Greek Columns And The Doric Order Of Greek Architecture

Columns have been used since the classical period and are still used today in many old and new buildings. Two buildings that use these columns are The Jefferson Memorial and the Supreme Court( Doc 1.). There are three different types of columns. The Doric, the Ionic, and the Corinthian. Ancient Greeks also invented other devices that have an impact on our world today. Some of these are roads, calendars, and architecture. All of these examples are things that are useful in our everyday life.

Just before you go to sleep, you image yourself taking a ride to the White House. You then notice it's beautiful columns. As you look through columns, this type of architecture is ancient Greek. There are other place to find these Greek columns. Besides architecture, other developments from ancient civilizations have an impact on our world today, such as roads and Gregorian calendar.

Both the Greeks and the Romans made a number of contributions to western culture in the field of architecture, many of which can still be seen to this very day. Architecture played a pivotal role in both the religion and daily life of ancient Greek society. The Greeks produced some of the world’s most enduring architectural monuments, many of which are still standing today. These include the Parthenon, the Temple of Zeus, and the Temple of Poseidon. Perhaps one of the largest contributions of the ancient Greeks to western civilization in regards to architecture was their development of the three fundamental architectural systems of design, the Doric, Iconic, and Corinthian orders. The following excerpt from an article

Architecture was very important then, and even now. For example,Greek architects used columns for their buildings (Doc. 1). There are three different types of columns, Doric columns have a plain top, Ionic columns have scrolls, and Corinthian columns have carved stone leaves (Doc. 1).

Parthenon, on the other hand, which is on the top of the sketch floor plan is oriented to East and West with an overall size 101 feet wide; 228 feet long, approximately 60 feet to peak of pediment with a column height 33 feet high. Another difference between the Founder’s Hall and the Parthenon is the orders of the exterior columns that are equally separated from each other. The Founder’s Hall use of orders for exteriors is the Corinthians, for which in the fact sheet #19, “The Corinthian capitals are eight and a half feet high, and were carved in four sections.” As for the Parthenon, Doric was used for the exteriors because as stated in the text, “Doric, the sturdiest, was based on the proportions of a man……originated on the mainland of Greece” , which it is true. The Parthenon is located in mainland Greece (Acropolis, Greece). The difference between a Corinthian order and the Doric order is that Doric on the top of the column has a very detail sculpture. Corinthian has a smooth surface. Additionally, Temple of Hera also use the Doric order. Furthermore, about the columns, the column diameter at base for Founder’s Hall is 6’-0” with the spacing between is 21’-6” with no corner contraction. For the Parthenon, it is 6’-3” with the spacing between 14’ with corner

The Parthenon is created as an optical illusion. It appears to consist of straight lines but in fact, almost every surface is built to lean and curved from its columns to its foundations. It gives a unique insight into the best that ancient Greek sculptors could produce at the best period of Greek art. The Parthenon is a Doric peripteral temple; it consists of a rectangular floor plan with a series of low steps, and a colonnade of Doric columns. The three main types of columns used in Greek temples and other public buildings are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. Many of the sculpture

One clear way that Greek architecture is portrayed in today’s culture is how important people are honored. Take a temple for instance. “Many of these temples were built on a large hill known as an acropolis, and it generally included

“Athens was not just the head of the Greek defense league but actually an imperial master over other Greek states” (Silverman). The temple included one of the principal orders of the classical Greek architecture, the Doric order. It means that the temple was surrounded by Doric columns. And columns are something the Greeks were known to specialize in. This temple truly is a representation of Greek architecture.

Such architecture includes Greek buildings. Greek buildings were often built to show a town or city's power and pride. Withing these Greek buildings, they contain a famous variety of Greek columns that influence us today. These columns are Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Doric style is sturdy and its capitol is plain.

There were three main column types in Ancient Greece and two that were not used as much. The oldest—and most simplistic—was the Doric column. The column itself contained twenty sides and no base. It worked very fittingly with the horizontal buildings such as the Parthenon. Secondly there was the Ionic order.

Many famous monuments and symbols today are built off of the most influential piece of Greek architecture, the column. Take the White House for example, the columns on the front of it are Ionic. There are 3 types of columns that the Athenians made famous. The Doric, which is a plain and sturdy column, the Ionic, which is simple and more elegant than the Doric; this is the column used on the White House. Finally, the Corinthian is a more elaborate and elegant column.

The Corinthian order columns are the most extravagant type of column. It was the last column to be developed by the ancient Greeks. The Greeks did not really use this type of column to its full potential, but the ancient Romans did (“Ancient Greece” 3). Some examples of monuments or building that used the Corinthian order consisted of the temple of Zeus at Athens. It was probably the most notable of the Corinthian temples (“Ancient Greece” 3).

The typical rectangular building was surrounded by a line of columns on all four sides such as the Parthenon or, less often, at the front and rear only like Temple of Athena Nike. Roofs were constructed with timber beams overlaid with terracotta tiles. Pediments were decorated with relief sculpture or friezes, as was the row of lintels between the roof and the tops of the columns. Greek architects were the first to base their architectural design on the standard of proportionality. They introduced their a set of design rules that called "Classical Orders" which was based on proportions between individual parts, such as the ratio between the width and height of a column. There were three such orders in early Greek architecture: Doric, Ionic

The temple of Hera at Olympia, built about 600 BCE, had wooden columns that were gradually replaced by stone ones, probably as votive gifts. The variety of column and capital shapes illustrates the evolution of the Doric order. The earliest columns had a heavy, bulging profile, and their capitals were broad and low. During the archaic period, limestone became the standard building material for foundations, steps, walls, columns, and Doric entablature. Building such as the famous Temple of Aphaia on Aegina illustrate the dramatic influence of the Doric order.

The ancient Romans created and borrowed fundamental types of concepts that made up buildings. The ideas that the Romans borrowed were basic ideas such as the column. A column is a vertical shaped pillar with the chief design concern of supporting a building. Most columns consist of three parts, the base, the shaft, and the capital. The shaft is usually cylindrical in shape. The Greeks had three basic types of columns, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. All three types have narrow fillets on them. These were small vertical slits that ran the length of the column. The Romans modified the column and added two types, Truscan and Composile. The columns became widely used in homes and temples in Greece and later in Rome ("Architecture").