Introduction to Greek Architecture

Prof. Amal Shah, Faculty of Design, CEPT University

HISTORY OF DESIGNA J O U R N E Y I N T O T H E H I S T O RY O F A R C H I T E C T U R E A N D I N T E R I O R D E S I G N

Greek Architecture

HISTORY OF DESIGN• Design history is the study of objects of

design in their historical and stylistic contexts.

• With a broad definition, the contexts of design history include the social, the cultural, the economic, the political, the technical and the aesthetic. Design history has as its objects of study all designed objects including those of

• Architecture & Arts

• Fashion & crafts

• Interior spaces & textiles

• graphic design

• industrial design

• product design

PREHISTORIC ARCHITECTURE

According to Vitrtivius, man in his primitive savage state began to imitate the nests of birds and the lairs of beasts, commencing with arbours of twigs covered with mud, then huts formed of branches of trees and covered with turf.

Architecture may be said to include every building or structureraised by human hands, and is here denned as construction with an artistic motive : the more the latter is developed, the greater being the value of the result.

As soon as man rose above the state of rude nature, henaturally began to build more substantial habitations for himself, and some form of temple for his god. Such early forms are given under the heading of Prehistoric Architecture.

MINOAN AND MYCENAEAN CULTURESMinoan and Mycenaean communities developed on small islands in the Aegean Sea, on the larger island of Crete, and on the mainland of Greece beginning around 2000 BC.

The term Minoan, derived from the name of the legendary king Minos, is used to refer to the society, presumed to have come from Asia Minor (now Turkey), that built up a scattering of settlements on Crete—some twenty towns or small cities, each with its own palace, and a population estimated at about 80,000 supported by agriculture and fishing.

Some contact with the contemporary society of Egypt is assumed, although there is no clear evidence of its influence.

The Minoan civilization flourished in the middle bronze age on the Mediterranean island of Crete from ca. 2000 BCE until ca. 1500 BCE and, with their unique art and architecture, the Minoans made a significant contribution to the development of western European civilization as it is known today.

The palace contained residences, kitchens, storage rooms, bathrooms, ceremonial rooms, workshops, and sanctuaries. There were sophisticated infrastructural installations, ventilation systems, and groundwater conduits.

MYCENAE AND TIRYNS

THE TERM MYCENAEAN IS USED TO IDENTIFY THE RUINED PALACES AT MYCENAE AND TIRYNS ON THE GREEK MAINLAND, WHICH DATE TO THE LATE BRONZE AGE (1600–1250 B.C.E.).

THESE WERE PLACED ON HIGH GROUND AND PLANNED WITH FORTIFICATION WALLS FOR DEFENSE. GIANT ROUGH- CUT STONES ARE LAID UP WITHOUT MORTAR TO FORM COMPLEX GALLERIES AND CHAMBERS, TOPPED IN PLACES WITH STONES TILTED INWARD, WHICH MEET TO FORM A STONE ROOFING.

ENOUGH STONEWORK SURVIVES FORPLANS TO BE RECONSTRUCTED; THEY EXHIBIT THE SAME COMPLEX AND LABYRINTHINE PLANNING ENCOUNTEREDIN THE CRETAN PALACES.

Reconstruction drawing Of the megaron of the Palace at Mycenae, Greece, C. 1500–1300 B.C.E.

The megaron was a large rectangular or square room, with a central hearth below a raised roof with an opening through which the smoke could escape. The entrance was from a porch with two columns, which, like the interior columns, tapered from a larger capital to a smaller base. Although the style of roof is unknown, the artist’s impression shows that it may have been decorated with complex, abstract, painted patterns.

Just to its right is a largecircular burial tholos, the so-called Treasury of Atreus, which archaeologists found almost intact; it has six chambered tombs containing gold, silver, and bronze burial treasures.

Entrance to this circle was restricted to the elite. Unlike the Egyptian pharaohs, whowere placed in pyramids, and later in secret caves, the Mycenaean dead were displayed within the city at a place where memoryand narrative were most likely to converge.

