HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I MODULE

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GREEK ARCHITECTURE (PART 1)

I. Background
A. GEOGRAPHY
- Greece is a country surrounded on three sides by the sea, possessed of many natural
harbours, and convenient for the development of trade.
- The mountainous character of the country, with scarcely a road until Roman times, was
calculated to isolate the inhabitants into small groups and together with the tempting
proximity of a whole multitude of islands. was instrumental in producing adventurous
people.
B. GEOLOGY
- Marble was the principal mineral material used for monumental buildings and one which
favors purity of line and refinement in detail.
- Marble is found in great abundance in various parts of Greece, in the mountains of
Hymettus and Pentelicus and in the islands of Paros and Naxos.
- Greece is also rich in silver, copper and iron.
C. CLIMATE
- Greece is remarkable for the hot sun and heavy rains, factors probably answerable for the
porticos which were important features of the temples.
- It enjoyed a position intermediate between the rigorous surroundings of the Northern
nations and the relaxing conditions of Eastern life. Hence the Greek character combined the
activity of the North with the passivity of the East in a way that conduced to the growth of a
unique civilization.
D. RELIGION
- The Greek religion was in the main worship of natural phenomena (nature-worship, major
and minor), of which the gods were personifications.
- There are however, numerous traces of ancestor-worship, fetishism and other primitive
forms of religion.
- It should ne borne in mind that the Greek cults were always local, each town or district
having its own divinities, ceremonies and traditions.
- PUT LIST OF GODS
E. SOCIETY AND POLITICS
- National games and religious festivals united the people in reverence (respect/worship) for
their religion, and gave them that love for music, the drama and the fine arts, and that
emulation in manly sports and contests for which they were distinguished.
- For the public ceremonies and in many cases the administration of justice was carried on in
the open air.
- Greeks were great colonist and emigrants with a government undertaken not only to
establish trade, but also to reduce the superfluous population and to provide an outlet for
party strife. (conflict)
- It thus came about that the colonies were often peopled with citizens of a more energetic
and go-ahead character than those of the mother country; and it will therefore be found
that many of the important buildings of Greek architecture, especially in the Ionic style, are
in their colonies of Asia Minor, and that this connection with the East had some influence
upon their architecture.

II. Building Materials

A. THREE MAJOR BUILDING MATERIALS
1. STONE
- Particularly MARBLE.
- Used for all types of building elements.
- Marble dust and lime was used in polishing crude bricks and even marble itself.
2. TIMBER
- Mainly used for roofing.
- Very scarce commodity and has limited length.
- The limitation in length meant that the width of buildings was restricted and only very
important buildings such as the Parthenon could go beyond a certain width.

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3. CLAY
- Mostly used in housing construction.
- Made into sun dried blocks.

III. Building Techniques

 TRABEATED OR COLUMN AND BEAM CONSTRUCTION
- Principal construction system used for temples and civid buildings
 CONSTRUCTION METHODS
1. PREPARATION AND ASSEMBLY
- Involves ordering stones in semi-prepared state from quarries.
- On site, stones were roughly shaped and placed in position on the building.
- Elements placed in position would be been sized to the right proportion.
- Building blocks were not bonded, but are rather held in position by their own weight.
- Then the rough stones were finished to achieve the final form and treatment of the
building.
2. FINISHING
- Finishing enables the builders to create buildings of a particular order.
- It is in the finishing that the Greeks showed their mastery of construction.
- Finishing work involved creating the fluting, base and the capital decoration on columns.
- In effort to obtain refinement of line and smoothness of surface where crude bricks were
used, they were in many cases coated with a fine cement formed of marble dust and
lime; where stone is employed, it appears also to have been coated with this marble
cement, while marble itself was often coated the same way, the cement being
susceptible of higher polish than the uncemented surface.
- The frieze and cornices of buildings were also decorated with appropriate relief carving.
- Pediments were also finished with relief carvings, which in temples depict stories of the
gods.
- Full statues of gods were also carved and placed on strategic places on the outside of
the temple and also as the major element in the interior.
- The Greeks essentially formalized architectural sculpture and decoration.
- They were able to effectively translate their ideas of beauty into tangible buildings.

