Raumordnung im griechischen Stadtebau / K.A.

DOXIADIS - Heidelberg: Kurt

Vowinckel Verlag, 1937. Architectural Space in Ancient Greece / C.A. DOXIADIS Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972.

Books

Presented by Panayotis Tournikiotis

Architectural Space in
Ancient Greece
1. Introduction

Fig. 1. Delphi, Terrace

of Apollo, View from
point B, 1968.

In his first book, Doxiaxis' view of the architectural and

urban past of ancient Greece approximates to the urban
thinking of the great moderns of the inter-War period. The
encounter revolved around the prospect of formulating the
principles of contemporary urbanism as applied in theory
and practice, and as they were projected onto the city of
the future. Initially published in Germany in 1937, Doxiadis'
doctoral thesis was translated into English thirty-five years
later to mark the symbolic culmination of his long way of
research relating 'the ancient Greek city and the city of the
present'. This was also the title of a seminal article of 1964
and the basis of a major series of studies of Ancient Greek
Cities, prepared, under his guidance, in the late 1960s and
early '70s by the Athens Centre of Ekistics.

Fig. 2. Miletus,
Delphineion. View
from the west, circa
1914.

Fig. 3. Aegina, Sacred

Precinct of Aphaia.
Point from point A,
1968.

Fig. 4. Athens,
Acropolis. View from
point A, 1968.

2. The starting-point was the present

Fig. 5. Cos, Asclepeion, Plan.

Architectural Space in Ancient Greece is a book full of plans,

photographs and perspective drawings of ancient Greek
cities - dating from the seventh to the first century BC - on
which the commentary is a comparatively sparse text.
Although,
Doxiadis
was
closely
associated
with
archaeologists when he was writing the thesis in Berlin, it is
neither an archaeological treatise nor a history book. Its
author's interests were wholly contemporary, focusing on
the seach for principles by which space, in its entirety,
could be regulated by means of comparative and
experimental testing of hypotheses for which no real
documentation was available. His starting point was the
problematic present, for the treatment of which the ancient
Greek city was called upon to provide the means. The line
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Fig. 6. Cos, Asclepeion. Perspective of

upper terrace from entrance. (Herzog.)

Fig. 7. Cos, Asclepeion, Hellenistic

period. Perspective from Northeast.
(Herzog.)

of argument is perfectly clear, and is stated at the

beginning of the foreword to the thesis: over the past three
decades (that is, the three first decades of the twentieth
century), a radical change had come about in the conditions
prevailing in cities during the previous three millennia. To
Doxiadis' mind, there were two reasons for this: the new
building materials which had radically altered the scale and
form of buildings, and the mechanization of travel, which
had radically altered the scale and form of cities. These two
issues - new materials and the new construction methods
that followed from them, and the predominance of the
machine - also happened to be arguments of central
importance for modern architecture, and to form the
foundations on which the theoretical principles of modern
urbanism were stated. Those principles were formulated at
the 4th CIAM, a Congress which reached its climax in
Athens in 1933, on the premises of the School of
Architecture when Doxiadis was still a student there, and
provided Le Corbusier with the platform for his Charter of
Athens. The 4th CIAM concept of the contemporary
functional city never faded from Doxiadis' mind. Indeed, we
could hypothesize that it lay behind his obvious interest in
the organisation of the ideal ancient Greek city, an interest
which led him, immediately afterwards, to the subject of his
doctoral thesis.
3. The aesthetics of the city is connected with motion

Fig. 8. Priene, Agora. Plan

Fig. 9. Priene, Temple of Athena.

Perspective, from the agora.

The change in the conditions of construction and travel

(which Doxiadis often appeared to associate less with the
optimistic resolution of problems than with their pessimistic
accumulation) directed him towards a search for, on the
one hand, human scale and, on the other, the secret behind
the way in which the ancient Greeks had organized space
so as to both gratify human beings and uplift their souls.
Using comparative typologies and mathematics - both
highly topical at the time in any attempt to interpret good
architectural solutions - he studied the sanctuaries and
markets of cities in order to discover the principles of a
system for arranging buildings in space based on the
principles of human knowledge. Doxiadis was convinced
that such a system existed and, furthermore, that it was a
general theory of organizing space, a theory of urbanism
whose rules were of direct significance for the present since
"the ancient Greeks designed not isolated objects, as we
see being done today, but the parts of a dynamic urban
environment" (Architectural Space in Ancient Greece, p.4).
He went further in explaining his views, saying that as
entities the ancient Greek cities were subject to the
conditions of development and change current at the time,
and were not designed to comply with the aesthetic views
of an isolated individual about an ideal city which bore no
relation to its actual place and time. Indirectly, this was a
criticism of some of the more messianic approaches of
Modernism, and particularly of Le Corbusier (the ville
contemporaine). For Doxiadis, the decisive factor in
planning was the human viewpoint: more specifically, the
angle of vision of a human being walking through a city and
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angle of vision of a human being walking through a city and