Later Greeks would call the gathering of people in commemorating places a choros. Homer would emerge, long after the Mycenaean Age had waned, recounting the tales of Mycenaean heroes, among them Agamemnon.

The Greeks call the country Hellas or Ellada (Greek: Ελλάς, Ελλάδα) and its official name is Hellenic Republic. In English, however, the country is usually called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia (as used by the Romans) and literally means 'the land of the Greeks'.

History of Hellenism, coined the term Hellenistic to refer to and define the period when Greek culture spread in the non-Greek world after Alexander's conquest.

The Greek alphabet is the writing system first appeared in the archaeological record during the 8th century BCE.This was not the first writing system that was used to writeGreek: several centuries before the Greek alphabets was invented, the linear b script was the writing system used to write Greek during Mycenaean times. the linear b script was lost around c.1100 BCE and with it, all knowledge of writing vanished from Greece until the time when the Greek alphabet was developed.

The Greek alphabet was born when the Greeks adapted the Phoenician writing system.

The Phoenician language belonged to the Semitic branch of the Afro-asiatic language family, and it was closely related to Canaanite and Hebrew.

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

In the earliest versions of the alphabet, the Greeks complied with the Phoenician practice of writing from right to left and the letters had a left-facing orientation.

This was followed by a period of bidirectional writing, which means that the direction of the writing was in one direction on one line but in the opposite direction on the next, a practice known as boustrophedon.

In boustrophedon inscriptions, non-symmetrical letters changed their orientation in accordance to the direction of the line that they were part of.

During the 5th century BCE, however, the direction of Greek writing was standardized as left to right, and all the letters adopted a fixed right-facing orientation.

Example of an Ancient Greek boustrophedon inscription. The arrows indicate the direction of the writing for each line. Non-symmetrical letters change their orientation with the alternate directions of the lines.

GOVERNMENT

The government in the ancient Greek world, across different city-states and over many centuries, kept changing their political power from being ruled by a king, which is called a monarchy. Being ruled by a group of people, called oligarchy. Finally, being ruled by many, which is called a democracy. There was also the time between 600 B.C. and 500 B.C where some Greek city-states where ruled by tyrants. Which is when as man steps up to rule over others, but does not have a legal reason to rule.

Democracy is regarded as the Greeks' greatest contribution to civilization, which took birth in Athens in 460 BCE.

There are two specifically political texts with the same title, The Constitution of the Athenians, one written by Aristotle or one of his pupils and the other attributed (by some) to Xenophon.

Based upon observations, some ancient Greeks realized that it was possible to find regularities and patterns hidden in nature and that those regularities were the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. It became evident that even nature had to obey certain rules and by knowing those rules one could predict the behaviour of nature.

Observation was eventually undervalued by the Greeks in favour of the deductive process, where knowledge is built by means of pure thought. This method is key in mathematics and the Greeks put such an emphasis on it that they falsely believed that deduction was the way to obtain the highest knowledge.

SCIENCE

A fragment of the second book of the Elements in Greek

Thales of Miletus 624 BC – 546 BCAt about 600 BCE first developed the idea that the world can be explained without resorting to supernatural explanations.

Empedocles 490 BC – 430 BCHe taught an early form of evolution and survival of the fittest.

Greek philosophers approached the big questions of life sometimes in a genuine scientific way, sometimes in mystic ways, but always in an imaginative fashion.

Greek Philosophy as an independent cultural genre began around 600 BCE, and its insights still persist to our times.

PHILOSOPHY

Aristotle 624 BC – 546 BCHe was the first philosopher who developed a systematic study of logic Although he repeatedly admitted the importance of induction, he prioritized the use of deduction to build knowledge.

Plato 428 BC – 348 BCPlato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy, logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics. His lasting themes include Platonic love, His theory of forms launched a unique perspective on abstract objects, and led to a school of thought called Platonism.

