Greek Temple Roof Design
The narrowing of the corner intercolumniation was done to follow the rule that in doric style architecture the.
Greek temple roof design. Modern cornice moldings used in houses are borrowed from the cornices used in greek temples. From then until 700 b c greek construction was more modest consisting mostly of houses and a few temples and city walls. A number of surviving temple like structures are circular and are referred to as tholos ancient greek. The list of ancient roofs comprises roof constructions from greek and roman architecture ordered by clear span.
With its 6 13 columns or 5 12 intercolumniations this temple was designed entirely rationally. Most buildings in classical greece were covered by traditional prop and lintel constructions which often needed to include interior colonnades. In many areas the standard material for walls was mud brick made by mixing clay with water and straw pressing the mixture into rectangular wooden forms and letting it dry. Also different architectural styles will use the same type of roof.
Ancient greek buildings of timber clay and plaster construction were probably roofed with thatch. Over some 50 years the periclean building program produced not only the large temple to athena parthenos athena the virgin in greek but the propylaea the gateway to the acropolis as. The smallest temples are less than 25 m. Most ancient greek temples were rectangular and were approximately twice as long as they were wide with some notable exceptions such as the enormous temple of olympian zeus athens with a length of nearly 2 1 2 times its width.
The classic modern single spire design heralded an era where the temples square off the roof and return to a single spire design. Its column bays axis to axis measured 16 feet 4 9 m a triglyph metope 8 feet 2 4 m a mutulus plus the adjacent space via 4 feet 1 2 m the tile width of the marble roof was 2 feet 0 61 m. These early roof tiles showed an s shape with the pan and cover tile forming one piece. Conservatism in religious architecture.
These temples tend to be larger with the smallest temple at 45 800 sq ft 4 250 m 2 and the largest at 104 000 sq ft 9 700 m 2 compared to the earlier six spire designs with the smallest at 9 600 sq ft 890 m. Since the parthenon was of the doric order i have highlighted two decorations distinct to the doric trigplyphs and metopes. Intricate roofs have many parts that incorporate several of the basic roof designs such as a gable roof sitting atop a gambrel or variations of the gable valley roof design using one or a variety of different types of roof trusses also see our very detailed diagrams showing the different parts of a roof truss. On the top and at the corners are statues on the roof known as acroteria.
Their potential was fully realized in the roman period which saw over 30 m wide trussed roofs sp. The optical adjustments made to the parthenon were not unique but represented the culmination of many generations of architects efforts to establish a standard code or canon traditionally required for the design of greek temples. Greek builders used materials found locally.