GREEK

Location

• Greek civilization occurred in the area around the Greek mainland, on a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea.

• It started in cities on the Greek mainland and on islands in the Aegean Sea.

• Towards the later or Hellenistic period, Greek civilization spread to other far away places including Asia Minor and Northern Africa.

PHYSICAL MAP OF GREECE

• Most of the Greek mainland was rocky and barren and therefore bad for agriculture.

• Most Greeks therefore lived along the coastline or on islands where the soil was good for farming.

• The Aegean and Mediterranean Seas provided a means of communication and trade with other places.

Historical Background Period

• The period of ancient Greek history can be divided into

four as follows:

• 1100 B. C. – 750 B. C. Greek Dark Ages

• 750 B. C. – 490 B. C. Archaic Period

• 5000 B. C. – 323 B. C. Classical Period

• 323 B. C. – 147 B. C. Hellenistic Period

• The classical and archaic period are sometimes collectively

referred to as Hellenic period

Political and cultural heights

Full development of the democratic system

Parthenon on the Acropolis

Fall of Athens

Rise of Macedonia

series of wars with Sparta

Greek City Planning and Design

Planning and Design Principles

• The ancient Greek civilization had established principles for planning and designing cities.

• City form were of two types:• Old cities such as Athens had irregular street plans

reflecting their gradual organic development.• New cities, especially colonial cities established

during the Hellenistic period, had a grid-iron street plan

• Certain things were common among cities:The overall division of spaces in 3 parts: acropolis,

agora and the town . The fortification etc.

OLD CITY

NEW CITY

Pattern of Athens

Pattern of Messene

Greek City Planning and Design

Planning and Design Principles

• Towns had fixed boundaries and some were protected by fortifications .

• Much of the town was devoted to public use.

• The Greek City was usually divided into three parts; the acropolis, the agora and the town.

• Site planning and design was centered on the appreciation of buildings from the outside.

• The location of buildings was therefore such that it could command a good view to it.

Messene City wall

• The acropolis in Athens was a religious precinct located on one of the hills of the city.

• The artist and architects to build a new city of temples to glorify the gods.

• The acropolis combined Doric orders and ionic orders in a perfect composition in four buildings; the Propylea, the Parthenon, the Erechtheumn, and the temple of Nike.

The Acropolis

The Earliest versions of the Buildings in the Acropolis existed until 480 BC and

was rebuilt in 450 BC.

Greek City Planning and Design

The Agora

• The Agora was the most important gathering place in a Greek city.

• It started as an open area where the council of the city met to take decisions.

• With time buildings were constructed to define and enclose the space

• It also transformed into a place for combined social, commercial and political activities.

• It emerged as the heart of Greek intellectual life and discourse.

• It was usually located on a flat ground for ease of communication.

• It was placed to be easily accessible from all directions.

• In many cities, it is also located close to the Acropolis.

AGORA OF ATHENS

AGORA OF MESSENE

Greek City Planning and Design

The Town

• The town was where the people lived.

• This was the domain of women, who did not have any public role.

• Early Greek towns had an irregular street pattern, resulting from its organic growth.

• Later Hellenistic towns such as Prienne had a formal rectilinear pattern.

• The town was made up of only residential houses.

TOWN OF ATHENS

TOWN OF MESSENE

>TWO CULTURES WHICH INFLUENCED THE

ARCHITECTURAL TECHNIQUES AND STYLE BEING

LOST WHEN THESE CIVILIZATION FELL……

1. Mycenaean culture

2. Minoan culture

CULTURE

Mycenaean culture

1600 BC TO 1100 BC

• Mycenaean architecture reflects their warring society.

• The Mycenaeans populated Greece and built citadel sites on high, rocky outcroppings that provided natural fortification and overlooked plains used for farming and raising livestock.

• Its people built citadels, fortifications and tombs rather than palaces, and decorated their pottery with bands of marching soldiers rather than octopus and seaweed.

• Athenian culture developed the art of logic, and with it the idea of democracy

Citadel, Megaron

• The architectural plan

became the basic shape of

the Greek temples.

