GREEK

ARCHITECTURE
A P P L I E D A RT
 Four Eras
 Dark Age ca.1100-750 B.C.E. (Decline period, no
cultural advancement or art and architecture
production).
 Archaic Period ca.750-480 B.C.E. (struggling
period, started to develop architecture and produce
artwork).
 Classical Period ca. 480-323 B.C.E. (Started to
produce sculpture and modified architecture).

 Hellenistic Period ca. 323-31 B.C.E. (divided in

small Kingdome and starting of Roman period.
 Greek architecture is known for

• Tall columns

• Intricate detail

• Symmetry

•
Basic Features of Harmony

Greek • Balance.

Architecture • Based chiefly on the post-and-beam

system, with columns carrying the load.

• Religion based.

• Simple looking

• Grand buildings

• Planned structured

• Mainly made of stone

 1. Religious architecture

 Open air alters for offerings and praying.

 Treasury for storage of goods

 Temple for god and goddesses

Types of Greek 2. Funeral Architecture
Architecture  Circular and Rectangular mounds

3. Sport Architecture

 Gymnasium

 Open air theatre

 Stadium
Greek Orders

1. DORIC
2. IONIC
3. CORINTHIAN
 Doric Order
 Doric columns were the simplest and the
thickest of the Greek styles.
 The columns are fluted and have no base.
 The capitals are composed of two parts
consisting of a flat slab, the abacus, and a
cushion like slab known as the echinus. 
 On the capital rests the entablature, which is
made up of three parts: the architrave, the
frieze, and the cornice. 
 The architrave is typically undecorated except
for a narrow band.
 On the frieze are alternating series of triglyphs
(three bars) and metopes, stone slabs frequently
decorated with relief sculpture.
 Ionic Order
 Ionic columns were thinner than the Doric
and had a base at the bottom.
 Bases support the columns, which have more
vertical flutes than those of the Doric order.
 Ionic capitals have two volutes that rest atop
a band of palm-leaf ornaments. 
 The abacus is narrow, and the entablature,
unlike that of the Doric order, usually
consists of three simple horizontal bands. 
 The most important feature of the ionic order
is the frieze, which is usually carved with
relief sculpture arranged in a continuous
pattern around the building.
 Corinthian Order
 The most decorative of the three
orders was the Corinthian.
 Corinthian capitals have a bell-
shaped echinus decorated with
acanthus leaves, spirals, and
palmettes.
 There is also a pair of small volutes at
each corner; thus, the capital provides
the same view from all sides.
Typical plan of a Tomb
1. Stereo-bate (or substructure).
2. Stylobate. (continuous base
supporting a row of columns)
3. Colonnade (or peristyle).
4. Porch (or pronaos).
5. Cella (or naos).
6. Rear porch (or opisthodomus).
 Greek Temple
• Oblong, roughly twice as long as they were
wide.
• Small (30–100 feet long), although a few were
more than 300 feet long and 150 feet wide.
• Colonnade of columns on all four sides a front
porch a back porch.
• Upper works of the temple usually consisted of
mudbrick and wood, except for the upper
facade, which was usually stone, and designed
according to the order (Doric, Ionic).
• Columns were typically carved from limestone,
with upper facades usually decorated with
marble.
• Interior typically consisted of an inner shrine
(cella, or naos.
Open Air Theater
Consisted of three main elements:
• Orchestra (rows of tiered seating set in a semicircle )
• Skene (a low building behind orchestra served as a store room, dressing room and backdrop).
• Audience ( the viewers).
 Gymnasium
• Greek towns of substantial size also had a palaestra or
a gymnasium.

• CONSISTED OF:

• Social centre: for male citizens which included

spectator areas, baths, toilets and club rooms.

• Training centre: This facility tended to include areas

for both training and storage.

• Generally rectilinear in plan, with a colonnade framing

a central, open space.
 Other Buildings
• Other buildings associated with sports include:

• Hippodrome for horse racing

• The Hippodrome was the typical long rectangular shape with

a curved end seen elsewhere in the Roman Empire. It was
around 400 metres (1300 feet) in length and up to 200 metres
wide. One lap of the track would have measured around 300
metres (1000 feet).

• Stadium for foot racing, 600 feet in length.

• A straight track for footraces, typically one stadium in length, with

tiers of seats for spectators on each side.
 House
• Relatively simple in design.

Feature of a Greek house:

• A courtyard

• Ground floor rooms: included kitchen and storage rooms, perhaps an animal pen and a latrine.

• Chief room was the andron used by males for drinking party.

• The quarters for women and children on the second floor if present, in any case, segregated from the
men’s’ area.

• Walls of mud brick and tiled roofs, with floors of beaten clay.

• Built on grid plan of the city.

City Houses
Some houses had shops and were called city houses.

FEATURES

• Adjoining walls

• divided into small blocks by narrow streets.

• Shops were sometimes located in the rooms towards the street.

• City houses were inward-facing, with major openings looking onto the central courtyard, rather
than the street.
Thank You!
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