sensing or perceiving it through the sequence of the
organized revelation of its urban entities - of a person
turning a street corner, passing through a gateway, or
entering a square: the key points on the progression. The
aesthetics of the city is not a static matter, but connected
with motion.
4. The perceptive power of the eye
Doxiadis' studies of the plans of the ancient Greek cities are
generally well enough known, and that of the Acropolis of
Athens is particularly familiar. We are not concerned here
with the archaeological or architectural precision of that
study. We are interested, rather, in seeing it as part of a
wider and absolutely contemporary approach which,
allusively, contrasts itself to the thinking of Le Corbusier,
redefining the artistic terms of the urbanism of someone
like Camillo Sitte - the man, indeed, whom Le Corbusier
had mockingly accused of having got no further than the
road of the donkeys. Doxiadis, however, was opposed to
the mechanical road, to the motor road, and persevered
with the perceptive power of the eye of a human being
moving across the ground no faster than his two feet could
carry him. Let's have a closer view to three of his typical
examples: the Acropolis at Athens, the Classical and
Hellenistic Altis at Olympia, and the Agora and the Temple
at Magnesia.
5. The Acropolis at Athens, 530-437 B.C.

Fig. 10. Athens, Acropolis III, after 450

B.C. Plan.

Fig. 11. Athens, Acropolis III, after 450

B.C. Perspective from point A.

The organization of the architectural space of the Athens

Acropolis spread over three phases, beginning with the era
of Pisistratus and his successors, when the general layout is
already recognizable, and culminating in its golden age,
during which the Acropolis was undoubtedly designed as a
unity by Pericles and his advisers. A mathematical analysis
of the site shows a conformity of relationships between
angles of vision and distances between buildings. The
viewpoint from which these measurements are taken is
situated within the main entrance: the western Propylaea.
Arcs of a circle are described from this point A to corners of
the buildings. During the phase II (480-447 B.C.) the entire
architectural space is divided into six identical angles, each
of 30, and this division, with the equilateral triangle that is
derived from it, forms the organizing principle of the layout.
During phase III (447-437 B.C.) the location of the various
buildings is determined by a division of the space into six or
twelve parts, or by the angles and sides of an equilateral
triangle derived from this division of space. In certain
instances, angles of 36 (180/5), 18 (180/10), and 12
(180/15) seem to play an important role. During this
phase the field of vision from point A is enclosed on all sides
except along the eastern axis. The buildings form two
groups, the left group having an opening out into the
landscape, which is closed in the distance by the Lycabettos
Hill. This layout has many close similarities with that of
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phase II. Most important, the open view to the east was
retained in all three periods, although its relation to the
entrance point differed in each layout. The system was
total: voids as well as masses had their form, since
together they constituted an architectural space entirely
rational and immediately comprehended from the entrance.
6. The Classical and Hellenistic Altis at Olympia, Fifth
and Fourth Centuries B.C.

Fig. 12. Olympia, Altis, Hellenistic

period. Plan.

The large enclosure, or Altis, at Olympia was one of the

earliest Greek sanctuaries. The principles on which the
layout of the site was organized, the boundaries and
especially the entrances to the Altis remained unchanged
during the Classical and Hellenistic periods, Fifth and Fourth
centuries B.C. There were four entrances. The field of vision
from each of these points consists of a central opening
bounded on either side by a continuous series of structures.
The position, orientation, and distance of the buildings from
each point are determined on the basis of the 30 angle.
Throughout, one can sense the desire to connect the
outlines of the different structures with one another and
with the lines of the landscape, to form a continuous unity,
and within this unity to emphasize one opening: one clear
and unobstructed path leading out into the landscape.
Figures show how the mass of the temple of Zeus is
balanced symmetrically by the Hill of Kronos, and the
Metroon by the Heraion. Both are symmetrically placed on
either side of the axis leading to the small Hill of Gaia,
which rises only slightly higher than the Heraion and the
Metroon. The axial symmetry is clearly strengthened by the
two balancing groves of trees, one within the Pelopion to
the left, and the other in the Hippodamion to the right. It
seems clear that a principal aim of this symmetrically
organized layout, in which the landscape is incorporated,
was to maintain the importance of the central axial
opening. This marks the processional route of the people
through the sacred precint from the entrance. Also, from
this entrance the peak of the Hill of Kronos lies directly to
the north. Thus, one of the cardinal compass points is made
an integral part of the composition.
7. The Agora and the Temple of Zeus at Magnesia,
Second Century B.C.

Fig. 16. Magnesia, Agora. Plan.

The building of the small temple of Zeus in the Second

century B.C. had an important influence on the layout of
the agora of Magnesia. There are three entrances to this
site. Points A and B are placed in the center of the two
entrances east and west of the southern stoa. Point C is
placed at the access through the southern stoa. From point
A the spectator has an entirely enclosed field of vision in
which he perceives each structure in succession, each as a
complete entity. From left to right he sees, without any
gaps between them, the propylaeon of the sacred precint of
Artemis, the altar of Zeus, and the temple of Zeus with the
lower structure containing stone benches in front of it. The
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position of the temple of Zeus must have been calculated to

conceal the larger temple of Artemis, outside the agora,
and thus to prevent competition (in the eyes of the
observer) of two equally large volumes. The position of the
southwest structure seems determined by a desire to
interrupt the direct view of the Zeus temple, which would
otherwise be very dominant, and lead the eye to the path
to the altar and, beyond it, to the propylaeon of the sacred
precint of Artemis. Altough the space is entirely enclosed,
the route to this propylaeon is kept entirely clear from each
vantage point, with the other structures in the agora ranged
on each side of it.

