Greek Buildings Research Articles

Bell Towers, Bell Gables, and Bellcotes in Late Medieval Cyprus

Abstract This study investigates bell-bearing structures and their historical context in Cyprus. The aim is to shed light on when and in which ways bells were introduced into Greek religious practice on the island, taking into account that they are often a sign of cultural exchange between Latins and Greeks in other areas of the Mediterranean. This shall be achieved through a focus on the material evidence preserved from mainly Greek buildings from ca. 1200-1571, compared with buildings of other rites on the island and complemented by manifold textual evidence predominantly from the Latin sphere. It is shown how bells and the traditional Greek semantron were used in parallel from at least the thirteenth century on, first enriching urban soundscapes of cities like Famagusta and furthermore enabling a more diversified call to liturgies and other events mainly in monastic environments.

The possibility and necessity of reconstructing ancient Greek buildings to study the depicted architecture in Greek vase painting of the Archaic era.

This paper examines the problem of depicting and interpreting architectural structures on the two-dimensional surface of vases in the archaic era. And accordingly, during the period of formation of the necessary iconographies and methods of interaction between the depicted space and plane. The purpose of this study is to study the architecture depicted in vase paintings during the Archaic period. As part of such research, there is a need to analyze the remaining relief or structural parts of ancient architecture, scan them and create at least approximate virtual models. What becomes possible with the development of the latest information technologies. This will help a deeper study of the origins of the architectural fantasies of ancient Greek vase painters. In the meantime, within the framework of the initial stages of such a study, examples have been selected for comparisons of individual elements of architectural buildings and types in general. Some origins and share of the vase painter’s fantasies are determined. This study proves that the depicted architecture can play many functions, solve a large number of problems in vase painting scenes; often, masters use it as a kind of language to convey important non-verbal, semantic points.

Protection of building heritage: Case study of Greek buildings in Dimitrovgrad

During 2020, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Nis conducted extensive research in the part of the municipality of Dimitrovgrad in order to record buildings, sites or entities with monumental properties. On that occasion, among other things, a larger number of city villas was recorded. The paper presents three selected representative examples of this type of house. An architectural analysis of each of the observed buildings is presented, as well as ortho-photo attachments. The entire procedure of documenting the building is listed and explained, from field drawings, through the elaboration of documentation to the development of 3d models. One of the goals of the entire research procedure, in addition to preparing documentation for further legal protection of buildings, was to educate students in the field of protection of architectural heritage, on specific tasks.

New Approaches to Ancient Greek Architecture

The goal of this paper is to explore some of the modern approaches to ancient architecture, by studying first technical devices used in it. Second, one can detect different conceptions of architecture that have led to apparently similar constructions but in which the intervention of architects with very different skills can be discerned. Not many scholars ventured to study the building processes and the proportions of ancient Greek buildings. Among others, it is fair to mention J. Bousquet, J.-J. Coulton, L. Haselberger. Planning and building are two logical steps that seem to follow one another naturally but the reality is more complex: observing the hesitations of ancient builders that have left their marks in some of their buildings and new discoveries about the graphic processes they made use of, may lead to reconsidering to some extent our knowledge of ancient Greek architecture. The study of Greek architecture leads first to consider the techniques used by the ancients. We realize that these were particularly rudimentary, but the quality of the work led to almost perfect results, despite the rigor of the materials. In the same way, the study of plans and proportions allows to define a whole arc of processes. Some buildings are the result of a simplistic construction in which only elementary rules of construction and decoration were applied. Other buildings, on the contrary, were built according to a pre-established plan whose analysis reveals the presence of elaborate geometric proportions. The implementation of the latter is obviously a feat that is only found in a few exceptional buildings.

