It's All Greek to Me

You could say that architecture is age old, whether the design is a rock-enclosed cave or an elaborate, complex palace.  So I guess the question is how did architecture change as a result of a literate society? This question can be answered through the tradition of ancient Crete and mainland Greece. To thoroughly study this, I will include the architecture of the Minoans and Mycenaeans during the Helladic Age and then the Ionian and Classic Greek cultures of the Hellenic Age.

inverted columns at the palace of Knossos

Helladic Age

remains at the Palace of Knossos

the Acropolis in Greece

There are few remains of Minoan and Mycenaean architecture, but one main site is the palace at Knossos, which serves as an architectural type of 4 other locations (Mallia, Phaistos, Zakro, and Gournia). These sites served as centers of government, administrative offices, shrines, workshops, and storage spaces, so they were not palaces in the modern sense of the word but rather a court building. No doubt the buildings were built around a central court where there were performances and sports performed like bull-leading. The west court, magazine (a building or place for keeping military stores, as arms, ammunition, or provisions, residential quarters, a banquet hall, cult rooms of worship, and theatrical areas. The uses of all the rooms are unknown, but it is for communal places of entertainment or worship. This kind of community center sounded a lot like the Acropolis in Greece, where the Minoans’ palaces were an earlier micro version of the Greek Acropolis. However, the most intriguing part of the Minoan architecture I found was in relation to the columns they used. As one of their most notable contributions to architecture, they had an 'inverted' column, which was wider at the top than the bottom. This is interesting because most Greek columns are wider at the bottom, creating an illusion of greater height. Although the use of columns in architecture was similar in both cultures, the aesthetics of these columns were different.

Hellenic Age

It is inevitable that records of buildings and buildings themselves will decay over time, prohibiting us from truly understanding the architecture of the time. For this reason, I will mostly analyze the temples of the Greeks, which are the buildings still existing from that time today; however, keep in mind that this is a partial and incomplete analysis.

As we discussed in class last Tuesday, and as I did in my previous post, writing systems were often used for economical purposes. This can also be extended to include mathematical practices. The birth of philosophy which came as a result of writing also lead to the birth of the study of mathematics. The study of math, as developed after a writing system was formed, greatly influenced the architecture of the ancient Greeks. Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, along with Euclid of Alexandria, the “father of geometry”, left a remarkable influence, creating theorems and principles which altered the Greek mind, making it more focused on logic and symmetry. In an online article I found entitled “Hermes the Egyptian”, author Wim van den Dungen discusses the influence of mathematics on the architecture of the classic Greek period.

“The leap forward realized by the Greeks in their Dorian temples is evident in the linearization of the layout, as well as in the precise cardinal orientation of the edifice. However, it takes some time before these architects feel confident enough to erect slender buildings. In contrast with sculpture and painting, which are judged according to "eros" (mutual attraction) and "mimesis" (likeness), architecture is defined by abstract mathematical standards of symmetry and proportion. In the latter, the natural numbers (introduced by Pythagoras) played an essential part. Indeed, natural numbers (the set 1, 2, 3 ...) can be squared, raised to the third power, and placed in a series etc.

These symmetries introduced a play of proportion and "natural number" symbolism, which has been defined as the classical standard of beauty…. For the Greek architects, symmetry was a system of proportions, which regulated coherence, reciprocity and balance. These defined harmony. Proportions could be expressed numerically in "natural" numbers. The influence of Pythagorism on Greek architecture was therefore decisive.”

This influence of mathematics on architecture came as a result of a literate society, triggering a more precise and mathematical approach.

It is interesting to note that cities and architecture played similar roles throughout the transition to a written world, but their aesthetics changed to an emphasis in exactness, symmetry and proportion.