• The cultural shift as the

gods of acient Greece took

place of the Myceanean

rulers

BEEHIVE TOMB

MOST UNIQUE ARCHITECTURE DURING THIS ERA.

USED CORBEL VOULTING TO CREATE DOME LIKE STRUCTURE

BUILT INTO THE GROUND.

LOCATED ALL THROUGHOUT THE CITY OF MYCEANEANS.

Minoan culture

2800–1100 BC

• society benefited from trade.

• art and religious practices were assimilated and adapted to better express the perhaps more militaristic and austere .

• known for its elaborate and richly decorated palaces, and for its pottery painted with floral and marine motifs.

• Minoans deified the natural world and found in it a logical order that allowed man to live in harmony with the natural environment.

• The natural elements were personified as gods of completely human form, and very human behaviour.

• Ancient Greek domestic architecture centred on open spaces or courtyards surrounded by colonnades.

COMPARISON

THE MODEL OF THE PALACE AT KNOSSOS

(MINOAN).

NO FORTIFICATON.

BUILT WITH SERIES OF ROOMS WHICH

OPENS TO COURTYARDS.

ART IS PEACEFUL, EMPHASISES ON

NATURE AND HAS NO REFERENCES TO

WAR.

THE LION GATE OF MYCENAE

(MYCEANEANS)

ASHLAR MASONRY WAS USED.

CYCLOPEAN CONSTRUCTION

MUCH MORE HEAVILY

FORTIFIED .

SENSE OF WARLIKE SOCIETY.

Buildings & Other Arch. Elements Building Types

• The major architectural element of the Greek civilization is the order and their principal building type is the temple.

• Greek buildings also feature civic buildings such as theater, council chamber, stoa, etc

• Greeks invented the classical orders of architecture .

• Their invention of the orders was a result of the search for rational methods of expressing beauty.

• The orders embody a system of proportion that determines how the whole building looks.

• An order consist of a column shaft with its base and capital, and an entablature.

• All its dimensions were derived from the diameter of the column.

• The entablature is further divided into architrave, frieze and cornice.

Materials, Construction & Tech.

Materials

• Examination of Greek architecture points to three common materials of construction

• These are Stone, timber and clay

• Stone was the most common construction material for buildings

• Greece had an abundant supply of stone, particularly marble

• Stone was used for all types of temple and civic construction

• It was used for all type of building elements.

• The characteristic grey color of the stone of the area is also what gives most ancient Greek buildings their characteristics color.

Materials, Construction & Tech.

Materials

• Timber was used mainly for roofing.

• It was a very scarce commodity and it also had limited length.

• This limited its use.

• 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.

• clay was used mostly in housing construction.

• Clay was made into sun dried blocks for use in construction

Materials, Construction & Tech.

Construction and Technology

• Building blocks were not bonded, but are rather held in position by their weight.

• Then the rough stones were finished to achieve the final form and treatment of the building.

• Finishing enables the builders to create buildings of a particular order.

• It is in finishing that the Greeks showed their mastery of construction.

• Finishing work involved creating the fluting, base and capital decoration on columns.

• The Frieze and cornices of buildings were also decorated with appropriate relief carving.

Principles of Arch. Organization Ideas about Architectural Aesthetics

• The Greeks believed that mathematical proportion is at the root of beauty

• They also believed that the human body has the best of proportions

• Greeks also valued harmony, balance and symmetry in design

• Greeks developed principles based on their believes about aesthetics

• These principles were refined over time as they are applied in building

• With time they developed into a standard that is widely applied

http://classconnection.s3.amazona

ws.com/

http://gallery.nen.gov.uk

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Map_ancient_athens.png

http://www.agathe.gr/image?id=Agora:Image:2008.18.0013&w=800&h=600

http://www.projetsdepaysage.fr/fr/the_construction_of_the_greek_landscape_i

n_the_hellenistic_era

http://www.pausanias-footsteps.nl/english/messene-eng.html

http://www.messinia-guide.gr/?id=235&lang=en

Architecture of the world – Greece by Ed. Henri Stierlin