Application of Solar Organic Rankine System for Energy Generation in Buildings: the Case of Athens

This paper describes the performance of an ORC system driven by solar energy and R134a as working fluid. The system is predicted along the twelve months of the year. The operation of the system and the related thermodynamics are simulated by suitable computer codes and the required local climate data are determined by statistical processing over a considerable number of years. It’s found that the solar to electricity efficiency of this SORC system varies from 0.049 to 0.058 while the ambient temperature varies from 11.3oC to 29.2oC and the total solar irradiance varies from 443 W/m2 to 679 W/m2. The system’s arrangement comprises a solar thermal array which is coupled with an organic Rankine engine. The mean annual overall efficiency of the SORC system is estimated at 0.055 while the thermodynamic efficiency of Rankine is calculated at 0.107. The obvious advantage of this arrangement is that electricity can be produced in buildings by using the existing common solar thermals installed. Easy–to–find machinery is employed in order to attain a simple and practical small–scale organic Rankine cycle arrangement coupled with common solar thermals used widely in Greek buildings for DHW production and space heating assistance.

Transformation of the Nemanichi’s ideology in the monuments of the Milutin era (1282–1321) in the conquered Macedonian territories

This article is devoted to the problem of the influence of ideological attitudes on the iconographic programs of the medieval Macedonian monuments at the end of the 13th – the first quarter of the 14th century. This period is associated with the reign of the Serbian king Milutin (1282–1321), who conquered a number of Macedonian territories from Byzantium and married the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282–1328). Close kinship with the imperial family and Milutin’s active policy towards Byzantium become the key factors for the reorientation of Serbian ideology from a national platform to an imperial one.This article is devoted to the problem of the influence of ideological attitudes on the iconographic programs of the medieval Macedonian monuments at the end of the 13th – the first quarter of the 14th century. This period is associated with the reign of the Serbian king Milutin (1282–1321), who conquered a number of Macedonian territories from Byzantium and married the daughter of the Byzantine emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus (1282–1328). Close kinship with the imperial family and Milutin’s active policy towards Byzantium become the key factors for the reorientation of Serbian ideology from a national platform to an imperial one.The process of «byzantinization» affects all the areas of the life of the Serbian kingdom, including art. Establishing his presence in Macedonia, Milutin, with the help of the Greek masters, actively builds and restores churches, rebuilds the Greek buildings and invites the Greek artists, Michael and Eutychios, belonging to the progressive artistic movement to paint churches. Thus, the architectural and pictorial ensembles of this time arise within the framework of the Byzantine artistic tradition and correspond to the main currents of the Byzantine art. Fresco paintings are created in accordance with the stylistic principles of the advanced trends of the Paleologian Renaissance and are replete with fresh iconographic solutions, new semantic accents and compositions. Good preservation of the most of Milutin’s monuments ensured close attention of the researchers. However, with a thorough study of the Byzantine traditions in the Serbian cultural paradigm, the fact of embedding national specifics into the Byzantine imperial theme remained unnoticed, as evidenced by a number of the iconographic features of the monumental paintings considered in this article.Keywords: imperial theme, iconography, medieval fresco painting, national specifics, Milutin, ideology of Nemanichi, Macedonia, Serbian Kingdom, art, cultural studies, cultura of Medieval Ages.

Which is the optimum option for parking in the city centre?

Most contemporary Greek cities face the lack of adequate public space. This lack has a direct effect on parking space issues, turning cities’ open spaces into congested ones with parked cars. Although, according to Greek buildings’ regulations parking space must be provided within the building itself, especially in the county of Attica, where Athens, the capital, is located, the Law offers the possibility of exemption from this obligation in small building lots. Thus, in many cases, for small apartment buildings no parking space is provided within the building, forcing drivers to resort to either off-street parking or parking lots. Offstreet parking may cause more traffic jams, noise and loss of time, among other negative effects, while parking lots have turned into environmental catastrophes in many cases (Soup, 2017; Davis et al, 2010). On the other hand, the construction of a basement parking space is linked with high initial costs, while parking spaces on other floors deprive vital area from living spaces, let alone the embodied energy of constructing these spaces. In this paper Life Cycle Analysis and Multicriteria Analysis is made so as to compare which the most sustainable option is; the creation of underground and ground floor level parking spaces within a small apartment building, off-street parking or the creation of a parking lot to host these vehicles. The environmental, social and economic effects of these three cases are analysed, taking into consideration both their constructional and operational effects. A comparison is made between these three options, with criteria for environmental protection, social equity and economic growth, the three pillars of sustainability, selected from relevant indicators of sustainable development. Hierarchy of the three examined options (off-street, in a parking lot or within the building parking) is made with Multicriteria Analysis. Through this research conclusions are drawn on the policy that cities should follow, so as to face in the most sustainable way the demand for parking space and whether legislation should change in regards to the provision of parking spaces within small building lots.