Fig. 17. Magnesia,

Agora. Perspective
from point A.

Fig. 18. Magnesia,

Agora. Perspective
from point B.

Fig. 19. Magnesia,

Agora. Perspective
from point C.

8. The revolving camera

The foundations of Doxiadis' thought are only faintly
discernible from the pages of his thesis. He can be assumed
to have been aware of the geometrical interpretations of
the visual organization of the Acropolis as stated by
Auguste Choisy, which were taught in Athens, but what is of
particular interest in his case is the fact that he articulates
the organization of space in the city around the revolving
eye of a moving person, which resembles a revolving
camera located at different points in the space and
describing full circles of 360 with ten or twelve present
stops in each instance. "Radii from the vantage point -[the
first and most important position from which the whole site
could be observed]- determined the position of three
corners of each important building, so that a three-quarter
view of each was visible. The radii that determined the
corners of the important buildings formed certain specific
angles from the viewpoint, equal in size on each site. These
fell into two categories: angles of 30, 60, 90, 120, and
150, corresponding to a division of the total field of 360
into twelve parts; and angles of 36, 72, 108, and 144,
which resulted from division of the total field of vision into
ten parts" (Architectural Space in Ancient Greece, p.5). The
succession of these points, as a sequence of angles of
vision during the continuous movement of the human being
in space, converges on the rationale of the cinematic way of
seeing and organizing the same space. It is indeed no
coincidence that, at about the same period, Sergei
Eisenstein was also addressing himself to the same sources
- Choisy and the Acropolis - in order to construct an
aesthetic theory of cinema montage, with direct references
to human movement and the revolving angle of vision in
architectural and urban space.
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9. A projective investigation: the critical past and the

city of future

Fig. 20. Priene, General plan.

Thirty years after the original publication of this book the

modern city had changed radically, and contemporary
urbanism had moved from conquest to a position in which it
was subjected to a first wave of harsh criticism. In
international thinking, even so, the two large capitals Brasilia and Chandigarh - had prevailed as original and ideal
applications of the principles of modernism. Reviewing the
arguments of Architectural Space in 1964, in his article 'The
Ancient Greek City and the City of the Present', Doxiadis,
on the one hand, presaged the harsh urban questioning of
the 'Moderns' by the 'post-moderns' (which would take its
final form ten to fifteen years later) and, on the other,
prefigured the rationale of the global village. However selfevident or at any rate inevitable that rationale may seem to
us today, then, with the development of the media of
communication in an embryonic state, it was still primarily
a critique of the metropolitan urbanism of modernism. The
conclusion is documented by means of comparative and
typological analysis, on the same scale, of the fabric of
cities selected from all the periods of history, with Brasilia
and Chandigarh as the culminating examples. Emphasis is
placed on the correct - that is, human - scale of the city,
whose centre can be reached on foot from its periphery in
ten minutes, which has streets, squares, blocks and a
central public space analogous to the ancient agora. Ancient
Athens was without doubt Doxiadis' starting point, but
Priene played an almost equivalent part in his comparative
approach, serving as a model for the contemporary urban
situation. Of course, Doxiadis was unable to ignore the
motor car and rapid travel, but he dealt with it by proposing
that human movement be split between that taking place
on foot and that involving vehicles. Comparing ancient
Priene with the contemporary megalopolis, he put forward
the idea of an articulated and perpetually evolving city, one
which would overcome all the defects of modern urbanism.
In other words, his proposal was for a network of small
cities, on the scale of Priene and in accordance with its
rationale, to be located in the interstices of a network for
the circulation of mechanical media - that is, motor
vehicles. Islamabad is the ideal example of the model:
small communities of the Priene type, with populations of
1,000 families or 5,000 people, juxtaposed as the members
of a potentially global network, each of whose units is in the
simultaneous service of the part and the whole.
10. Conclusion
"We cannot build new cities under the influence only of the
model of the ancient Greek city, since in that way we will
never solve the problems of the modern era. However, we
have to create cities which consist of elements based on the
human scale. The modern city should be a synthesis of the
human scale and the mechanical scale. Only in this way will
we be serving humankind while at the same time improving
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the performance of the machine, exhausting its potential.

When man succeeds in mastering these large dimensions,
the whole world will be one city. When space satellites allow
him to survey the entire globe and television enables him to
hear the news from every corner of the world, the
mechanical dimensions of the city will shrink to those of an
ancient Greek city. Man will live not only in a small human
community and dominate it by human dimensions, he will
also live in a world-wide community, which he will dominate
by means of the mechanical dimensions which he has
created. In the interests of man, we should return to our
ancient heritage and see how the ancient Greek city can be
of special help to us." ("The Ancient Greek City and the City
of the Present," pp.363-364).