Socrates 470 BC – 399 BCHe is known for his Dialogues and for founding his Academy north of Athens, traditionally considered the first university in the western world.

The Olympian

RELIGION

1. Zeus – Chief of the gods and supreme ruler

2. Hera – Wife of Zeus and the goddess of marriage

3. Apollo – The son of Zeus . The god who punishes, heals and helps. Also the god of song and music, of the sun and founder of cities.

4. Hestia – Sacred fire5. Heracles – Strength and

power6. Athena – Wisdom, power,

peace and prosperity7. Poseidon – Sea8. Demeter – Earth and

agriculture9. Dionysus – Wine, feasting

and revelry10. Artemis – Hunting11. Aphrodite – Beauty12. Nike - Victory13. Hermes – Messenger of the

gods

Greek mythology, as in other ancient cultures, was used as a means to explain the environment in which humankind lived, the natural phenomena they witnessed and the passing of time through the days, months, and seasons.

Myths were also intricately connected to religion in the Greek world and explained the origin and lives of the gods, where humanity had come from and where it was going after death, and gave advice on the best way to lead a happy life.

Finally, myths were used to re-tell historical events so that people could maintain contact with their ancestors, the wars they fought, and the places they explored.

MYTHOLOGY

Greek Pottery from c. 1000 to c. 400 BCE provides not only some of the most distinctive vase shapes from antiquity but also some of the oldest and most diverse representations of the cultural beliefs and practices of the ancient Greeks.

Further, pottery, with its durability (even when broken) and lack of appeal to treasure hunters, is one of the great archaeological survivors and is, therefore, an important tool for archaeologists and historians in determining the chronology of ancient Greece.

POTTERY

A black-figure Calyx-Krater from Attica, c. 530 BCE. The scene of the Trojan War.

Pitcher in Mycenaean geometric style dates from the late 8th to early 7th century BCE

A detail of a 7th century BCE pot displaying the common design motifs of the Geometric style of Greek pottery from Santorini.

Greek sculpture from 800 to 300 BCE took early inspiration from Egyptian and Near Eastern monumental art, and over centuries evolved into a uniquely Greek vision of the art form. Greek artists would reach a peak of artistic excellence which captured the human form in a way never before seen and which was much copied. Greek sculptors were particularly concerned with proportion, poise, and the idealised perfection of the human body, and their figures in stone and bronze.

SCULPTURE

Bronze sculpture of an athlete Stone sculpture from Parthenon

The Greeks used many different types of materials in their sculptures including stone, marble and limestone as these were abundant in Greece. Other materials such as clay were also used but due to their brittle nature very few have survived. Greek sculptures are very important as the vast majority of them tell us a story about Gods, Heroes, Events, Mythical Creatures and Greek culture in general. Many of the statues that have survived are actually of Roman origin.

GREEK ARCHITECTUREThe architecture of Ancient Greece is the architecture produced by the Greek-speaking people (Hellenic people) whose culture flourished on the Greek mainland and Peloponnesus, the Aegean Islands, and in colonies in Asia Minor and Italy for a period from about 900 BC until the 1st century AD, with the earliest remaining architectural works dating from around 600 BC.

Ancient Greek architecture is best known from its temples, many of which are found throughout the region, mostly as ruins but many substantially intact. The second important type of building that survives all over the Hellenic world is the open-air theatre, with the earliest dating from around 350 BC.

Other architectural forms that are still in evidence are the processional gateway, the public square (agora) surrounded by storied colonnade, the town council building, the public monument, the mausoleum and the stadium.

The Geography, Climate, and LightThe mainland and islands of Greece are rocky, with deeply indented coastline, and rugged mountain ranges with few substantial forests. The most freely available building material is stone. Limestone and marble were readily available and easily worked. This finely grained material was a major contributing factor to precision of detail, both architectural and sculptural, that adorned Ancient Greek architecture. Deposits of high quality potter's clay were found throughout Greece and the Islands, with major deposits near Athens. It was used not only for pottery vessels, but also roof tiles and architectural decoration.