Financial and Energetic Optimization of Greek Buildings Insulation

The most important parameter in the design of the building envelope is the insulation thickness, because it dramatically influences the heating and cooling loads. The objective of this study is the investigation of different insulation scenarios for the four climate zones of Greece and, more specifically, the cities Heraklion, Athens, Thessaloniki, and Florina. The insulation thickness is examined up to 8 cm and the optimum thickness is determined by the minimization of the simple payback period in order to design a cost-effective system. Moreover, the primary energy consumption, the heating/cooling loads, and the equivalent CO2 emissions are calculated. Furthermore, a multi-objective evaluation procedure of the various insulated scenarios is conducted in order to show the relationship between the energetic and the financial optimization. Generally, it is found that the optimum insulation thickness is around 4 cm for all the climate zones using financial criteria, while the energy criteria indicate higher thicknesses. These results can be applied to the suitable design of Greek residential buildings.

Parametric analysis and multi-objective optimization of a solar heating system for various building envelopes

The objective of the present work is to investigate energetically and financially a solar assisted heating system for various building envelopes in the climate conditions of Greece. The examined solar heating system includes flat plate collectors, storage tank, boiler and heating devices. The analysis is conducted for the locations of Athens and Thessaloniki which are the most populated cities in Greece. The total analysis is conducted with the TEE-KENAK software which is the official software of Greece for energy audit studies. Different insulation thicknesses are examined (from 0 cm up to 8 cm) and three different glazing scenarios are also investigated. The collecting area is studies from 0 m2 up to 30 m2 for all the building scenarios. The results are evaluated energetically and financially. The optimum design scenarios are determined using the net present cost criterion, as well as through a multi-objective optimization/evaluation procedure. Finally, it is found that the optimum design for Athens is the use of 6 cm insulation layer, double glazing (G2 quality) and 30 m2 solar collectors, while the optimum scenario for Thessaloniki is the use of 8 cm insulation layer, coated glazing (G3 quality) and 30 m2 solar collectors. The results of this work can be applied for the proper design of the Greek buildings regarding the new buildings and the retrofitting cases.

Stylolitic limestone, the stone of choice for ancient sanctuaries and temples, southwestern Peloponnese, Greece

AbstractAn Upper Cretaceous limestone was the stone of choice for classical Greek buildings and temples within the Pindos belt of the western Peloponnese. Knowledge of its properties at the Sanctuary of Zeus (Mt. Lykaion) is applied here to the Temple of Apollo Epikourios (Bassae) and the Arcadian Gate (Messene). Because of severe contortion and weathering, it was previously concluded that this bedrock was not the stone used at Bassae. Overlooked was the presence and weathered condition of its pervasive stylolites, which are closely spaced (cm‐scale) brain‐suture‐like surfaces resembling bedding laminae along which calcite dissolves and clay residue accumulates. The stylolites convey a false impression that the limestone is thin bedded and prone to splitting. Stylolites form as a response to stress during burial compaction and/or tectonic compression. Released calcium carbonate reprecipitates as calcite veins. The presence of the clay residue accounts for the severely weathered condition of outcrops and blocks. The suitability of this stone as a building material derives from cohesion acquired through bonding of interlocking stylolites and sealing by calcite veins. Its underdeveloped jointing explains how the megablock lintel of the Messene gate was geologically available. Opportunities are presented to evaluate stylolites at other geologically suitable archaeological sites.

