Greek Architecture Typologies

Presented by-Ar. Roopa Chikkalgi

THE TYPOLOGIES OF GREEK BUILDINGS CONSISTED OF:
TEMPLES, TOMBS. PUBLIC MEETING SPACES. STADIUMS. AMPHITHEATRES etc..
THE GREEK TEMPLES
Depending on the number of columns in the portico
depicted the style of Greek Temples.

Thus the names:

I. Distyle (2 columns)
II. Tristyle (3 columns)
III. Tetrastyle (4 columns)
IV. Pentastyle (5 columns)
V. Hexastyle (6 columns)
VI. Heptastyle ( 7 columns)
VII.Octastyle (8 columns)
VIII.Ennastyle (9 columns)
IX. Decastyle (10 columns)
X. Tholos: circular temple
Temple Typology
THE GREEK TEMPLES

• They recognised separate areas as

sacred to a god, both in their towns
and villages, and in their surrounding
country side.

• All the temples were simple

rectangular buildings, By the classical
period these temples varied in detail.

• The most important element which

stands out in the Greek temples were
their columns. The porches in all the
buildings was embellished with THE PARTHENON
columns.
THE GREEK TEMPLES
• Structure:
– Rectangular plan

• Circular temples existed too: Tholos

• Internal distribution:
– Pronaos : Open entrance
– Naos or cella: chapel for God’s image
– Opistodomos: room for holding the treasure of the temple and city.

• Location: in isolated or holy places

• Ceremonies were celebrated outside, in front of the porticos.

• It was built on a base with stairs, called crepis (stereobate). The last stair is
called stillobatus /stylobate.
Temple of Parthenon, Athens 7
 Temple of Parthenon, Athens
• The magnificent temple on the Acropolis of Athens, known as
the Parthenon, was built between 447 and 432 BCE.
• it was dedicated to the city’s patron deity Athena.

• The temple was constructed to house the statue of the goddess and to
proclaim to the world the success of Athens as leader of the coalition
of Greek forces which had defeated the invading Persian armies.

• The temple remained in use for more than a thousand years, and
despite the ravages of time, explosions, looting, and pollution damage,
it still dominated the modern city of Athens.

• Parthenon means ‘house of Parthenos’ which was the name given in

the 5th century BCE to the chamber inside the temple which housed
the cult statue.

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 Parthenon – design.
• The acropolis itself measures some 300 by
150 metres and is 70 metres high at its
maximum. The temple, which would sit on
the highest part of the acropolis, was
designed by the architects Iktinos and
Kallikratis

• Material:
• Pentelic marble was used for the building,
and never before had so much marble
(22,000 tons) been used in a Greek
temple.

• Pentelic marble was known for its pure

white appearance and fine grain. It also
contains traces of iron which over time has
oxidised, giving the marble a soft honey
colour, a quality particularly evident at
sunrise and sunset.

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Parthenon – design & dimensions.
Octastyle temple
Stylobate

Doric & New Ionic

order of the
columns.
Cella/ Statue of
Inner cella treasury
naos Athena

• The larger room • Smaller room

• Houses the cult statue. • Was constructed to support
• Surrounded by a Doric the roof.
colonnade on three • Ionic columns.
sides. • Used as the city’s treasury
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Temple of Parthenon
•The façade has eight columns.

•The temple stand on the conventional three steps . Intermediate steps were
provided later as the steps were too high with 20” rise.

•Internal Doric two tired columns were structural elements as they supported
the timber Roof.

•Inside the colonnades, towards the end there stood the gold and ivory statue
of Athena Parthenos, the work of Phidias, representing Athena fully armed
with spear, helmet, aegis and shield accompanied by a snake, and holding in
her extended right arm a statue of victory.
Parthenon – design & dimensions.
• Overall dimensions -69.5x30.9m

• Interior space called – 29.8m x 19.8m (cellar)

• Height -43m

• Walls were 1.2m thick.

• Parthenon was considered as the best ever buildings ever built for about
1500 years. Until the beginning of renaissance.
Parthenon – design & dimensions.
Octastyle temple
Stylobate

Doric & New Ionic

order of the
columns.
Cella/ Statue of
Inner cella treasury
naos Athena

• The larger room • Smaller room

• Houses the cult statue. • Was constructed to support
• Surrounded by a Doric the roof.
colonnade on three • Ionic columns.
sides. • Used as the city’s treasury
13
Parthenon – design & dimensions
• The Parthenon is categorised under the octastyle temple.
• The Parthenon would become the largest Doric Greek temple, although it was
innovative in that it mixed the two architectural styles of Doric and the newer
Ionic. The temple measured 30.88 m by 69.5 m
• The outer columns of the temple were Doric with eight seen from the front and
back and 17 seen from the sides.
• Within, the inner cella (or opisthodomos) was fronted by six columns at the
back and front. It was entered through large wooden doors embellished with
decorations in bronze, ivory, and gold.
• The cella consisted of two separated rooms. The smaller room contained four
Ionic columns to support the roof section and was used as the city’s treasury.
• The larger room housed the cult statue and was surrounded by a Doric
colonnade on three sides.
• The roof was constructed using cedar wood beams and marble tiles and would
have been decorated at the corners. The roof corners also carried lion-headed
spouts to drain away water.
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Greek Architecture 15
Temple of Parthenon, Athens
Temple of Parthenon, Athens
18
Parthenon – the decorative sculptures.

The statue of Athena : This was a gigantic statue

over 12 m high and made of carved ivory for flesh parts
and gold (1140 kilos or 44 talents of it) for everything
else, all wrapped around a wooden core. The gold parts
could also be easily removed if necessary in times of
financial necessity. The statue stood on a pedestal
measuring 4.09 by 8.04 metres. 19
 Parthenon – the decorative sculptures.
• The temple was unprecedented in both the quantity and quality of architectural
sculpture used to decorate it.
• No previous Greek temple was so richly decorated.
• The Parthenon had 92 metopes carved in high relief (each was on average 1.2
m x 1.25 m square with relief of 25 cm in depth), a frieze running around all
four sides of the building, and both pediments filled with monumental
sculpture.
• The metopes depicted the Olympian gods fighting the giants.
• The frieze ran around all four sides of the building (an Ionic feature).
• The pediments of the temple measured 28.55 m in length with a maximum
height of 3.45 m at their centre. They were filled with around 50 figures
sculpted, an unprecedented quantity of sculpture.

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Temple of Parthenon, Athens
Temple of Parthenon, Athens
Parthenon – optical corrections.
• The temple measured 30.88 m by 69.5 m and was constructed
using a 4:9 ratio in several aspects.

• The diameter of the columns in relation to the space between

columns, the height of the building in relation to its width, and
the width of the inner cella in relation to its length are all 4:9.
•
• Other sophisticated architectural techniques were used to combat
the problem that anything on that scale of size when perfectly
straight seems from a distance to be curved.

• To give the illusion of true straight lines, the columns lean ever
so slightly inwards, a feature which also gives a lifting effect to
the building making it appear lighter than its construction
material would suggest.

• Also, the stylobate or floor of the temple is not exactly flat but
rises slightly in the centre. The columns also have entasis, that is,
a slight fattening in their middle, and the four corner columns are
imperceptibly fatter than the other columns.

• The combination of these refinements makes

the temple seem perfectly straight, symmetrically in
harmony, and gives the entire building a certain vibrancy.
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 Journey of THE PARTHENON

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