Parthenon paper updated 2014 2015 by miro

Department of Architecture Preparatory Grade 2014/2015 Alexandria University

Faculty of Fine Arts

Architectural Drawing and Design Studio 1st Semester/November 2015

Architecture of the Antiquity

I ) Classical Greece

The PA RT H E N O N Conception, Principles and Design

Preparatory Grade/ Course Faculty

Edited In: 15th November 2015

Contents 1. Introduction: 1.1) Greece 1.2) PARTHENON; centre of ACROPOLIS

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2. Classical Greek Orders

3. Orders of the PARTHENON

4. Architecture of the PARTHENON

5. Architectural Drawings: I) The Acropolis II) The Doric Order III) Evolution of the Doric Order IV) The PARTHENON

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6. Project Worksheets: I-a) Typical section-façade. I-b) Typical section-façade (Rendered). II-a) Detailed section-façade (Rendered). II-a) Detailed section-façade (Rendered). III-a) Main Façade. III-a) Main Façade (Rendered) IV) Plan V) Section.

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7. Elements. I) Pediment. II) Metope & Acroterion. III) . Naos of Athena Parthenos

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8. Rendering schemes I) Typical column. II) Main Facade. III) Cut-away perspective IV) Athena Promachos. II) The Acropolis. 9. Project Breakdown

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1. Introduction:

1.1 Greece “The Cradle of Western Civilization”

Map of Ancient Greek Empire

Ancient Greece, indeed, lives on in modern culture, evidenced by an ever-present fascination with the tales of Homer, Greek drama, and the spectacular stories associated with Greek mythology. In the rise of Sparta and Athens, and the origins of democracy in Greek society, people today find a wealth of relevant material for understanding not only ancient Greece, but the modern world. And there is no greater fount of learning than that supplied by the immortal philosophers of Greece: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The civilization of ancient Greece flowered more than 2500 years ago but it influences the modern way of life. Greece is a peninsula in southeastern Europe. The people of the region attempted to explain the world through the laws of nature. They made important discoveries in science. They developed democracy, where people govern themselves rather than being ruled by a king. The Greeks also valued beauty and imagination. They wrote many stories and plays that continue to be performed today. The ancient Greeks developed a great deal of what we take for granted. This is why Greece is often known as the Cradle of Western Civilization. Most of the great city-states of ancient Greece, such as Athens, Sparta, and Corinth, existed within the borders of modern Greece. But in ancient times—especially during Greece’s “Golden Age” in the 5th century B.C.—Greek colonies stretched from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea. Two geographic facts help explain why the ancient Greeks spread themselves out over such a broad area. First, their homeland is extremely mountainous and rocky, with most of the farmland relegated to a few fertile valleys and strips along the seacoast. Second, nearly all of Greece was no more than one or two day’s travel from the sea. As a result, the sea became Greece’s lifeline and, ultimately, its source of power and greatness. The Greeks traded their abundant supplies of limestone, clay pottery, and olives for grain, linen, and papyrus from other Mediterranean peoples. The sea helped to shape Greece’s culture. Its greatest mythological heroes, such as Jason and Odysseus, spent much of their lives on ships. Many great Greek thinkers, like Anaximander and Ptolemy, did not live in Athens or other mainland cities. They lived in far flung places—Anaximander and Ptolemy lived in Miletus and Alexandria, respectively—but they were Greeks nonetheless. Their influence spread throughout the Mediterranean due to the traffic of slow, stubby trading ships that made Greece first a superpower and later the cultural heart of the Mediterranean.

1.2 PARTHENON; center of ACROPOLIS

The Acropolis of Athens

“High city” or “City on the hill” (for that is what Acropolis means). Almost every Greek city-state (or Polis) had one, but no other Acropolis was as successful as the Athenian: a massive urban focus that was always within view and that at various times throughout it’s virtually uninterrupted 6000-year-long cultural history served as dwelling place, fortress, sanctuary and symbol-often all at once. Built as a temple for the goddess Athena, the Parthenon was constructed during the Classical Period (circa 490– 323 bc), which began upon the defeat of the reigning Persian Empire. This period encompassed the golden age of Greece, a time when literature, art, theater, and philosophy Flourished. With its many iconic features, the Parthenon—designed to symbolize the ideals of art, science, and democracy— was the first building ever to be constructed entirely of marble. The Parthenon includes subtle architectural refinements that together make it appear visually perfect, although there has been much debate about just why the builders incorporated these refinements.