Facing the Challenges of Reconstructing Ancient Buildings

Facing the Challenges of Reconstructing Ancient Buildings

Review: Shaping Ceremony: Monumental Steps and Greek Architecture, by Mary B. Hollinshead

Mary B. Hollinshead Shaping Ceremony: Monumental Steps and Greek Architecture Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015, 208 pp., 116 b/w illus. $50, ISBN 9780299301101 Shaping Ceremony in some ways picks up where Vincent Scully's The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods left off half a century ago in attempting to ground modern understanding of ancient Greek architecture in landscape and setting.1 Scully claimed that scholars have been blind to the meaning of landscapes for the ancient Greeks because landscapes cannot be categorized or studied as iconography. Similarly, Mary Hollinshead states in the introduction to her book that, due to their relational character, monumental steps in Greek sanctuaries are rarely considered by scholars as architectural components (3, 5). Steps are difficult to analyze with the kinds of typologies often used in the study of ancient Greek buildings, such as temples, whose consistent and repetitive forms (mainly ground plans and column styles) lend themselves to tightly formed classification systems. There is also the scholarly perception that steps are too commonsensical to warrant intellectual inquiry; with the topography of Greece being hilly and rocky, steps in combination with retaining walls were a necessity, not a nicety. When thinking about monumental steps as architecture, Hollinshead states, it is important to reflect on architectural, social, and historical contexts—considerations that play right into questions regarding the function of steps in Greek religious ritual. This approach to Greek architecture also has much in common with essays in a recent volume edited by Bonna Wescoat and Robert Ousterhout.2 Although evidence is sparse from the early period of the seventh and sixth centuries BC, Hollinshead argues that monumental steps should be considered among the major formal components of early Greek stone building practices, …

A methodological framework for assessing the employment effects associated with energy efficiency interventions in buildings

The global trend toward a low carbon, sustainable economy is widely acknowledged to create a large number of jobs across many sectors of the economy. The deployment of renewable and energy efficiency projects represent a large share of the so called green jobs and help retain current levels of employment especially in countries facing the socio-economic threat of increasing unemployment rates. These effects should be taken into account during the process of energy planning, but due to difficulties in their quantification this is not always feasible. This paper utilizes the input–output analysis and the adjusted earnings gain approach for assessing the employment effects associated with the implementation of energy saving interventions in the building sector, with a view to produce results that can be easily incorporated into cost–benefit analyses. The proposed framework, which comprises four basic steps, namely identification of all the potential changes in employment due to energy efficiency interventions, quantification of these employment effects in physical terms, calculation of the net present value of the estimated employment effects and monetization, has been implemented for three energy efficiency interventions widely implemented in Greek buildings. The results of the analysis clearly show that the exploitation of energy saving technologies in the Greek building stock generates significant employment benefits, ranging between €0.11 and 0.23 million per €1 million of investment in the base case scenario and reaching the 10–24% of the energy costs savings attributed to the implementation of these interventions throughout their entire lifetime.

Follow-up study of indoor radon in Greek buildings

The Nuclear Technology Laboratory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (NTL-AUTh) and the Greek Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) have a continuous collaboration on indoor radon measurements in Greek buildings since 1999. In the present work, the existing database was enriched with 590 indoor radon measurements in 295 houses and 76 indoor radon measurements in 38 workplaces. In total in the present work, 1948 indoor radon measurements in 974 buildings performed by the NTL-AUTh and GAEC from 1999 to 2012 in 8 of the 13 administrative regions of Greece are presented and discussed.

A typological classification of the Greek residential building stock

Based on the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings a new regulation framework has recently been implemented in Greece, aiming at the CO2 emissions reduction caused by the building sector. Given the fact that almost 71% of the Greek buildings were constructed before the implementation of the first Thermal Insulation Regulation (TIR), emphasis must be laid upon the existing building stock. Moreover, 83% of this stock consists of residential buildings, indicating the large potential in energy conservation. In order to plan and promote the respective energy renovation scenarios, a thorough analysis of the Greek building stock has to be carried out, especially regarding the urban built environment. In order to achieve this, a classification of the dominating multifamily building typology is being presented and characteristic examples are being studied.

