Monumentality and its shadows : a quest for modern Greek architectural discourse in nineteenth-century Athens (1834-1862)

The dissertation traces the sources of modern Greek architectural discourse in the first period of the modern Greek State following Independence and under the monarchy of Bavarian King Othon I (1834-1862). Its intent is to provide an informed account, first, of the intellectual and ideological dynamic wherein the profession of the modern architect developed in Greece in contradistinction to that of the empirical masterbuilder; and second, of the cognitive realm whereby modern Greeks formed their architectural perception relative to the emerging phenomenon of the westernized city. The dissertation offers a methodical survey of Greek sources of organized discourse on architecture authored mainly by non-architect scholars at the time. The focus of the writings is Athens, the reborn city-capital in which westernization manifested its effects most prominently. Monumentality, a concept with implications of cosmological unity and sharing in the same communicative framework, serves as a working conceptual tool which fa cilitates the identification, categorization, and analysis of different models of thought in reference to key architectural ideas (e.g., beauty, imitation, dignity). Special heed is paid to the writers' attitude relative to the country's monuments, both old and new, which were now considered the principal activators of ethnic unity, cultural assimilation, and national identification for diverse urban populations under the call for a return to the country's "Golden Age." The texts reveal that the urge for nation-building under the aegis of a centralized authority provided but little room for the development of disinterested discourse on architecture as opposed to instructive discourse which often followed the path of prescriptive or ideological reasoning. Bipolarity, moralism, reliance on precedent, and impermeability of boundaries were some of the characteristics of this reasoning. Architecture, in particular, was subjected to an ideologically-based dichotomy of classicism and romanticism which in theory obstructed any fruitful amalgamation of the two intellectual paradigms and which, in effect, displaced any organic/ evolutionist patterns of thought. The dissertation presents the discourse of the Greek philologist-archaeologists as the most influential in the shaping of the theoretical foundations of architecture as a new discipline, in the universalization of neoclassicism as the official style, and in the promotion of monumentality as the preferred rhetorical strategy toward the reacquisition of the country's ancient glory. The written and visual texts of the philologist- archaeologist Stephanos A. Koumanoudis (1818-1899) are set forth as telling witnesses of the relevance of this discourse to architecture, as well as of the positive and negative aspects of such a conjunction. The dissertation finally argues that organic practices of space use and manipulation with roots in the vernacular tradition persisted through the new era and informed people's response to building problems in the new city, yet now coupled with the rational categories of modernity as introduced by the aforementioned discourses.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Fatsea, Irene D

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stanford Anderson .

• Architecture.
• Athens (Greece) -- Civilization.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/65991

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/65991