The climate of Greece is maritime, with both the coldness of winter and the heat of summer tempered by sea breezes. This led to a lifestyle where many activities took place outdoors. Hence temples were placed on hilltops, their exteriors designed as a visual focus of gatherings and processions, while theatres were often an enhancement of a naturally occurring sloping site where people could sit, rather than a containing structure. Colonnades encircling buildings, or surrounding courtyards provided shelter from the sun and from sudden winter storms.

The light of Greece may be another important factor in the development of the particular character of Ancient Greek architecture. The light is often extremely bright, with both the sky and the sea vividly blue. In this characteristic environment, the Ancient Greek architects constructed buildings that were marked by precision of detail. The gleaming marble surfaces were smooth, curved, fluted, or ornately sculpted to reflect the sun, cast graded shadows and change in colour with the ever-changing light of day.

The Temple

The Greek temple developed from the Aegeanmegaron, the main room of the palace—it wasthus the palace- house of a god, the only palacethis largely democratic society required. No wooden temples have survived, but theirnature can be deduced from later stone temples.

Greek temple design changed considerablyin the middle of the 6th century BCE, aswood was increasingly abandoned for stone.This may have been partially due to adesire for permanence, but it may also havebeen spurred by the influence of Egyptianarchitecture, with which the increasinglycame in contact.

Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia near CorinthThis temple is among the earliest known Greek temples. Its podium measures 14 by 40 meters, with a central row of five columns of stone, but the columns and entablature were of oak; the roof was low pitched and covered in fired terra-cotta tiles—a Greek invention.

This temple represents an important break in the development of temple design. Whereas the stones for Egyptian temples were of irregular size, the ashlar blocks of this temple were laid in regular courses all the way to the roofline—a standardization of masonry elements.

Furthermore, in Egypt, a wall was typically composed of two separate walls, the gap between them filled with rubble. Here the wall is a single vertical element.

The most basic element of the temple was the colonnade. Though so common today that it might seem to be a natural architectural form, it was actually a unique innovation of the Greeks.

Called a pteron, means “wing” or “fin,”. It perhaps refers to early awnings placed against buildings. But it also indicates that the Greeks saw the building as a dynamic location—as something that literally catches the wind and hears the voices of the gods. The pteron also evoked the idea of a grove of trees, especially because columns were originally made of wooden trunks.

The following terms describe the type ofcolonnade surrounding the naos of a Greektemple:

• Peripteral: one row of columns

• Dipteral: two rows of columns

• Tripteral: three rows of columns

• Pseudodipteral: suggesting a dipteralcolonnade, but without the inner colonnade

The following terms refer to the number ofcolumns on the entrance front of a Greektemple:• Henostyle: one column• Distyle: two columns• Tristyle: three columns• Tetrastyle: four columns• Pentastyle: five columns• Hexastyle: six columns• Heptastyle: seven columns• Octastyle: eight columns• Enneastyle: nine columns• Decastyle: ten columns

Greek Architecture and its Language

Greek and Roman temples are described according to the number of columns on the entrance front, the type of colonnade, and the type of portico.

Almost all surfaces of the temple—the steps, columns, capitals, walls, even the figures on the pediment—were painted in bright reds, blues, blacks, and yellows. What we know about the colors used for the temples comes from both archaeological and literary sources.

The pigments were made from minerals, soot, ground stones, vegetables, and animal matter. The purple dye, for example, came from shellfish; the yellowish color that was applied to columns and beams came from saffron. The colors were applied sometimes with wax but usually on stucco.


