Overview
Three thousand years ago the Greeks built monuments that have come to epitomize Western culture, such as the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena. In this book, a renowned architectural historian reexamines buildings and sites of Greek classical antiquity, not as expressions of pedantic, archaic rules, but as truly innovative paradigms - and shows how they gave rise to modern architecture.Classical Greek Architecture features fascinating archival photographs, site maps, and architectural plans. It discusses not only the technology but also the myths, rituals, social structures, and political conflicts that left their mark in the ultimate design of a given building. With chapters covering a range of topics from the status of Greek architecture today and the uses of the various types of buildings to the influences of African and Asian cultures on the Greeks, this is a thorough, scholarly, yet accessible work of reference.
Synopsis
Tzonis (architectural theory, U. of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands) and Giannisi (architecture, U. of Thessaly, Volos, Greece) have written a deeply theoretical study of the forms, structure, development, and ultimate symbolism of classical Greek architecture. The chapters are more thematic than chronologic, considering spatial arrangement, the canon of forms, and ritual use, among other topics. The volume, which is oversized at 9.75x12.5", is beautifully illustrated with vintage b&w photos of many temples and architectural details, many in full-page plates, as well as many equally fine ground plans, though the buildings are not described formally as much as philosophically. Distributed in the US by Rizzoli. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR