The course is a follow-up to the compulsory course “Space planning in the Ancient World”. It is a peculiar “ex cathedra” course with a research “purpose”. The purpose is the answer to the question “how wasspace planning achieved in the ancient Greco-Roman world?” [i.e. the intellectual conception of space, its implementation process, its physical design]. As a case study we chose the ancient Greek temple. This can be examined as a structure. Namely: as a system of defined architectural elements which are governed by a logic (functional, structural, morphological).
This is sought with the assistance of the other two main “schools” of teaching Greco-Roman architecture:
− the one based on the development of the subject over time (: as typical History of Ancient Greek Architecture), and
− the one dealing with the same subject arranged in space (: as a conventional HistoricalTopography of Ancient Greece).
Thereforethe learning outcomes are of knowledge and professional type:
A. In terms of the knowledge content as a learning outcome for the students:
1. The course enriches the case study of the temple with eight other cases of type categories of Greco-Roman architecture (see below the nine lecturesof the course).
2. In addition to analysing the narrow context of the function, construction and form of the above architectural types, we pursue their comprehension on the basis of the parallel study of the cultural, economic, social, political parameters of the ancient Greco-Roman world that govern their creation and evolution.
3. Finally: the analysis of theculturalbackground of the architectural forms (: classical) that governs their design, prepares the student for receiving the respective successive backgrounds and architectural types of the 19th century (: neoclassical) and of the 20th century (: postmodern). Therefore, the announcement, the demonstration of these latter architectural types −not their analysis− and their connection to those of the ancient Greco-Roman world is accepted and pursued during the course.
B. In terms of the methodological tools provided in the course as professional supplies:
The students acquire knowledge and experience on the methods of research on the architectural works of the Ancient Greek Architecture:
− As complex subjects of applied knowledge in the fields of the architectural profession related to archaeological excavations, restorations, space planning of archaeological sites and representations of types of ancient buildings and archaeological sites with a variety of digital media.
− As autonomous subjects of pure historical research.
The course studies the following nine categories of building types of the Ancient Greek Architecture as we deal with them in the framework of nine lectures:
LECTURE I: Religious Architecture (Sanctuaries, Altars, Temples, Enclosures, Propyla, Treasures)
LECTURE II: Fortification architecture (towers, fortresses, fortifications of cities).
LECTURE III: Burial Architecture.
LECTURE IV: Architecture of public buildings (stoai, bouleuteria, prytaneia).
LECTURE V: Architecture of memory (votive and honorary monuments).
LECTURE VII: Architecture of education (palaestrae, gymnasia).
LECTURE VII: Architecture of spectacle (theatres, odeia, stadiums).
LECTURE VIII: Water Architecture (wells, fountains, ducts, balneae, thermae, water-related home equipment).
LECTURE IX: Workshop architecture (ceramic and metallurgical furnaces, olive mills, flour mills, wineries, lime kilns).
The course is structured in weekly lectures accompanied by audio-visual presentations (ppt. Video) and distribution of printed architectural designs which are explained and commented during the lecture.
BourasCh.Th. [Χ.Θ.Μπούρας], ΜαθήματαΙστορίαςτηςΑρχιτεκτονικής, Vol. I, Αthens1999, (especially pp. 293-365).
Ginouvès R., Dictionnaire méthodique de l’architecture grecque et romaine III: espaces architecturaux, bâtiments et ensembles, Paris-Roma 1998.
HellmannM.-C., Η Αρχαία Ελληνική Αρχιτεκτονική, Αthens2003. (especially pp. 187-237).
Hellmann M.-C., L’architecture grecque: 2. Architecture religieuse et funéraire, Paris 2006.
Hellmann M.-C., L’architecture grecque: 3. Habitat, urbanisme et fortifications, Paris 2010.
Müller-Wiener W., H ΑρχιτεκτονικήστηνΑρχαίαΕλλάδα, Thessaloniki 1995, (especially pp. 150-198).
Pevsner N., A history of building types, Princeton N.J. 1976.