IV. Aegean and Mycenaean Architecture

1. AEGEAN ARCHITECTURE (MINOANS) King Minos
A. GEOGRAPHY, SOCIETY AND CULTURE
- Earliest civilization developed in the island of Crete.
- It was protected from attack by the sea and its naval power.
- The Mediterranean yielded great wealth to the Cretan through trade with the cities by
the river.
- Minoan peoples are named after their legendary ruler, King Minos, who
is described in Homer’s epic tales as ruling from his labyrinth-like palace in the
ancient city of Knossos.
- Minoans’ way of life was peaceful, relaxed and luxurious.
- Paintings depicted joyous hunts, and dances with sacred bulls and sea creatures.
- The society can be thought of as being made up of near divine kings presiding over an
administration largely concerned with commerce.
- The Cretans were a very rich and prosperous society. They were traders and seafarers.
- The wealth of the society was reflected in the building of palaces as the residences of
the powerful rulers who controlled the town in which they were built.
- Cretan cities did not have city walls, which suggest that they were a relaxed, peaceful
and easy going society

B. ARCHITECTURE
- They consciously rejected formal principles such as axiality, symmetry and abstracts.
- They rather adopted an organic and informal approach to space organization and
building form.

Types of Walling System

1. Cyclopean
2. Polygonal

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3. Rectangular
4. Inclined blocks

1. PALACES
- In design the palaces resemble each other and were multi-storey buildings.
- Function rather than form appears to predominate in their organization.
- The most striking feature of the palace is the extraordinary number of rooms they
contain with different types, sizes and functions organized around a central
courtyard.
- The courtyards were aligned north-south., the reason for which is not clear.
- All the palaces have multiple entrances, most of which led to the courtyard.
- The palaces do not also suggest the application of any formal principles of planning
or design.
- Their organization is more or less organic in nature, suggesting gradually growth.
2. DOMESTIC BUILDINGS
C. MEGARON – a building or semi-independent unit of a building, typically having a
rectangular principal chamber with a central hearth and a porch
- Believed to be the ancestor of the Doric temple; single-storied houses of deep
plan, columned entrance porch, ante room with central doorway, living
apartment.
a. Enclosed porch
b. Living apartment (megaron proper)
c. THALAMOS – bedroom

C. BUILDING EXAMPLES
1. THE PALACE OF KNOSSOS, CRETE palace of King Minos
 PLAN
- The plan suggests it evolved organically around the central courtyard.
- Organized around a large rectangular central courtyard, the palace complex was
divided into quadrants loosely organized into suites of royal apartments,
administrative wings, areas for various social entertainments and religious
rituals, workshops, and vast storage areas that clearly reveal an extremely
centralized urban unit.
 WALLS AND CIRCULATORY ELEMENTS
- Walls were made of mud brick and rubble shaped within a wooden framework
that was then covered in a veneer of local stone. After an earthquake
destroyed several parts of the palace around 1700 BC, it was rebuilt
and extensively enlarged. This newer palace was multistoried, which was a
newer architectural feature made possible by the relatively light materials of
wood framing and stone veneer used in construction.
- Window openings, stairs, open porticos and columned rooms set at different
levels allowed light and air into the internal courtyards.
- Wall murals and the various artifacts found on the island attest to a beautiful
maritime aesthetic and prosperous culture.
- Although not obviously fortified, the palace enjoyed an island location that was
logistically difficult to breach by foreigners and a complexity of design that
defied entry by outsiders not familiar with the layout of the palace.
 CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN IDEAS
- The palace did not embody any idea of monumentality or conceptual order.
Rather it was picturesque, colorful with an atmosphere of comfort and
informality.
- The building materials of the palace were rich; Wood and gypsum were
extensively used to achieve fine bright surfaces
- Minoans painted their walls and adorned them with relief, mostly of sea animals
suggesting that they probably worship nature.
- The stairways light wells, & colonnades of downward tapering wood columns
were typically Minoan, also were the elaborate and developed sanitation and
drainage. example of which is found in the Queen’s suit

2. MYCENAEAN ARCHITECTURE
A. GEOGRAPHY, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

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- Mycenaean people were Greek by race.
- Mycenae was neither sustained nor protected by the sea
- Mainland Mycenae was open to attacks from the north
- The society was more a society of warriors than of traders

B. ARCHITECTURE
- Their architecture emphasized defense. They built fortified citadels as royal living areas
rather than the pleasure palaces.
- CYCLOPEAN CONSTRUCTION for walls, and stone on wooden frame for megarons was
used.
- Small chunks of limestone were used to fill the gaps between the boulders.