The impact of thermal bridges on the energy demand of buildings with double brick wall constructions

The implementation of the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) is a milestone towards the improvement of energy efficiency in the building sector. However, even in cases where impressive measures can be implemented in the densely built urban environment, the less glamorous measure of building's envelope thermal insulation remains a prerequisite towards the improvement of the building's energy efficiency. Despite the insulation requirements specified by national regulations, thermal bridges in the building's envelope remain a weak spot in the constructions. Moreover, in many countries construction practices tend to implement only partially the insulation measures foreseen by regulations. As a result, thermal losses are in practice greater than those predicted during the design stage. This paper presents a study on representative wall thermal insulation configurations used in Greek buildings, in order to investigate the impact of the thermal bridges on the energy consumption. The double wall construction, used widely in Greece and not only there, is rather susceptible to the occurrence of thermal bridges, in contrast to a typical thermal insulating façade, like the one applied in Central Europe. The analysis of the thermal bridges’ impact will in that sense also highlight the potential for energy renovation measures in older buildings.

Energy, economic and environmental performance of heating systems in Greek buildings

The introduction of natural gas in the Greek energy market broadened the options in the field of space heating. Residents in five major Greek cities can choose from a variety of different fuels and systems for heating their houses or working spaces; 12 more cities will be connected to the gas network within the next 5 years. Considering that space heating is the major energy consuming activity in the Greek building sector and that the environmental constrains imposed by the Kyoto protocol will be met only with difficulty, if at all, a strategy concerning the developments in space heating seems to be necessary. This however presupposes an elaborate analysis of the overall performance of the alternative systems, taking into consideration the particular conditions of the Greek energy system and the ‘established’ way of designing residential and mixed-use buildings. The present paper aims to present the empirical comparative results related to the three most popular heating systems operated in Greek multi-apartment and mixed-use buildings, which use three different fuels, respectively: a central oil-fired boiler, a unitary gas-fired boiler and unitary heat pumps.

A hybrid method for the vulnerability assessment of R/C and URM buildings

The methodology followed by the Aristotle University (AUTh) team for the vulnerability assessment of reinforced concrete (R/C) and unreinforced masonry (URM) structures is presented. The paper focuses on the derivation of vulnerability (fragility) curves in terms of peak ground acceleration (PGA), as well as spectral displacement (sd), and also includes the estimation of capacity curves, for several R/C and URM building types. The vulnerability assessment methodology is based on the hybrid approach developed at AUTh, which combines statistical data with appropriately processed (utilising repair cost models) results from nonlinear dynamic or static analyses, that permit extrapolation of statistical data to PGA’s and/or spectral displacements for which no data are available. The statistical data used herein are from earthquake-damaged greek buildings. An extensive numerical study is carried out, wherein a large number of building types (representing most of the common typologies in S. Europe) are modelled and analysed. Vulnerability curves for several damage states are then derived using the aforementioned hybrid approach. These curves are subsequently used in combination with the mean spectrum of the Microzonation study of Thessaloniki as the basis for the derivation of new vulnerability curves involving spectral quantities. Pushover curves are derived for all building types, then reduced to standard capacity curves, and can easily be used together with the Sd fragility curves as an alternative for developing seismic risk scenarios.

Lieux de mémoire en Lycie

Starting from the concepts of «memory of the invisible» and of «history-making memory», as they have been recently elaborated by J.-P. Vernant, from the concept of «places of memory» as described by P. Nora, and finally from the works of G. Dumézil and M. Halbwachs, it is shown that the civilization of Lycia (South-West Anatolia) has consciously built up, in the classical and hellenistic periods (5th-2nd century B. C.) a system of mythical traditions and cult space organization that have contributed, in the middle of extended hellenic influence, to the preservation of its Anatolian identity. Moreover, one has tried to describe the instruments (pre-achaemenid myths, Homeric epic poetry) and the visible signs (ancient cult monuments inserted in Greek buildings) that were used to this aim. The synthesis, that succeeded for a time, of Anatolian tradition and hellenism is the key of Lycian originality.

Apparent and effective thermal capacitance of buildings

The apparent thermal capacitance of a building is obtained by adding the distributed specific heats of all building elements. It differs considerably from the effective thermal capacitance, which is calculated in the present study by forcing the solution of a lumped-system differential equation to follow the experimentally validated, finite-difference solution of a rigorous set of coupled differential equations describing the heat transport and energy balance in buildings. The effective thermal capacitance is calculated for various characteristic cases of Greek buildings and provides a simple procedure for approximating the transient thermal behaviour of buildings.