From my History of Architecture Notes - Greek Architecture

As mentioned in my earlier posts, these notes are references made from Sir Bannister Fletcher's History of Architecture. This post covers the period from Hellenic period to the Hellenistic period. 

Greek Architecture

The ancient Greeks, unlike their Minoan and Mycenaean ancestors, did not have the royalty and therefore had no need for palaces. Hence you will find their architecture dedicated to public buildings such as temples, central market place (agora) covered wit colonnade (stoa), monumental gateways (Propylon), the council building (bouleuterion), open air theatre, gymnasium(palaestra), and so on. Amongst these buildings it is the temples that captured the essence of Greek Architecture.

Effort was made to build temples in prominent positions using geometry and optical tricks such as thickening the lower parts of the columns, thickening the corner columns, etc. Such refinements indicate that the Greek temples were not just functional structures but also were symbolic and an important element in the civic landscape.

The notes consists of brief architectural characteristics of temples, geometry and optical tricks employed, sketches showing Greek Mouldings. Important buildings such as Propylaea Athens, the  Acropolis, temple of Parthenon, temple of Artemis, theatres, public buildings and domestic buildings are also mentioned.

Page 01 Hellenic Period

Page 02 Hellenistic Period

Page 03 Acropolis Athens, Temples of Parthenon, Artemis

Page 04 Temples

Page 05 Greek Mouldings

Page 06 Theatre, Public Buildings

Page 07 Domestic Buildings

For more details on the Greek orders of Architecture (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian), please refer to the extra notes that will posted later.

Hope you find the above notes useful.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a nice day!