1. CITADELS
- Enclosed by high walls of large stone blocks with difficult and highly defensible
entrance ways.
- Usually built along the edge of sharp change in elevation, on hilltops to make
them difficult for would-be-attackers.
- These were organized royal living areas enclosed by huge CYCLOPEAN WALLS or
roughhewn immense stone blocks
- Constructed of huge unworked limestone boulders roughly fitted together
- The exterior face of the boulders may be roughly dressed but the stones are
never carefully cut.
- The palaces located within the citadels acted as centers of administration

2. TOMBS
 ROCK CUT
- Rectangular chamber about 12’-20’,
- Out within the slope of a convenient hillside and approached by a passage or
dromos opened to the sky leading to a doorway at the rock façade.
 THOLOS
- Subterranean stone with vaulted construction shaped like an old fashioned
beehive
- This consists of circular chambers cut into the hill side approached by an
open passage called DROMOS which is lined with masonry.
- Between the chamber and the dromos a thick portal façade structure was
built.
- The portal was topped by a lintel.
- The chambers were corbelled vaulted structures shaped like beehives.
- Their upper part emerged above ground and was covered with a mound of
earth.
- The dead person was placed in pits below the ground or in adjoining
rectangular chambers.
- After burial, the tomb was permanently sealed and the dromos blocked by a
massive wall.
- The tholos was thus not used as a funerary chapel but remained curiously
empty-a pure invisible monument to the deceased.
- The key to monumentality was geometry and proportions in which resulted
to the diameter being equal to the height.
- It structure was also gradually perfected by making the upper levels of
corbelling into uninterrupted rings of stone.

C. BUILDING EXAMPLES
1. CITADEL AT TYRINS
- The royal residence at Tiryns is one of the best preserved Mycenaean fortifications
located on the coast and was in effect a castle, guarding the beachhead that served
as the port of Mycenae.
- The citadel at Tirynsis located on a low rocky citadel hill.
- It was guarded by an immensely thick wall 36feet thick
- Casemates, or covered galleries, protected and concealed troops within the wall.
- There were also tunnels within the walls that provided access to water sources
beneath the hill.

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- The tunnels were cunningly camouflaged where they extended beyond the area
enclosed within the fortification walls.
- Tiryns citadel also had large galleries to the south and east that is used for storing a
large quantity of agricultural produce.
- All the water and food arrangements ensured that the city can withstand attacks by
its enemies for a long time without running out of supplies.
- The fortification walls were constructed in the irregular style of masonry
construction termed cyclopean.
- The citadel had a long narrow approach on the east side with two gates which could
be barred.
- The palace of Tyrinsis located within the citadel to the south.
- Additional vacant land is enclosed on the north side although one royalty resided in
the citadel, in times of war the vacant land served as a refuge for the community
living in the city below.
- The living quarter and lifestyle of the ruler is not much different from that of the
other feudal barons.
- All the principal apartments were located on a single floor.
- They were made up of a simple rectangular box with a single door called megaron.
- The Rectangular house of the ruler is called the chief megaron.
- The chief megaronconsists of a veranda, entrance hall and throne room.
- The throne room is entered from the entrance hall, through a door placed axially.
- In the center of the throne room is a large circular fire place.
- Four columns are arranged in a square around the fire place
- A throne is located against the middle of the right-hand wall in the throne room.
- The floors and walls are all painted and decorated.
- A large court lies directly in front of the chief megaron.
- The Megaron courtyard is entered from the citadel gate through a series of
corridors, entrance portals and other courtyards.

2. LION GATE
- Mycenaean citadels usually had massive trabeated portals that served as gates.
- The gates were designed to complement the defensive nature of the citadels.
- In approaching the gate, attackers would normally present the side on which he
would carry his weapons.
- The famous and best surviving example of the gates is the lion gate at Mycenae.
- Mycenae, inaccessible, easily defended, stands midway between Cornth and Argos
on the eastern shoulder of the Peloponnese.
- The gate consists of great upright stones 3.1 meter high supporting an immense
lintel 4.9 meters long and 1.6 meters high.
- The lintel defined a gate 2.4 meters deep with an opening of 3m wide.
- Above the lintel is a triangular shaped corbelled opening filed with a stone panel
bearing a carved relief depicting two rampant lions facing a central column of the
downward tapering type.
- The column was the sacred symbol of the earth that the lions supposedly protected.
- The triangular relief carving over the front is to indicate the temple front of the
Greek civilization.

3. TREASURY OF ATREUS
- The most splendid of the tholos in Mycenae is the so called Treasury of Atreus or
Tomb of Agamemnon. It was built around between 1350 and 1250 BC.
- The dromos is about 6meters wide and 36m long.
- Its side walls rise to 13.7m high.
- The chamber is 14.5m in diameter and 13.2m high
- It is made up of 34 circular courses of masonry.
- A lateral chamber 8.2m square by 5.8m high was the actual place of burial.
- The treasury of Atreus exhibited the best masonry and most careful and ambitious
construction to be found at Mycenae.