Depiction of the PARTHENON

A year after the Parthenon was completed in 432 BCE, however, Pericles went to the citizens for funds to equip an army against the threat of Sparta. He suggested that, if necessary, the statue of Athena could be stripped of gold to provide the funds. The Spartans later turned the Parthenon into an army barracks. For the next two millennia, the iconic building was taken over by Romans, barbarians, Christians, Muslims, and Turks. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Europeans plundered its sculptures.

2. Classical Greek Orders:

Comparative reproduction of Greek Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders

3. Orders of The PARTHENON: The Parthenon is a peripteral octostyle Doric temple with Ionic architectural features. It stands on a platform or Stylobate of three steps. In common with other Greek temples, it is of post and lintel construction and is surrounded by columns ("peripteral") carrying an Entablature. There are eight columns at either end ("octostyle") and seventeen on the sides. There is a double row of columns at either end. The colonnade surrounds an inner masonry structure, the Cella which is divided into two compartments. At either end of the building the gable is finished with a triangular Pediment originally filled with sculpture. The columns are of the Doric Order, with simple capitals, fluted shafts and no bases. Above the Architrave of the entablature is a Frieze of carved pictorial panels (Metopes), separated by formal architectural Triglyphs, typical of the Doric Order. Around the cella and across the lintels of the inner columns runs a continuous sculptured frieze in low relief. This element of the architecture is Ionic in style, rather than Doric. Architectural Elements of The PARTHENON

4. Architecture of The PARTHENON:

A copy of the original PARTHENON in Tennessee, Nashville, USA

The Parthenon, is regarded as the finest example of Greek architecture. The temple, wrote John Julius Cooper, "enjoys the reputation of being the most perfect Doric temple ever built. Even in antiquity, its architectural refinements were legendary, especially the subtle correspondence between the curvature of the stylobate, the taper of the naos walls and the entasis of the columns. Entasis refers to the slight diminution in diameter of the columns as they rise, though the observable effect on the Parthenon is considerably more subtle than on earlier temples. The stylobate is the platform on which the columns stand. As in many other classical Greek temples, it has a slight parabolic upward curvature intended to shed rainwater and reinforce the building against earthquakes.

The columns might therefore be supposed to lean outwards, but they actually lean slightly inwards so that if they carried on, they would meet almost exactly a mile above the centre of the Parthenon; since they are all the same height, the curvature of the outer stylobate edge is transmitted to the architrave and roof above: "All follow the rule of being built to delicate curves," Gorham Stevens observed when pointing out that, in addition, the west front was built at a slightly higher level than that of the east front. It is not universally agreed what the intended effect of these "optical refinements" was; they may serve as a sort of "reverse optical illusion". As the Greeks may have been aware, two parallel lines appear to bow, or curve outward, when intersected by converging lines. In this case, the ceiling and floor of the temple may seem to bow in the presence of the surrounding angles of the building. Striving for perfection, the designers may have added these curves, compensating for the illusion by creating their own curves, thus negating this effect and allowing the temple to be seen as they intended. It is also suggested that it was to enliven what might have appeared an inert mass in the case of a building without curves, but the comparison ought to be with the Parthenon's more obviously curved predecessors than with a notional rectilinear temple. Some studies of the Acropolis, including the Parthenon, conclude that many of its proportions approximate the Golden Ratio. The Parthenon's faรงade as well as elements of its faรงade and elsewhere can be circumscribed by Golden Rectangles.

5. Architectural Drawings: 5.1 The Acropolis

5.2 The Doric order

5.3 Evolution of the Doric order

5.4 The PARTHENON

6. Project Worksheets: I-a Typical section-faรงade.

6. Project Worksheets: I-b) Typical section-faรงade / Rendered.

6. Project Worksheets: II)Order Details Project Worksheets: II-a) Detailed Section-faรงade.

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6. Project Worksheets: II)Order Details Project Worksheets: II-b) Detailed Section-faรงade/ Rendered.

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III-a) Main Faรงade.

6. Project Worksheets:

III-b) Main Faรงade/ Rrndered.

6. Project Worksheets:

6. Project Worksheets: IV) Plan.

V) Section

6. Project Worksheets:

7. Elements: I) Pediment.

7. Elements: II) Metope & Acroterion.

7. Elements: III) Naos of Athena Parthenos.

8. Rendering Schemes: I) Typical Column.

8. Rendering Schemes: II Main Facade.

8. Rendering Schemes: III)Cut-Away Perspective.

8. Rendering Schemes: IV)Athena Promachos.

8. Rendering Schemes: V)The Acropolis.