corner which is supported by tall Ionic columns, and one at the south-west
corner which is supported by six massive female statues, the famous Caryatids.
- Its architect may have been Mnesicles, and it derived its name from a shrine dedicated
to the legendary Greek hero Erichthonius.
- The sculptor and mason of the structure was PHIDIAS, who was employed by Pericles to
build both the Erechtheum and the Parthenon.
The need to preserve multiple adjacent sacred precincts likely explains the complex
design. It sprang from a complex plan that was designed to accommodate the radically
uneven ground on the site, and to avoid disturbing sacred shrines.
- The main structure consists of up to four compartments, the largest being the east cella,
with an Ionic portico on its east end.
- Built entirely of marble with friezes of black limestone which bore sculptures executed in
relief in white marble..
- It had elaborately carved doorways and windows, and its columns were ornately
decorated (far more so than is visible today); they were painted, gilded and highlighted
with gilt bronze and multi-colored inset glass beads.
- The caryatids are linked to a historical story.
- The caryatids are a people who lived in Asia minor.
- They were believed to have fought with the Persians against the Greeks.
- When the Greeks won, they destroyed the cities of the caryatids
- They killed all the men and brought back the women as slaves.
- For revenge the Greeks copied the Caryatid slave women in stone and forced them to
carry the roof the Erechtheumfor all time.
- The weight of the roof is carried from the top of the head of the caryatid through their
leg.
- A larger porch on the northern side has ionic columns having all the characteristics of
the Ionic order.

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4. TEMPLE OF NIKE
- Just beside the propylaeis the Temple of Athena Nike, meaning victorious Athena.
- Built around 420 BC and was designed by CALLICRATES during the Peloponnesian wars.
- The Athenians worshipped Athena Nike in the hope of victory
- This is an ionic temple that had a pediment that no longer exists.
- The temple has an entrance of four ionic columns on two sides and looks the same from the
front and back.
- The Temple of Athena Nike was built around 420BC, during the Peace of Nicias. It is a
tetrastyle (four column) Ionic structure with a colonnaded portico at both front and rear
facades (amphiprostyle), designed by the architect KALLIKRATES.
- The columns along the east and west fronts were monolithic columns.
- The temple ran 27 feet long by 18 and a half feet wide and 23 feet tall.
- The total height from the stylobate to the acme of the pediment while the temple remained
intact was a modest 23 feet. The ratio of height to diameter of the columns is 7:1, the
slender proportions creating an elegance and refinement not encountered in the normal 9:1
or 10:1 of Ionic buildings. Constructed from white pentelic marble, it was built in stages as
war-starved funding allowed.

References:
A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE ON COMPARATIVE METHOD
Sir Banister Fletcher

TRAVELS IN THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Robert Harbison

CAFA_History of Architecture I Handout

Module 5 Greek Architecture

ARC 110 History of Architecture Module 5

Aegean Architecture

ARC 110 History of Architecture Module 6

Ancient Greek Architecture

https://www.scribd.com/doc/26646008/Aegean-Architecture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_order

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