V. Greek Architecture
A. SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS

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- Greek civilization is the first major civilization in Europe and alongside with the Romans are
referred to as CLASSICAL CULTURES because of their recognition as the root of western
civilization.
 POLIS – City States
- Were small, independent communities which were male-dominated and bound
together by race.
- The ancient Greek world was made up of hundreds of these independent city states.
- The polis started as a defensible area to which farmers of an area could retreat in
the event of an attack as in the Mycenaean citadels.
- Over time, towns grew around these defensible areas.
- Every polis was different from another, even though there were similarities between
the,
- They were all bounded by common language and religious beliefs.
- They all made efforts to preserve their own unique identity, and each city state
believed that their state was better than all the other states.
- The city states often fought with one another.
- The city state of Athens on the Greek mainland was among the most famous and
powerful of the city states
- It was a major center for learning and the arts.
- When city-states were first formed, they were ruled by a few wealthy men,
however, they gradually moved towards democracy.
- Athens developed an early form of democracy
- How did they make laws? Only men who were born in Athens were allowed to vote.
–They did this at public assemblies where upper class citizens discussed and
adopted laws that might benefit Athens.
- The scale of the polis was small.
- The philosophers Aristotle and Plato believed that the polis should be of a small size,
so that members know each other personally.
- The ideal size of a city state was fixed at 5040 males by Plato.
- Citizens in any polis were related by blood and so family ties were very strong.
- Membership of the polis was hereditary and could not be passed to persons outside
the family
- The society of the polis had a social hierarchy with citizens at the top, followed by
people who are not citizens and finally slaves.
- Public life was for male citizens while women were secluded in the house.
- Greek citizens did not have rights but duties.
- All citizens were directly involved in politics, justice, military service, religious
ceremonies, intellectual discussion, athletics and artistic pursuits.
- It was not acceptable for Greek citizens to refuse to carry out their responsibilities

B. HISTORY
1. HELLENIC PERIOD (800-323 BC) center: Athens
- POLIS or City State was the basis of Greek society.
- PERICLES reign was marked by increased building activity and developments in Hellenic
art and culture.
- High Classical Age (5th century BC)
- TEMPLES were the chief building types
- Resembled megaron in plan and construction.
- Colonnades surrounded the temples were integral parts of it.
- Columns were originally of timber, then stone (600 BC) imitating timber forms and
construction details.
- Doric columns were widely used.
2. HELLENISTIC PERIOD
- Greece was unified under Philip (Alexander the Great’s father)
- New and splendid cities were founded and civic design was developed.
- Columns tend to be more slender; spacing of columns generally tended to be much
wider.
- Trabeated (post and lintel) design was still used but arches began to appear.
- Roof truss was used in the 3rd century.
- CITY PLANNING (HIppodamus) followed a common pattern.
- Architecture developed simple forms and pure lines with perfect proportions and refined
details.

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- Corinthian columns were incorporated into the building design.

VI. Architectural Elements

A. PLANS
- Display simplicity, beauty and perfection of proportion which give dignity and grandeur
despite the small scale.
- Post and beam or trabeated form of construction made for simplicity.
- Greek temples were usually oriented, so that the rising sun ,ight lit up the statues.
- Generally symmetrical.
- Use of “false” or corbelled arches in Aegean Architecture.
B. WALLS
- Built without mortar, there was a tendency to employ large stones, so as to reduce the
number of joints ans thus minimising weakness.
- The ANTA (extension of the naos walls) was employed to emphasize and strengthen the
angels of the naos walls.
C. OPENINGS
- Colonnades by providing variety in the play of light and shade, rendered openings in walls of
minor importance in the design of the exterior.
- Colonnades are the outstanding features of Greek architecture and were sometimes
superimposed.
- Doorways were not often used in temples
D. ROOFS
- Timber-framing covered with terra cotta or marble – tiling.
- Finished at the eaves with antefixiae.
- Ceilings of peristyle were coffered in square or rectangular panels of carved stone or marble.
E. COLUMNS
- Stood on crepidoma; no pedestal supporting columns
- Use of Doric and Ionic (original).
- Mutules slope downwards with the soffit.
- Use of Corinthian columns for small buildings

1. TYPES OF GREEK COLUMNS

THE ORDERS
 DORIC
- The Doric order was the earliest to be developed.
- By the 6th century, a set of universal proportions for the Doric temple had been
developed.
- The Doric order is made up of three elements; stylobate, Column and entablature.
- It has no base.
- STYLOBATE is a podium raised three steps on which the temple sits
- ENTABLATURE is divided into an architrave, a frieze and the cornice with a height of
¼ of whole height of column including base and capital.
- FRIEZE was placed above the architrave with TRIGLYPHS and METOPHES
- The Doric column is further divided into the shaft and a square capital
- It had a height of between 5 and 6 times its diameter.
- The shaft is tapered and made to bulge slightly to provide correction for optical
illusion.
- The shaft is usually divided into 20 shallow flutes.
- Near the base of the echinus are annulets or horizontal fillets, which stop the
vertical lines of the arrises and flutes of the shaft.
- The Doric column represents the proportions of a man’s body, its strength and
beauty.

