GREEK ARCHITECTURE

AR. ARPITA SARKAR

SCHOOL OF ARCHIRECTURE
RAMAIAH INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTURE, BANGALORE
OLYMPICS
FIRST OLYMPICS TOOK PLACE IN ATHENS GREECE
WHAT IS GREECE KNOWN FOR ?

PARTHENON
ACROPOLIS

ALEXANDER THE GREAT

GREEK COLUMNS
AEGEAN
SEA
IONIAN
SEA

MEDITERRANEAN
SEA

SOURCE: http://feerick.co/the-world-map-of-greece.html/

Surrounded on three sides by the sea,

possessed of many natural harbors, and
convenient for the development of trade.
LOCATION OF GREECE The Aegean Sea lies to the east of
Greece , is a country in Southern Europe the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west,
Capital: Athens and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
Continent: Europe
GREEK ART PERIODS

Archaic period: Classical period: Hellenistic period:

8th to 6th century bc 5th to 4th century bc 4th to 2nd century bc

Archaic period: Classical period: Hellenistic period:

 It is the time of  It is the peak of this art  Greek culture
formation  It is the period of suffered a deep
 Mycenaean civilization political, economic and transformation
 Art evolved from cultural expansion of the  Alexander the Great
abstraction to expressive polis, mainly Athens. expanded Greek
naturalism.  It is the period of the culture
Democracy  With culture, Art
 This situation lasted until expanded too:
the political decay of the  The artistic forms
polis with the  Technical solutions
Peloponnesus Wars.
MYCENAEAN/
CLASSICAL ROMAN BYZANTINE OTTOMAN MODERN
MINOAN
GREEK EMPIRE EMPIRE EMPIRE GREECE
KINGDOMS

EVOLUTION OF GREECE
MINOAN CIVILIZATION
• The Minoan civilization was an Aegean Bronze Age
civilization that arose on the island of Crete and other
Aegean islands and flourished from approximately
3650 to 1400 BCE.
• It belongs to a period of Greek history preceding both
the Mycenaean civilization and Ancient Greece.

MINOAN ARCHITECTURE
• Labyrinth
• Palaces
• Villas
COLOUMNS
MYCENAEAN CIVILIZATION
The Mycenaean civilization flourished in the late Bronze Age from the 15th to the 13th
century BCE

Major Mycenaean centres included Mycenae, Tiryns , Pylos, Thebes, Midea, Gla,
Orchomenos, Argos, Sparta, Nichoria and probably Athens.

Beyond trading relations, the exact political relationship between these centres is not
clear. However, there were many shared cultural features such as architecture, frescoes,
pottery, jewellery, weaponry, and of course, the Greek language and writing.

MYCENAEAN ARCHITECTURE
• Fortifications (citadel)
• Tombs (Tholos)
• Palaces (megaron)
MYCENAEAN KINGDOM
The Lion Gate was the main entrance of the Bronze
Age citadel of Mycenae Kingdom.
It was erected during the 13th century BC in the
northwest side of the acropolis and is named after the
relief sculpture of two lionesses or lions in a heraldic
pose that stands above the entrance.
THOLOS (TOMB)

LION GATE

Burial structure characterized by its false dome

created by the superposition of successively
smaller rings of mudbricks or, more often, stones.
MEGARON (PALACE)
The megaron's functions were many,
including poetry, feasts, meetings,
and worship.

It was used for royal functions and

court meetings as well.

Its religious functions included the Schematic plan of a

practice of animal sacrifices, often to CHIEF MEGARON.
1: anteroom,
Chthonic deities. 2:hall (main room),
3: columns in Porch
and hall

THE MYCENAEAN MEGARON WAS THE MODEL FOR

THE LATER ARCHAIC AND CLASSICAL TEMPLES OF
THE GREEK WORLD.
Other Mycenaean architectural
structures include:

• dams for flood management,

particularly at Tiryns,

• and bridges built from large

roughly-hewn stone blocks.
STONE MASONRY

CYCLOPEAN MASONRY is a type of stonework

found in Mycenaean architecture, built with
massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted
together with minimal clearance between
adjacent stones and no use of mortar.

