005

Prehistoric architecture
400 bce
400 bce
• This section will cover the architecture of the
civilizations from 400 bce to 0 :

• The Achaemenid Empire

• Greece and the Mediterranean

• The Helenistic Age

400 bce
The Achaemenid Empire
• In Persia, and by the year 500 bce, the Achaemenid Empire had
grown to become the largest and most important realm in Asia,
Africa and Europe.
• An extensive road network was built—the first organized
system of roads in history
• Important kings Cyrus and Darius
400 bce
The Achaemenid Empire
Palace complex at Persepolis, Iran
• Darius established his
capital city, Persepolis
—“the city of the Persians”
• Construction went through
several phases between
515 and 330 bce.
• Construction involved
cutting into the irregular
and rocky mountainside to
level a large platforms.
• Foundations contained
complex drainage systems
Palace complex at
and water channels Persepolis
400 bce
The Achaemenid Empire
Palace complex at Persepolis,
Iran
• The northern part of the terrace,
which included the throne room
(known also as the Hall of a
Hundred Columns), measured 70
by 70 meters and represented
the main section of the complex;
it was accessible only to a
restricted few.

Throne room (Hall of a Hundred Columns)

at Persepolis
400 bce
The Achaemenid Empire
Palace complex at Persepolis,
Iran
• The largest building, the
Apadana /castle served as the
main reception hall
• Had seventy-two a outstanding
fluted and tapered limestone
columns 7 meters high
surmounted by bull or lion-
shaped capitals
• The ceiling beams of cedar,
ebony, and teak were gold
plated and inlaid with ivory and
precious metals

Apadana, the principal audience hall of

Darius I, at Persepolis
400 bce
The Achaemenid Empire
Palace complex at Persepolis,
Iran
• The largest building, the
Apadana /castle served as the
main reception hall

Apadana, the principal audience hall

of Darius I, at Persepolis
400 bce
Greece and the Mediterranean
• Greeks plied the Mediterranean all the way to Gibraltar in the
west and the Black Sea in the east, founding dozens of cities and
trading posts.
• Greece was a brand-new economic model; one might call it the
urban franchise model.
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
• Built finest and
most distinct
buildings:
• Simplicity,
Proportion,
Perspective and
Harmony
• Basic building
typologies: Temple,
Stoa, Theater,
Bouleuterion,
Agora, House, Altar,
and sport buildings
(Stadium &
Gymnasium)
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
Greek Architectural
orders:

The ancient styles of

classical architecture of
Greece, each
distinguished by
proportions, profiles and
details, most recognized
in column: Doric Ionic and
Corinthian.
400 bce
Greece and the Mediterranean
• Type 1: Temple The Parthenon
• Cities were divided into a lower town and an acropolis. The Parthenon
was on the acropolis

Acropolis at Athens
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean

Type 1: Temple:
The Parthenon

Parthenon
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
Type 1: Temple The Parthenon
Measuring 30.9 by 69.5 meters its
spaces:
• Pronaos: Front porch
• Cella: house of the hidden cult
• Opithodomos: inner shrine, not
to be entered
• Peristyle Colonnade:
Surrounding columns
• Stylobate: Base under columns
• Stereobate: Massive base under
everything else.
 400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
Type 2: Stoa:
• Stoa is a covered walkway or
colonnade that was for public
use.
• Example: Stoa of Attalos (159
bce)
• Used Ionic order for commercial
buildings of one or two levels.
• Used to frame the Agora (Greek
urban space)

Stoa of Attalos
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
Type 3: Theater:
• Large, open-air structure used
for drama performance
• Theaters often took advantage
of hillsides
• Example: Epidaurus Theater
Composed
1. Seating area (theatron),
2. A circular space for the
chorus to perform
(orchestra),
3. The stage (skene)
4. Parados (Side aisle)
Theatre at Epidaurus
400 bce
Greece and the
Priene Bouleuterion
Mediterranean Priene, Turkey
Type 4: Bouleuterion
• Housed the council of
citizens as a law court
• Example: Priene
Bouleuterion in Turkey
• Columns were pushed
back beyond rear
rows of seats leaving a
circulation aisle
around the altar.
• Wooden triangular
roof trusses
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
Type 5: Agora: City Center
“gathering place”
• Commercial and civic heart
• Containing the main
marketplace, meeting halls
bouleuterion, temples, shrines
and stoas.
• What seems to be a chaotic
layout of buildings unfolds as a
logical sequence when
experienced from the ground.
The various objects are unified
by the stoas, long narrow
structures opening onto the
public space of the agora.
Agora
400 bce
Greece and the
Mediterranean
Type 6. Gymnasium
• A training facility for
competitors in public games
• Used for socializing &
scholarly and philosophical
pursuits
• Its function relates to
education and health
• Contained Spaces for each
type of exercise, stadium,
baths, outer porticos, and
covered porticos where
philosophers gave public
lectures and held disputations
400 bce
The Helenistic Age
• The Greek legacy in the east
• Alexander the Great (356–323 bce)
reign.
• Defeated the Achaemenid Empire,
and on his way to the border of India
• Greek style of architecture was
adopted in the east.
• Priene, Turkey is an example of the
Helensistic architecture and town
planning.
• Priene city was founded in 334 bce
• The streets run east-west along level
ground and are about 4.5 meters
across.
• From south to north, with the Plan of Priene, Turkey
ground rising steeply, the streets are
mostly narrower.
400 bce
The Helenistic Age
• The principal civic
elements of the city
are embedded in the
structure of this grid
and yet in dynamic
resistance to it.
• The agora juts out
from the grid to the
south and does not
align with the side Agora
streets.

Agora and other civic elements at Priene

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