 ENTASIS
- A characteristic of the Doric order is the use of entasis.
- Entasis refers to the practice of optical correction in Greek Doric temples.
- All buildings are arranged with a slight curve to correct for optical illusion when
they are viewed.
- This is done to counteract the concave appearance produced by straight edges
in perspective.

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- The shaft of the column is built to be slightly convex in shape for optical
correction
- Columns were also built with a slight tilt.
- The drawing to the right explains entasis.
- Diagram one on top shows how the ancient Greeks wanted the temple to
appear.
- If the temple is built without correction, then diagram two shows how it would
actually appear.
- To ensure that it appears correctly as desired in one, the Greeks introduced the
distortions.
- The application of entasisis an expression of the desire for perfection by Greek
architects.
- The best example of the application of entasisis found in the Parthenon

PARTS OF A GREEK TEMPLE WITH

DORIC COLUMNS

1. Tympanum
2. Acroterium
3. Sima
4. Cornice
5. Mutules

7. Frieze
8. Triglyph
9. Metope
10. Regula
11. Gutta
12. Taenia
13. Architrave
14. Capital
15. Abacus
16. Echinus
17. Column
18. Fluting
19. Stylobate

 IONIC
- The Ionic order evolved and took its name from Ionia in modern day Turkey.
- The ionic column including the capital and base had a height of 9 to 10times its
diameter.
- It had 24 flutes, which is more than that of the Doric column, even though it is
smaller in diameter.
- Height of column and base is 9 times lower diameter.
- Column has a base; initially made up of torus only and there was an added torus in
its later development known as the ATTIC BASE.
- The flutes were rounded at the top and bottom.
- The Ionic order had a capital developed from a pair of volute about two-thirds the
diameter of the column in height.
- Entablature is 1/5 the whole height of the column.
- Ornaments are used to decorate the area between the capital and the volute.
- The Ionic column has a base.

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- One of the limitations of the Ionic order is that it is designed to be seen from the
front only
- At the corner of rectangular buildings, an angular volute had to be used.
- Entasis was not applied to the ionic column.
- The Ionic column is said to represent the shape of a woman with its delicacy and
feminine slenderness.
-
 CORINTHIAN
- The Corinthian order takes its name from the city of Corinth in Greece.
- It however appeared to have been developed in Athens in the 5th century BC.
- This order is similar in its proportions to the Ionic order but has a different capital.
- The core of the capital is shaped like an inverted bell.
- The bell-like capital is decorated with rows of carved acanthus leaves.
- Height is 10 times lower diameter.
- Height of entablature is similar with the ionic.
- The rich decorative effect of the Corinthian capital made it attractive.
- Because of its symmetry, the Corinthian capital unlike the ionic capital is designed
to be seen from all directions
- The Corinthian column, the most beautifully ornate of the three orders represents
the figure of a maiden.
- This order was not extensively used during the Greek period.
- It became popular during the ancient Roman period

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 CARYATIDES – female columns

 ATLANTES – male columns

F. MOULDINGS
a. Cyma Reversa – ogee; water leaf and tongue used as ornaments
b. Cyma Recta – usual ornament in anthemion or honeysuckle
c. Ovolo – egg and dart and sometimes egg and tongue
d. Torus – guilloche or plait or bundles of leaves tied by bands
e. Astragal – bed molding bead and reel
f. Corona – usually painted with fret; also called key pattern
g. Fillet
h. Cavetto
i. Scotia
j. Bird’s beak – Doric order

G. ORNAMENTS
- Generally based on acanthus leaf and scroll and from those eveolved other ornaments.

H. SCULPTURE
1. Architectural
- Friezes
- Tympana or pediment
- Acroteria
- Sculptured metophes
- Sculpture figures – Caryatid and Atlantis
2. Sculpture relief
3. Free- standing statuary
- Single or
- Group - BIGAS – in form of 2-horse chariot or QUADRIGAS – 4 horse chariot

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

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