Greek Architecture
Module 5: Greek Architecture (3000 BC – 30 BC) Climatic – hot sun and heavy rains, probably explain the porticoes and colonnade
which were such important features.
INFLUENCES Religious – the Greek religion was in the main worship of natural phenomena
Geographical – the reference map of Greece shows a country surrounded on (nature worship), of which the gods were personifications.
three sides by sea, possessed of many natural harbors and convenient for the
development of trades. The principal Greek deities (The Twelve Olympians)
Assignment # 2
Historical & Social
1. AEGEAN – embraces the civilixation of Crete and mainland Greece from
- the Island of Crete – the first great sea-power power of the earliest times to about 1100 BC.
Mediterranean, which flourished a thousand years before the Greek 2. MYCENAEAN or HELLADIC GREECE (1400 BC – 1100 BC) – the absorption
Civilization. of Cretan ideas and the use of Cretan craftsmen produced continuity of
- the mountains of inland Greece separated the inhabitants into groups architectural characteristics.
and clans, which characterizes the Greek states. - Citadel palaces became centers of small but powerful empire.
3. HELLENIC GREECE (800 – 323 BC) – by the 8th century BC, the city state
Geological – the principal mineral product was marble, the most monumental (“Polis”) emerged as the basis of Greek society.
building material in existence, purity of line and refinement of detail. - marked the climax of Athenian prosperity, and the tremendous
- the country was also rich in silver, copper and iron. outburst of building activity in re-construction which was to
express the ultimate development of Hellenic art and
Architecture.
Greek Architecture
4. HELLENISTIC GREECE (323 – 30 BC) – the unification of Greece was
accomplished and firmly established under Alexander the Great.
AEGEAN ARCHITECTURE
- the vast territory became a Hellenistic Empire through which CIRCA 3000 – 1100 BC
Greek civilization was extended new and splendid cities were
founded of which Alexandria was to be the largest and most
famous.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
- the Greek world shifted east- politically, economically and 1. The island people - their buildings had the flat roofs typical to eastern
artistically countries.
2. The mainland people – used low- pitched roofs. The characteristics mainland
domestic unit was the megaron, which has a deep plan, columned entrance
porch, an ante room with central doorway, the living-apartment a megaron
proper, with central hearth and columns supporting the roof, and normally a
thalamus or sleeping room behind.
3. Houses and Palaces are the principal building types representative of Aegean
Architecture, with an important class of underground tomb.
4. Buildings were constructed of rubble or cut stonework to dado height.
5. Methods of Walling
Assignment #3
6. False arches of heavy blocks, or of Corbels advanced course by course until a
triangular head had been formed, covered the openings, covered the
openings in stone walls.
Greek Architecture
a. a square abacus above and,
b. a circular bulbous echinus below
c. there are additional small mouldings above and below echinus.
ABACUS
ECHINUS
7. Corbel method was normal too for vaults or pointed domes, as in the
Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae.
Echinus – the convex or projecting moulding, resembling the shell of a sea
urchin, which supports the abacus of the Greek Doric capital, sometimes
painted with the egg and dart ornament,
EXAMPLES
1. PALACES
a. Palace of King Minos Knosses
b. The Palace, Tiryns
c. Lion Gate, Mycenae
2. TOMBS – two types:
• rock-cut or chamber tomb
• tholos type
a. Treasury or Atreus, Mycenae
8. Square, masonry pillars with a bracket form of capital sometimes gave
intermediate support on lower floors
9. But the distinctive type of column was of cypress wood with downward-
tapering cylindrical shaft, a slight disc-like base and a widely projecting capital
with two main parts:
Greek Architecture
5. Ceilings sometimes omitted, leaving an open roof, were treated decoratively
GREEK ARCHITECTURE with timber – paneled coffers or, within the colonnades around temples,
650 – 30 BC were of flat, stone slabs, coffered to imitate the timber.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
6. Stones were secured together by wrought-iron cramps and dowels, protected
Hellenic Period (650 – 323 BC) by molten lead.