ASHLAR MASONRY is finely dressed (cut,

worked) masonry, either an individual
stone that has been worked until squared
or the masonry built of such stone.
It is the finest stone masonry unit,
generally cuboid or less frequently
trapezoidal.
With the mysterious end of the Mycenaean civilization during the Bronze Age Collapse
around 1200 BCE (possibly through earthquake, invasion or in-fighting) came the so-called
Dark Ages and it would be many centuries before Greek culture would finally regain the
heights of the late Bronze Age.
INFLUENCES ON GREEK ARCHITECTURE
GREEK CIVILIZATION IDEOLOGY

• FREEDOM AND INDIVIDUAL INDEPENDENCE

• EQUAL RIGHT AMONG FREE MEN

• HUMAN BEING IS THE CENTRE OF THEIR CULTURE:

EVERYTHING IS DONE AT MAN’S MEASURE

• RICH MYTHOLOGY AND RELIGION: GODS WERE USED TO

EXPRESS BEAUTY.

• REASON, OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE ARE THE BASIS

FOR THE REALITY: PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCES DEVELOPED
GEOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCE
•The 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 was readily available and easily worked.
•There is an abundance of high quality
white marble both on the mainland and islands.

CLIMATIC INFLUENCE
• 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.

• Colonnades encircling buildings, or surrounding courtyards

provided shelter from the sun and from sudden winter storms
CHARACTERSTICS
OF
GREEK ARCHITECTURE
Our word “architecture” comes from the Greek architecton, which
means “master carpenter.”

• Greek created equilibrate and proportional works

• It is an architecture to be seen
– Sculptural values, volumes
– Building is conceived as an sculpture

• Beauty = proportion and measure:

– it is conceived from the human point of view

• Temple is the essential building, residence of the god, not a place for people

• Other constructions combined beauty with practical solutions:

– Theatres
– Sanctuaries
– Gymnasiums
BUILDING MATERIALS
• Early Greek architecture employed wood, not stone. These early structures, as
well as those of mud-brick, have not survived.

• By the 6th Century BC, stone replaced wood in the construction of important
temples.

• Designs still reflected their origins in wood, however. In moving from wood to
stone, builders had to adapt to the differing properties of their building
materials.

• Stone has greater compressive (resistance to crushing) strength than wood,

but lacks tensile strength (resistance to bending or twisting).

• Therefore, while columns/posts might be relatively thin, the entablature/

beams, must be quite thick.

• Other Building materials were limestone and white marble

BUILDING SYSTEMS
• Greek temples, like Egyptian temples, used basic
post-and-beam construction.
• This is sometimes referred to as TRABEATED.

• Dominant lines are horizontal and vertical

• The column is the essential element

• Walls are made of regular ashlars, without mortar

• Buildings were polychrome

• There are not fixed measures, this is why there

are different orders
OPTICAL CORRECTION
In order to produce more aesthetically satisfactory results, the architects made use of
visual trickery to counteract the laws of perspective.
Greek aimed at creating visually perfect buildings
To correct optical distortions they used several resources:
• The columns of the building are not geometrically straight but slightly curved.
• Columns inclined towards the inside
• Entasis (a bulge in the middle) makes each column look straight.
• Corner columns are wider than the rest
• Different distances between columns
ELEMENTS – GREEK ARCHITECTURE
• STYLOBATE
steps
• VERTICAL COLUMN
a. base
b. shaft
c. capital
• ENTABLATURE
a. architrave
b. frieze
c. cornice
• PEDIMENT
a. sloping roof
CLASSICAL ORDER
CLASSICAL ORDER - is one of the ancient styles of classical architecture, each distinguished
by its proportions and characteristic profiles and details, and most readily recognizable by
the type of column employed.

 Three ancient orders of architecture: STYLE AND ORDERS

•The Doric Order
•The Ionic Order
•The Corinthian Order
• The three orders are most easily recognizable by their capitals, the orders also governed
the form, proportions, details and relationships of the columns, entablature, pediment
and the stylobate
•The height of columns are calculated in
terms of a ratio between the diameter of
the shaft at its base and the height of the
column.

• A Doric column can be described as eight

diameters high,

•An Ionic column as nine diameters high

and

•A Corinthian column ten diameters high.

Romans added the Tuscan, and
the Composite
DORIC COLUMN
• Of the three columns found in Greece, Doric
columns are the simplest.

• They have a capital made of a circle topped by a

square. The shaft is plain and has 20 sides. There is
no base in the Doric order.

• The Doric order is very plain, but powerful-looking

in its design. The area above the column, called
the frieze had simple patterns. Above the columns
are the metopes and triglyphs. The metope is a
plain, smooth stone section between triglyphs.
Sometimes the metopes had statues of heroes or
gods on them. The triglyphs are a pattern of 3
vertical lines between the metopes.