Structure

The architecture of Ancient Greece is of a trabeated or "post and lintel" form, i.e. it is composed of upright posts supporting horizontal lintels. Although the existent buildings of the era are constructed in stone, it is clear that the origin of the style lies in simple wooden structures, with vertical posts supporting beams which carried a ridged roof. The posts and beams divided the walls into regular compartments which could be left as openings, or filled with sun dried bricks, lathes or straw and covered with clay daub or plaster. Alternately, the spaces might be filled with rubble.


Proportions

The ideal of proportion that was used by Ancient Greek architects in designing temples was not a simple mathematical progression using a square module. The math involved a more complex geometrical progression, the so-called Golden mean. The ratio is similar to that of the growth patterns of many spiral forms that occur in nature such as rams' horns, nautilus shells, fern fronds, and vine tendrils and which were a source of decorative motifs employed by Ancient Greek architects as particularly in evidence in the volutes of capitals of the Ionic and Corinthian Orders.

Greek Architecture and its LanguageOptical illusion

The determining factor in the mathematics of any notable work of architecture was its ultimate appearance. The architects calculated for perspective, for the optical illusions that make edges of objects appear concave and for the fact that columns that are viewed against the sky look different from those adjacent that are viewed against a shadowed wall. Because of these factors, the architects adjusted the plans so that the major lines of any significant building are rarely straight. The most obvious adjustment is to the profile of columns, which narrow from base to top. However, the narrowing is not regular, but gently curved so that each columns appears to have a slight swelling in the middle.


Greek Orders

Stylistically, Ancient Greek architecture is divided into three “orders”:

1. the Doric Order, 2. the Ionic Order and 3. the Corinthian Order,

the names reflecting their origins. While the three orders are most easily recognizable by their capitals, the orders also governed the form, proportions, details and relationships of the columns, entablature, and the pediment. The different orders were applied to the whole range of buildings and monuments.

• The Doric Order developed on mainland Greece and spread to Italy. It was firmly established and well-defined in its characteristics by the time of the building of the Temple of Hera at Olympia, c. 600 BC.

• The Ionic order co-existed with the Doric, being favoured by the Greek cites of Ionia, in Asia Minor and the Aegean Islands. The early Ionic temples of Asia Minor were particularly ambitious in scale, such as the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus.

• The Corinthian Order was a highly decorative variant not developed until the Hellenistic period and retaining many characteristics of the Ionic. It was popularised by the Romans.

Greek Architecture and its LanguageDoric Order

The Doric order is recognised by its capital. Doric columns are almost always cut with grooves, known as "fluting", which run the length of the column and are usually 20 in number, although sometimes fewer. The flutes meet at sharp edges. Doric columns have no bases, until a few examples in the Hellenistic period.

The columns of an early Doric temple such as the Temple of Apollo at Syracuse, Sicily, may have a height to base diameter ratio of only 4:1 and a column height to entablature ratio of 2:1, with relatively crude details. A column height to diameter of 6:1 became more usual, while the column height to entablature ratio at the Parthenon is about 3:1. During the Hellenistic period, Doric conventions of solidity and masculinity dropped away, with the slender and unfluted columns reaching a height to diameter ratio of 7.5:1.

Greek Architecture and its LanguageIonic Order

The Ionic Order is recognised by its voluted capital. It is decorated with stylised ornament, is surmounted by a horizontal band that scrolls under to either side, forming spirals or volutes similar to those of the nautilus shell or ram's horn. In plan, the capital is rectangular. It's designed to be viewed frontally but the capitals at the corners of buildings are modified with an additional scroll so as to appear regular on two adjoining faces. In the Hellenistic period, four-fronted Ionic capitals became common. Like the Doric Order, the Ionic Order retains signs of having its origins in wooden architecture.

The Ionic Order is altogether lighter in appearance than the Doric, with the columns, including base and capital, having a 9:1 ratio with the diameter.

Greek Architecture and its LanguageCorinthian Order

The Corinthian Order does not have its origin in wooden architecture. It grew directly out of the Ionic in the mid 5th century BC, and was initially of much the same style and proportion, but distinguished by its more ornate capitals.

