COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY School of Architecture A.A. 2016/17 ARCHITECTURAL THEORY_I TOWARD A CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE

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1 2 COLLEGE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY School of Architecture A.A. 2016/17 ARCHITECTURAL THEORY_I TOWARD A CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE Prof. Arch. Manlio MICHIELETTO PhD 1

2 Dimitris PIKIONIS, Promenade Philopappus Hill, Athene,

3 INDEX 1. The Empire of Greece 2. Plato 3. The Order(s) of the Temple 3.1 The Orders 4.1 Entasis 4.2 The Triglyphs s problem in the corner 4.3 Wood construction 5. Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture

4 INDEX 6. Le Corbusier: Toward an Architecture 7. From PIKIONIS to DOXIADIS 8. Bibliography 9. Websites

5 1. The Empire of Greece (300 B.C.) At the height of its power after the conquest of the entire Persian Empire, the empire encompassed millions of square miles spanning three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe. At its greatest extent, the Greek empire included the entire ruins of the Persian Empire: modern territories of Iran, Turkey, parts of Central Asia, Pakistan, Thrace and Macedonia, much of the Black Sea coastal regions, Afghanistan, Iraq, northern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, and all significant population centers of ancient Egypt as far west as Libya. 5

6 6

7 2. Plato In The Statesman (c.360 BC), Plato divided science (episteme) into 'science of action' (praktike) and 'science of mere knowing' (gnostike). His argument is the first known attempt to distinguish what is now recognised as technology, as distinct from more purely rational science, the dominant concern of his philosophical predecessors since the time of Heraclitus. 7

8 2. Plato Socrates, the son of a craftsman, had shown considerable interest in the practical arts (technai) and his disciple, Plato, had sought the logos of techne that had not previously been subjected to critical inquiry. But it was Plato's pupil, Aristotle, who coined the compound term technologia and thereby established this new department of science within the general system of knowledge. 8

9 3. The Order(s) of the Temple The Classical, it has been well said, is the only universal style in architecture, and Greek temple building stood at its heart. Its influence extends, with interruptions, through time, via Roman architecture, the Italian Renaissance, Palladio and Inigo Jones, into Neo-Classicism and the specific Greek revival of the 1780 s. Eveninthepracticeoftoday,itsreigncannotbesaidtobe over. 9

10 3. The Order(s) of the Temple Many of our views on the origin and early development of the Doric and Ionic orders are derived from literary sources. Particularly important is the book, De Architectura, of the Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio. Although written in the time of Augustus, toward the end of the first century B.C., Vitruvius s work reflected as well the intellectual climate of the late Hellenistic period and drew overwhelmingly from Greel sources 10

11 3. The Order(s) of the Temple The Orders The most fundamental issue raised by Vitruvius is his definition of distinct architectural systems, or what we have come to understand as orders : Doric, Ionic et Corinthian. The English word order, from the Latin ordo, seems appropriate to define the systems. Yet the word used by Vitruvius was genus, which suggests a more flexible relationship of parts to the whole. 11

12 3. The Order(s) of the Temple The Orders Each order originated in its own area of the Greek world and at an early time. Corinthian, which was the invention of Callimachus, and since tradition places him in the second half of the fifth century B.C., this date serves as a terminus ante quem for the other styles. 12

13 3. The Order(s) of the Temple The Orders The term Doric was applied to the architectural style of the firs temple that was constructed in the territory of the Dorians, so named for Doros. At a later time, with the migration of the Ionians to the coast of Asia Minor, the style was transplanted there. Afterwards it was replaced by Ionic for the construction of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesos. 13

14 3. The Order(s) of the Temple The Orders 14

15 To be able to know what we are talking about, we have to begin by giving a short overall description of the Doric temple and the Doric architectural order in general. To represent the task and the questions rising from it, we will use as example the temple of Zeus at Olympia, which, although very little of it remains for the non-professional to see, archaeologists have been able to reconstruct fairly accurately. 15

16 On the other hand, this temple is perhaps the most typical classical Doric temple in its final form. Temples built after it like the Parthenon or some other temples of the same period show signs of new lines of development and are not purely Doric any more. This temple, built between 470 and 456 BC, is m x m on the stylobate level with 6 x 13 columns in the colonnade, the corner columns counted twice as usual. 16

17 The temple of Zeus at Olympia 17

18 The name of the architect is recorded to have been Libon of Elis, but nothing more seems to be known about him. The temple is an oblong structure with low-cabled roof and cable ends surrounded by a colonnade on all sides, called the pteron or peripteron, which is the most prominent feature of a Doric temple. Inside this peripteron is the inner room, the cella or naos, which is the space for the preservation of the image of the deity in question, in this case the statue of Olympian Zeus made by the famous sculptor Phidias. 18

19 There is a door at one end of the cella, but otherwise there is no natural light inside. The Doric columns are fluted with the typical Doric shallow flutes, twenty in number, with sharp ends, thus differing from the Ionic ones, which are deeper and end with a narrow, even strip between the flutes. 19

20 The optical corrections of the Doric Temple 20

21 3. The Doric Temple The columns are built of separate drums, to which fluting was applied after the columns were erected. The joints were covered by marble stucco, which was used to cover the whole structure constructed of local conglomerate. The shafts taper upwards in a delicate curve, called the entasis. The columns stand on the stylobate without a base, as is always the case in Doric architecture, again in sharp contrast to the Ionic. 21

22 The columns stand on the stylobate without a base, as is always the case in Doric architecture, again in sharp contrast to the Ionic. 22

23 The columns are connected to the beam framework above, called entablature, with the typical Doric capitals consisting of two parts: the lower echinus, a spreading convex molding, and a low square block, the abacus. 23

