The Pantheon is one of the great spiritual buildings of the world. The interior volume is a cylinder above which rises the hemispherical dome which diameter is 43m. The portico consists of three rows of eight columns, 14 m high of Egyptian granite with Corinthian capitals, they support an entablature facing the square. On the top of dome, there is a skylight oculus of 8.9m in diameter; thus make us think something about religion. Did ancient Roman want to get light or sacred water from the heaven? In fact, the Pantheon was originally dedicated as a temple to all gods, not like Parthenon was built on the top of Acropolis, but in the city for people to worship.
Part two: research about Malaysia’s classical building
Now I am going to take an example to analyze Ancient European architectural style’s influences to modern building. There is a building which called WISMA MCIS ZURICH in PJ, actually, that is an office building of an insurance company. This building consists of three parts: main body, attachment and channel.
Almost every architect would like to adopt a kind of architectural style to approach to his work, to show their opinion and understanding to the building and the environment which the building located in. From the first glance, this building gives me a kind of strong feeling of simplicity and grandeur; especially the main body part makes me think something about Parthenon’s architectural style: rectangular plane, vertical line and adoption of typical Greek column; the attachment part is also a rectangular plane but the height is lower than main body part. Between the two parts, there is a channel to link them together; therefore, it is really derived from ancient Greek style.
From the facade view, the main body part and attachment part especially use the rectangular structure and column to support this building. Rectangular structure gives people a kind of feeling of simplicity and grandeur, in my opinion, this mood is very fit for office building and public building. The column style is Corinthian style, in fact , the two parts were divided into two story. For upper story , the columns stand outside the wall to support the roof; the substory , columns were inserted into the wall to support much pressure and also make a solid base for upper story. According to my research, I find the substory’s column was design into cubical style. For this idea, I think it is developed from traditional column, mainly, the architect wants to emphasis the function not decoration. The roof is quite different with ancient Greek style, between the wall and roof, there is no pediment structure, actually, the form of roof also a rectangle which perimeter is getting bigger and bigger from bottom to top, that is also a kind of simple decorative style.
Between main body part and attachment part, there is a channel section to link the two parts. From the façade view, six Corinthian columns which support a bean stand outside of the wall and supplies a kind of decorative style. The channel part supplies a good function to make the two parts communicate well. When we go into the lobby, we can find it consist two parts: outer space and interior space. Outer space is much more open than interior space, and divided into several section by cubical column which surrounded by green plant and use marble as ground material which supplied a good environment. This office building is located in commercial area, just as I mentioned above that is a public building, based on modern architectural theory, for this kind of building, the architect should pay much attention on function and the use of materials, and emphasis the unity with the surrounding. The complex structure and decoration will damage the unity with the surrounding; therefore, those factors should be basic and primary guiding principle for architect’s design to this building.
In a conclusion, ancient Greek, Roman and other architectural styles really supplied a series of useful sources for our today’s architecture design, we should not ignore its importance for our design activity. At the same time, as an architect should pay much attention on the evolution of ancient architectural style and the origin of modern architectural theory to create new building styles.
Bibliography:
History of Western Architecture
Architecture: Form, Space and Order
Mies Van Derole at Work