According to Vitruvius, the capital was invented by a bronze founder, Callimarchus of Corinth, who took his inspiration from a basket of offerings that had been placed on a grave, with a flat tile on top to protect the goods. The basket had been placed on the root of an acanthus plant which had grown up around it. The ratio of the column height to diameter is generally 10:1, with the capital taking up more than 1/10 of the height. The ratio of capital height to diameter is generally about 1.16:1.

The Acropolis

An acropolis (from akros or akron, "highest", "topmost", "outermost" and polis, "city"; plural in English: acropoles, acropoleis or acropolises)is a settlement, especially a citadel, built upon an area of elevated ground

The most famous example is the Acropolis of Athens, which, by reason of its historical associations and the several famous buildings erected upon it (most notably the Parthenon), is known without qualification as the Acropolis.

The Parthenon

The Parthenon is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron.

Construction of the temple began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC.

It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order.

Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western civilization, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.

The Parthenon: Sections

Interior elements:

Furniture

Greek furniture was typically constructed out of wood, though it might also be made of stone or metal, such as bronze, iron, gold and silver. Little wood survives from ancient Greece.

Pieces were assembled using mortise-and-tenon joinery, held together with lashings, pegs, metal nails, and glue. Wood was shaped by carving, steam treatment, and the lathe, and furniture is known to have been decorated with ivory, tortoise shell, glass, gold or other precious materials.

Historical evidence found in pottery, bas-reliefs, sculpture Allow understanding of furniture evolution and style in the culture.

Triclinium was characterized by three KLINAI on three sides of a low square table, those surfaces sloped awayFrom the table at about 10 degrees. Diners would recline on these surfaces in a semi-recumbent position. Fourth side of the table was left free, presumably to allow service to the table. Usually the open side faced the entrance of the room.

Interior elements:

Patterns and Motifs

A meander or meandros is a decorative border constructed from a continuous line, shaped into a repeated motif. Such a design is also called the Greek fret or Greek key design.

Meanders are common decorative elements in Greek and Roman art. In ancient Greece they appear in many architectural friezes, and in bands on the pottery of ancient Greece from the Geometric Period onwards. The design is common to the present-day in classicizing architecture.

LEGACY AND RELEVANCE OF GREEK CIVILIZATION • The Olympics, the massive international sports

competition that serves as one of ancient Greece’s most visible legacies, dates from 776 BC.

• Invention of Democracy, instituted in 507 BC. And the emergence of City-state.

• Invention of alphabets. This alphabetic legacy is made clear through the use of the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta, in the formation of the word “alphabet.”

• Ancient Greek theater and development of the notion of literary forms such as tragedy, comedy and satire.

• The legacy of Architecture as an art form, rather than merely a utilitarian science and the development of three orders.

• The affect of the ancient Greek’s achievement in sculptureis apparent in later artists' employment of classical proportions. The rediscovery of Greek sculpture throughout the 16th and 17th centuries inspired Renaissance artists in their own depictions of the human form.

• The Greek love of reason and logic influenced the development of Western knowledge in fields of Science, medicine, mathematics, astronomy and philosophy.

• Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle were also scientists who observed and studied the known world, the earth, seas, and mountains here below, and the solar system, planetary motion, and astral phenomena.

• Archimedes developed Archimedes‘ principle, explanation of levers and invention of compound pulley. He also invented Odometer.

• Plato invented water alarm clock.

• Aristotle gave the idea of earth being a globe. He also classified animals and if often referred to as father of zoology.

• Hippocrates was referred as the father of western medicine in recognition of his lasting contributions to the field of medicine and as the founder of the Hippocratic School of Medicine. The most famous of his supposed contributions is the Hippocratic Oath.

Temples with their various orders and arrangements of columns have provided the most tangible architectural legacy from the Greek world, and it is perhaps ironic that the architecture of Greek religious buildings has been so widely adopted in the modern world for such secular buildings as court houses and government buildings.