24 The beam framework consists of the smooth architrave and the upper frieze. 24

25 The frieze is composed of the socalled triglyphs and metopes in between. 25

26 There is usually one triglyph over each column and one in between. The metopes are of the same height as the triglyphs but wider, being approximately square. Often the metopes carry pictures carved in relief, especially in classical temples. 26

27 At the cable ends, there is a triangular space called the tympanon, often decorated with threedimensional sculpture. 27

28 There is both an anteroom or pronaos and an opisthodomos generating complete outer symmetry, except for the stair in front. 28

29 There are, however, different variations of this plan, especially in the colonies. It has been recorded that the measurements of the temple are derived from the length of the distance between two columns, axis to axis, of 16 Doric feet or 5.22 m. The plan is in principle composed according module. to this 29

30 There are two columns in antis at both ends and two rows of inner columns inside the cella. This double row of columns inside is a rather late phenomenon pointing toward a new conception of space, not present in the earliest. 30

31 The colonnade is undoubtedly the most prominent architectural element of the whole construction, and it is composed of a number of equal, similar columns. This colonnade is surrounding the most holy part, the cella, containing the image of the deity. The whole plan scheme consists accordingly of two parts; the cella and the colonnade surrounding it like a group of soldiers protecting it. 31

32 Iktinos and Kallikrates, The Parthenon, B.C.E., Athens 32

33 The entablature and the gable ends were usually painted in bright colors, especially in red and dark blue. 33

34 Entasis In a fully developed Doric temple, there were practically no straight lines or right angles at all. The most important corrections were: the base or stylobate was arched upwards in the middle; the columns were tilted inwards, in the corners in two directions. 34

35 3. The Doric Temple Entasis The entasis by Francis Penrose, Principles of Athenian Architecture, 1851, is a countermeasure against an optical illusion, following thus the explanation of Vitruvius. 35

36 In the corners the Intercolumniations were also shortened; the outermost intercolumniation was narrower than the others. 36

37 The corner columns were often also thicker than the other ones. The walls of the cella were in many temples tilted inwards. Different tiltings appeared frequently even in the architrave; the whole front could be tilted outwards; on the flanks the tilting was commonly inwards, as for instance in the Parthenon where the corrections appear as most complete. Further, the whole architrave was in line with the form of the stylobate, forming an equal arch. 37

38 With or without tilt 38

39 The Triglyphs s problem in the corner The origin of this problem lies in the fact that for constructive reasons the corner column should be placed in the middle of the architrave in both directions. Further, the outermost triglyph was without exception placed in the corner in both directions. On the other hand, the breath of the triglyph was smaller than the depth of the architrave because of what the triglyph in the corner was not situated in the middle of the column as otherwise was the rule. 39

40 The Triglyphs s problem in the corner The corner conflict was first described by Vitruvius: For the triglyphs ought to be placed so as to correspond to the centers of the columns and the metopes between the triglyphs to be as broad as they are high. But in violation of this rule, at the corner columns triglyphs are placed at the outside edges and not corresponding to the centers of the columns. Hence, the metopes next to the corner columns do not come out perfectly square, but are too broad by half the width of a triglyph. Those who would make the metopes all like, make the outermost intercolumniations narrower by half the width of a triglyph. But the result is faulty, whether it is attained by broader metopes or narrower intercolumniations. 40

41 The Triglyphs s problem in the corner 41

42 Wood construction After all, the triglyphs were representing traverse beamends of earlier wood construction. Choisy produced in his Histoire (A. Choisy, Histoire de l architecture, Gauthier-Villars, Paris, 1899) a very singular version. What was translated into stone in the Doric temple was a primitive coffrage, a decorative covering over a strong wood structure with large beams and prop and lintel roofing. 42

43 Wood construction 43

44 5. Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture Everything must have an antecedent. Nothing, in any genre, comes from nothing. Aldo Rossi If we examine the characteristics of Doric Architecture with a view to their origin, we cannot fail to reach the conviction that a large majority of them may be traced to Egyptian prototypes. 44

45 5. Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture The Egyptian temple is heavy and grand, impressing us by the massiveness of its walls and pylons, the number and size of its columns, the extent and multiplicity of its divisions. It consists of a succession of courts and halls, terminating in the sanctuary, which is enshrouded in darkness. 45

46 5. Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture Southern Temple of Karnak 46

47 5. Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture Doric Column Vs Reed-bundle Column 47

48 5. Reminiscences of Egypt in Doric Architecture Egyptian Cornice Vs Entablature of Selinous Temple C. 48

49 6. Le Corbusier: Toward an architecture Le Corbusier first visited the Acropolis in 1911 during a tour through Europe and Asia Minor that took him from Germany to Constantinople. In his travel notes, he recorded that the Parthenon appeared like a monolithic natural outcrop: "The eight columns obey a single law, surge from the earth, seeming not to have been posed there, as they had been, drum upon drum, but giving the impression that they had risen from below the earth. 49

50 6. Le Corbusier: Toward an architecture L'Architecture: Pure creation de l'esprit In the chapter "L'Architecture: Pure creation de l'esprit ", the Parthenon, invoked as a timeless aesthetic icon as it had been over the course of the entire nineteenth century, becomes the touchstone by which to judge the quality of any future architecture. This chapter joins the two strands of the Hellenic tradition admiration for the sublimity of the whole and for the subtle refinements in the details that depart from strict regularity in a manner that combines Le Corbusier's own experience at the Acropolis with the analysis of the Parthenon found in Choisy's Histoire. 50

51 6. Le Corbusier: Toward an Architecture 51

52 7. From PIKIONIS to DOXIADIS 52

53 8. Bibliography Barbara A. Barletta, The Origins of the Greek Architectural Orders, Cambridge University Press,

54 8. Websites :

55 ? 55

1. List three characteristics typical of vase decoration from the Geometric period. a.

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