Classical Greek Architecture: The Construction Of The Modern

A leading architectural historian examines the roots of modern architecture in the buildings, sites, and architectural details of ancient Greece, providing a close-up look at the technology, rituals, social structures, political conflicts, and myths of antiquity and assessing how they influenced the design of Greek architecture. 25,000 first printing.

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.