HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE AND CULTURE IV

Shruti Mutalikdesai
MSA, Mysuru
It was used for meeting and
dramatic performances. It
consisted of several parts,

Skene

Orchestra

Seats
These were usually built on a
hill, due to which they have
perfect acoustics.

THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS
It is the best preserved of all in
Greece built shortly after middle
of 4th century bc. The seating is
divided into various segments
by stairs. The lower section has
34 rows of seats and the upper
section has 24 rows of seats.
The two sections are separated
by a diazoma/ walkway.
Greek theatres were unroofed
and consisted of 3 main areas :
the auditorium – the cavea or
koilon, the orchestra or dancing
floor and the stage building-
skene. By this period theatres
were generally provided with
permanent auditoria with stone
seating.
The orchestra has a diameter of
20.4 mts. The stage building
although completely ruined
today, was on a raised platform.

THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS
THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS
THEATRE OF EPIDAURUS
General Public Architecture
In most Greek terms much of
the available area was devoted
to public rather than private .
the important gathering place
was the agora , which was
placed conveniently for
communication , on flat ground
and easily accessible as
possible from all directions ,
costal cities such as Samos or
Thasos, tended to place the
agora by the harbor for obvious
reasons :otherwise it was sited
in the centre. The Agora or
Marketplace was a civic and
commercial center of ancient
Athens, located northwest of
the Acropolis.

AGORA, ATHENS
AGORA
STOA’s
STOA ’s proved useful
buildings in the context of the
agora. They provided shelter,
and served many purposes,
especially when they included
rooms behind the colonnades.
Though early examples are
separate self contained
buildings, in time they came to
give the appearance of a
colonnaded courtyard.

STOA
THOLOS
The tholos was a circular building though official in nature. Its walls were made of unbaked brick.

THOLOS