1. Greek Architecture was essentially columnar and trabeated (trabs = a beam).
2. The wooden roofs were untrussed.
3. As the principle of triangulation was unknown, spans could not be large,
unless internal lines of columns were supplied, and these usually were- in two
superimposed tiers.
7. Several important refinements were practiced in Greek architecture in order
to correct optical illusions.
8. Greek columns usually have an entasis.
• Entasis – a swelling or curving outwards along the outline of a column
4. The tradition of the dado always survived in the special way the stones are
shaft, designed to counteract the optical illusion which gives a shaft
arranged at the base of the wall.
bounded by straight lines the appearance of curving inwards.
9. From the original two “orders of Architecture”, DORIC and IONIC, evolved
simultaneously by the two main branches of Greek race, there at length arose
a third, CORINTHIAN.
Greek Architecture
2. The PROPYLAEA, ATHENS
- erected under Pericles by the Architect Mnesicles, forms the
imposing entrance to the Acropolis.
- Hexastyle Doricporticoes.
- windows were used as pinacotheca.
Hellenistic Period (323 – 30 BC)
1. They were dignified and gracious structures.
2. Civic design developed space, and entire groups of buildings were laid out in
symmetrical lines in orderly schemes, often linked by colonnade porticoes or
“STOAS”.
3. Town planning became normal.
4. Trabeated architecture, but arches began to appear over wall openings and
large niche-like recesses in building plans.
5. Corinthian order is mostly used.
EXAMPLES
1. TEMENOS or sacred enclosure.
- where the principal sacred buildings might stand, both for dignity
and safety.
- these were walled like
the city itself, and
sometimes very irregular
in shape, due to the lie of
the land.
• Pinacotheca – a picture gallery or a building to contain painted
pictures.
Greek Architecture
• PROPYLAEA or entrance gateways 4. TEMPLES
- marked the approach to the sacred enclosure in many cities such - were the chief class building in the Hellenic Period.
as Athens, Epidauros, Eleusis and Priene. - they were build with special regard to outward effect, since they were
not intended for internal worship and the altar stood opposite the east
3. The ACROPOLIS, ATHENS front.
- is the supreme example, foremost among world-famous building - they were adorned with fine sculpture inorder to form fitting shrines to
sites. the dieties to whom they were dedicated
- normally, a city temenos contained a principal temple and maybe
a one or two subsidiary temples or shrines, together with Different types of Temples:
treasuries in which were stored the offerings and processional Rectangular temples are described according to:
regalia. a. number of columns on the entrance (front)
b. by the arrangement of exterior columns of the temple in relation to the
Naos.
Naos – the principal chamber in a Greek temple containing the statue of
the diety.
a. Number of columns
Henostyle – one column
The Acropolis, Athens, Greece as it would have Distyle – two columns
appeared in Ancient Times. From the book Tristyle – three columns
Harmsworth History of the World Published
1908
Tetrastyle – four columns
Pentastyle – five columns
Hexastyle – six columns
Heptastyle – seven columns
Octastyle – eight columns
Enneastyle – nine columns
Decastyle – twelve columns
Dodecastyle – twelve columns
b. In antis – temple have from one to two columns between antae at the
front. Two is the usual number.
The Acropolis, Athens, Greece Today
Greek Architecture
Amphi-antis - temple have from one to four columns between antae at
the front and rear. Two is the usual number.
Prostyle – temples have a portico of columns at the front.
Amphi-prostyle - temples have a portico of columns at the front and rear.
Peripteral – temples have a single line of columns surrounding the naos.
Psuedo-peripteral – temples have flank columns attached to the naos
wall.
Dipteral – temples have a double line of columns surrounding the naos.
Pseudo-dipteral – temples are like the last, but inner range of columns is
omitted on the flanks of the naos.