Foundations Unit: Point

During the foundations unit we covered three major civilizations, Egypt, Greece and Rome. Throughout the unit we observed how each of these civilizations rose from the Earth and how their cultures influenced the creation, rise and fall of each of these societies.

 

The thing that strikes me most about each of the places we studied are the parallels in design and architecture that exist throughout each civilization. All take the same basic principles and apply them to buildings and other structures that are conducive with their own culture.

There is a paralleling idea of centrality amongst each of these civilizations. The Egyptians built their pyramids in such a fashion that the corners of them, if the lines were extended, would reach the four corners of the Earth. The Greeks believed that they were literally at the center of the world and the Romans capital and heartbeat, for some time, was the city of Rome, which existed at the center of the Roman Empire.

In Egypt and Mesopotamia we see the beginnings of one of the most prominent elements of foundation, the technique of stacking. These people chose this design technique for reasons suited to their own culture, just as those who followed would do as well. The Egyptians and Mesopotamians used stacking in their structures as a way to create layers and the higher the layers went, the closer to god or the gods one would be. They also used this stacking technique to show a hierarchy. The Pharaoh, high priest, or other important figure would exist only in the highest, most central point of a structure while everyone else tiered downward. Another method the Egyptians used to show hierarchy is the size of the structures themselves. The Pharaohs used size to show power, which explains the colossal size of Egyptian structures, like the pyramids.  

In Greece, we see stacking as well but with some variations to fit the Grecian lifestyle and values. All buildings in Greece return back to the megaron structure, a simple place of worship with three sides and columns down the center. The element of stacking in this scenario is more horizontal than vertical, with the hierarchy moving from the outside of a building to the center rather than from the ground up as it did in Egypt. The Grecians developed the porch, court, and hearth system of hierarchies to mirror the stacking hierarchy techniques of Egypt. The most important part of the building existed in the hearth. This would be a statue of one of the gods or where an important person resided. The idea of the porch, court, and hearth exists in one of Greece’s most important sites, the Acropolis. The Parthenon, which houses Athena, would be considered the hearth of this structure, the most important place. The court is where you stand and move about the space after you have entered through the porch of the Propylaea. Greece also draws lines back to Egypt as they use scale as a sign of importance. The Parthenon is the most important building at the Acropolis and therefore it is the largest of all the structures. 

With the rise of the Roman Empire came a rise in values that did not exist for most of the citizens of Egypt and Greece. Rome thrived on extravagant pleasure, building large baths for its citizens. It existed on the idea of “bread and circuses.” Which basically means they showered their citizens with entertainment in hopes they would turn a blind eye to the politics and problems of Rome. The lines of the basic idea of stacking drawn through Egypt and Greece also extend well into Rome. They however, put more emphasis on horizontal expression rather than vertical, using the arch to stack their structures on the Earth’s surface, covering as much area as possible to claim as Rome’s. It was understood that the larger the scale of the buildings and the more surface area they covered, the more powerful the Roman Empire was.

This class continues to open my eyes to the lines that run into our current society from civilizations past. It is amazing that even after all of this time and all the technological feats we have overcome that the spirit of antiquity and their methods still exist in our modern day architecture.

The ideas and values of ancient civilizations still exist amongst our modern world. The Louvre in Paris, France.