Content Summary: Growth of Greek Cities
1) Athens & the Panathenaic Way
The Panathenaic Way was both a sacred route (Eleusis → Dipylon Gate → Agora →
Acropolis/Propylaea → Athena) and Athens’ main street.
It acted as the spine of city life—linking mercantile, industrial, and political activities.
Key buildings (e.g., Parthenon, Hephaisteion) must be read in relation to this
processional sequence.
2) “Shaft of Space” & Urban Form
Placing the Hephaisteion partway up a ridge created a strong directional “shaft of
space”—an invisible spatial force that organizes surrounding buildings and
movement.
Architecture can project energy into space (like Klee’s point→line→plane→volume
analogy), shaping how people move, see, and feel the city.
3) Athens’ Agora Through Time
c. 500 BCE: Agora is amorphous; Panathenaic Way cuts diagonally; early civic
buildings sit along the base of the ridge.
c. 420 BCE: The Hephaisteion’s “shaft” begins to order space; additions like the new
Bouleuterion, Tholos, Stoa of Zeus, and steps set bases and counterforces; South Stoa
faces the procession, marking movement.
Hellenistic period: Edges get clearer (Middle Stoa, Stoa of Attalos), creating a
contained civic square with rich light–shadow rhythms.
2nd c. CE: Space becomes cluttered (Temple of Ares, many fountains/statues); the
Odeion’s heavy mass disrupts earlier scale and relationships. Later the agora
deteriorates (destroyed 267 CE), but its form-idea remains powerful.
4) Architecture That “Interlocks”
Greek buildings “reach across space” to one another through shared rhythms and
alignments, producing tension and coherence.
Warning for today: isolated, “bland” curtain-wall buildings don’t interact; cities need
design policies that cultivate spatial dialogue across streets and movement systems.
5) Miletus & the Hippodamian Grid
Miletus shows how a regular grid (residential blocks) sets a rhythmic base for
composing public spaces (agoras, stoas, temples, harbors).
Three layered periods:
o Greek (4th c. BCE): minimal construction to bind space without enclosing it.
o Hellenistic (2nd c. BCE): more symmetry and formal civic spaces; projecting
forms define but don’t close.
o Roman (2nd c. CE): enclosing colonnades, dividing space into formal
rectangular units—reflecting a ritual-segmented urban philosophy.
6) Delos: Free Yet Ordered Composition
Many internally ordered forms relate freely to terrain and to each other.
The heart (agoras/temples) grips the bay; routes climb to theater and terraces; distant
elements relate in the mind’s eye across open countryside.
All forms use simple geometry; man-made and natural remain distinct yet harmonized
by placement.
7) Priene vs. Camiros (One Designer vs. Many)
Priene: A city with a single, strong design idea—central spine rising from west gate to
agora, with Temple of Athena and north stoa anchoring civic life; multi-level routes
link temple, theater, and streets. Result: total harmony from city scale to detail.
Camiros: Grows over time through many designers; complex angular relationships
between rectangular parts; main street shifts direction to produce changing views;
later a long stoa crowns the hill, linking city to countryside.
8) Six Methods of City Design Growth
1. Growth by Accretion – Space as Connector: New buildings placed to create angled
spaces that bind parts together (Greek method).
2. Axes as Connectors (Roman): Interlocking axes (e.g., successive fora) unify very
formal designs into a dynamic whole.
3. Mass as Connector (Late Roman/Hadrianic): Curved masses (exedras, rotundas)
provide sub-axes to knit many-angled compositions.
4. Growth by Accretion – Interlocking Spaces: Overlapping rectangular plazas generate
a single intensive space (e.g., Todi), often reinforced by vertical markers (towers).
5. Growth by Tension (Early Baroque Rome): Lines of force between landmarks guide
urban interventions—the line itself becomes the cohesive element.
6. Growth by Extension (Paris/Champs-Élysées): A line of propulsion pushes outward
from the city into the region, spawning a network capable of indefinite extension.
Key Takeaways
Greek urbanism uses processions, alignments, stoas, and temples to shape human
movement and shared experience.
Spatial forces (axes, “shafts of space,” rhythms) are designed, not accidental.
Healthy cities depend on interaction across buildings and spaces—not isolated
objects.
Different eras (Greek, Hellenistic, Roman) show distinct philosophies of space: from
open, interactive fields to formal, enclosed courts.
The methods of growth offer a toolkit for modern urban design: connect by space,
axis, or mass; grow by accretion, tension, or extension.
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