• Example: Parthenon in Athens, which is probably

the most famous and most studied building on
Earth.
• The Hephaisteion, in Athens, is another good
example of the Doric order
DORIC COLUMN

• Doric columns are the heaviest in appearance

• The capital is plain.
• The shaft is thick
• There is no base.
IONIC COLUMN
• Ionic shafts were taller than Doric ones. This
makes the columns look slender.

• Ionic capitals consist of a scrolls above the shaft.

The Ionic style is a little more decorative than the
Doric.

• They also had flutes, which are lines carved into

them from top to bottom.

• The shafts also had a special

characteristic: entasis, which is a little bulge in
the columns make the columns look straight,
even at a distance [because since you would see
the building from eye level, the shafts would
appear to get narrower as they rise, so this bulge
makes up for that - so it looks straight to your
eye.

• The frieze is plain. The bases were large and

looked like a set of stacked rings.
Example : The Temple of Athena Nike in
Athens

IONIC COLUMN

• These have greater elegance.

• The capital has distinctive volutes.
• The shaft is thinner than its Doric
equivalent.
• A base is apparent.
CORINTHIAN COLUMN
• The Corinthian order is the most decorative
and is usually the one most modern people
like best. Corinthian also uses entasis to
make the shafts look straight.

• The Corinthian capitals have flowers and

leaves below a small scroll. The shaft has
flutes and the base is like the Ionian. Unlike
the Doric and Ionian cornices, which are at a
slant, the Corinthian roofs are flat.

• Example: The Temple of the Sybil in Rome is a

good example of the Corinthian order. The
Romans used the Corinthian order much
more than did the Greeks.

• PANTHEON and Temple of Olympian Zeus

Athens is another examples
CORINTHIAN COLUMN
• This is also a tall, elegant form.
• The capital has distinctive acanthus
leaf decoration.
• A base is also employed.
GREEK TEMPLES
SALIENT FEATURES OF GREEK TEMPLES,
• Based on the pre-Hellenic megaron

• Location: is isolated or holy places

• Structure: 1 2 3
• Rectangular plan
• Longitudinal axis

• Circular temples existed too: Tholos

• Internal distribution:
• One to three naves
• Pronaos : Open entrance Greek temples were meant to be more
• Naos or cella : chapel for God’s impressive from the outside.
image

• Ceremonies were celebrated in the outside, in front of the porticos.

• It was built on a basis with stairs. The last stair is called styllobate .
• The façade is the main area for developing architectonical orders (they may appear
inside too).
• In the larger temples internal colonnades of columns placed over each other to
support the roof.

• On the two end facades above the columns a triangular shaped pediment, usually but
not always filled with sculpture, terminated the simple span roof. These roofs were
constructed of timber and covered with marble slabs.

• The door was almost always placed in the

center of the end wall, behind the portico of
columns, and frequently planned so that the
sun might enter and light up the statue
opposite.
TEMPLE TYPOLOGY
Depending on the position of the
columns in the portico:
• Antis : the pillars of the side exceed
the wall
• Prostyle : columns only in one façade
• Anphi-prostyle : columns in both
façades
• Peripteral : columns around the
building
• Dipteral : double columns around the
building
• Monopteral : circular

Depending on the number of columns in

the portico it can be:
• Tetrastile : four columns
• Hexastile : six columns
• Octastile : eight columns
• Tholos : circular temple
AGORA

• The agora was a central public space in ancient Greek city-states.

• The literal meaning of the word is "gathering place" or "assembly".
• The agora was the centre of the athletic, artistic, spiritual and political life of the
city.
The Agora
served as a
political and
commercial
space.

• Early in Greek history (18th century–8th

century BC), free-born citizens would gather in
the agora for military duty or to hear
statements of the ruling king or council.
• Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace.
ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS
• The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city
of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and
historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon.
• Fortified city built on a mountain near the city. (This is Athens’ Acropolis)
• The majority of the religious buildings were concentrated in the Acropolis
ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS
 All the principal temples and monuments which were erected between the
years B.C. 700. The masterpieces of Greek architecture, however, were all
erected in the short space of about 150 years, between the defeat of the
Persians, B.C. 480, and the death of Alexander, B.C. 323.

 Many of the Greek cities were upon or in the immediate vicinity of a hill which
was known as the Acropolis (an upper city), and formed a citadel upon which the
principal temples or treasure-houses were erected for safety.

The Temples formed the most important class of buildings erected during this
period. They were built with special regard to external effect, and were
ornamented with sculpture of the highest class in order to form fitting shrines
for the deities in whose honour they were erected.
9.Chalkotheke
10.Pandroseion
11.Arrephorion
12.Altar of Athena
13.Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus
14.Sanctuary of Pandion
15.Odeon of Herodes Atticus
16.Stoa of Eumenes
17.Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion
18.Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus
19.Odeon of Pericles
20.Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus
21.Aglaureion

SITE PLAN
1.Parthenon
2.Old Temple of Athena
3.Erechtheum
4.Statue of Athena Promachos
5.Propylaea
6.Temple of Athena Nike
7.Eleusinion
8.Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion
PARTHENON (DORIC OREDER)
• The Parthenon (B.C. 454 438), was erected,
being dedicated to Athena Parthenos.

• Ictinus and Callicrates were the architects and

Phidias was the superintending sculptor.

• The temple is peripteral octastyle on plan, with

seventeen columns on the sides.

• It is placed on a stylobate of three steps.

• Each of the steps measures about 1 foot 8 inches

high and 2 feet 4 inches wide, and being too step
to ascend with comfort, intermediate steps were
provided at the centre of the -east and west
ends.

• On the east, the principal doorway, led into the

cella, which, measuring 100 attic feet in length,
was called the “ Hecatompedon."
• The dimensions of Parthenon being 102 feet
by 228 feet. 102’

• The cella, 62 feet 6 inches wide, was divided

into a nave and aisles by two rows of ten
Doric columns, 3 feet 8 inches in diameter, Parthenon Proper
and having sixteen flutes, as may be seen by
the marks of their basis on the marble

228’
paving.
• Three columns were placed at the western 62’6” 10 - DORIC
end, so making the aisle continuous round COLOUMNS
three sides of the cella. (3’8” DIA)

• Near the western end of the cella was the

famous statue of Athena.

• To the west of the cella was the Parthenon

proper (i.e. virgin's chamber), from which
the temple took its name.
• This chamber is a peculiarity differentiating
the temple from most others, and it appears
to have been used as the Hieratic treasury.
• Enclosed by walls about four feet thick, having
on the outside, encircling the building, an
ambulatory 9 feet wide on the sides and 11
feet in the front and rear.

• Both the pronaos and opisthodomos

• (measuring about 60 feet by 12 feet) were Parthenon Proper
planned in a somewhat unusual manner,
having six columns about 5.5 feet in diameter
• and 33 feet high, forming a prostyle portico on
an upper stylobate of two steps.
• They were both used as treasure stores, and in
order to render them secure, lofty metal grilles
extending from the floor to the roof were fixed
between the columns, the central
• intercolumniation having gates for means of
access.
• The internal columns supported an upper row
of smaller Doric columns carrying the roof
timbers and forming the side aisles in two
heights (an arrangement still to be seen in the
Temple of Poseidon (Neptune) at Paestum).
It was entered from the opisthodomos by a
large doorway corresponding to the eastern
one, and its roof was supported by four
Ionic columns. The cella and the Parthenon
were
 Near the western end of the cella stood the famous statue of Athena Partherios,
being one of the most marvellous works of Phidias, representing Athena fully
armed with spear, helmet, aegis and shield, supporting a winged victory in her right
hand. It was a "chryselephantine“ (gold and ivory) statue, about 40 feet in height,
including the pedestal, and was constructed on a wooden core.
 The gold plates of which it was partly composed were detachable and could be
removed in case of national dangers. The face, hands and feet were of ivory, but the
drapery, armour, and accessories were of solid gold, and precious stones were inserted
for the eyes.
 The manner of lighting the interiors of Greek temples has already been referred to,
and the theories there set forth apply especially to the Parthenon. The most
prominent external features are the fluted marble columns, 34 feet 3 inches high,
forming the peristyle and resting on the stylobate. Only thirtytwo are still standing ;
they are 6 feet 3 inches in diameter at the base and 4 feet 7 inches under the echinus,
and support an entablature 1 1 feet high with the usual divisions of architrave, frieze
and cornice, as already described.
 The former is three slabs in thickness, and was ornamented on its eastern and
western fronts with bronze shields, probably selected from those presented by
Alexander the Great in B.C. 334, with dedicatory inscriptions between in bronze
letters. The flanks of the building were enriched by the antefixae placed at the bottom
of the rows of marble tiles which covered the roof. The pediments or low gables which
terminated the roof at each end had at their lower angles an acroterion and a carved
Erechtheum,
Acropolis 421-405
BC

Erechtheon (Ionic order),

The Theater, Epidaurus, 350 BC

•Many theaters were built with same plan

•Shape built into a hillside, concentric rows of
seats
•Center stage is called the orchestra
Tower of winds (Corinthian order)