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LARCH 060
Tuesday, January 19th, 1999
Announcements: none
Lecture notes:
Mesopotamia (3500C.-500BC.):
The "Cradle of Civilization"~
Land/Environment:
- Tigris-Euphrates (fertile crescent)
- Deserts
- Mountains
Socio-Cultural Milieu:
- Urbanized: much social organization
- Pantheistic
- City of Ur/Urek
Design Expression:
- Walled city
- Ziggurat: temples, hanging gardens
- Ziggurats expressed that the gods were more important
than the people
- Parks: private, only for the wealthy, hunting, walled
- Parks/Gardens were peoples escapes from reality
- Assyrians: dominated these parks in the 1300's, warlike
people
EGYPT(4000-500BC.)
Land/Environment:
- Deserts
- Nile and Sun formed a 90 degree angle which was very
important in society
- Agriculture
Socio-Cultural Milieu: 
- Earth centered
- Society-closed system
- Gods were human
- Believed in afterlife
Design Expression:
- Tombs (Ziggurats, pyramids) such as Giza and Hatshepsut
- Tombs were built on the west bank of the Nile, where the
sun set
- Temples
- Walled estates and Gardens: axiality (very enclosed),
orthogonal, abstract
ANCIENT GREECE (1100C.-200BC.):
Land/Environment:
- Mountainous, rocky, scrubby
- relatively isolated
Socio-cultural milieu:
- Modest lifestyles: simple, walls with courtyards
- Intellectual concerns: incorporated the westerm
philosophy, theatre/drama had important expressionson
life, democracy was favored
- "eidos"-perfection, the "ideal"
Design Expression:
- Temples, agora, ampitheatre: strive for perfection
- Harmony with site
- Unfolding scene: rooms gave an outside look (plants,
gardens)
- Grid: distribution of land equally, location of all
buildings were in a special configuration (Acropolis,
Delplhi, Priene)
- Acropolis: formed city states, believe in the
"genius loci" which means the spirit of
location. The high city in Athens, Greece is the site of
Parthenon.
- Priene was the colonial city which extended the concept
of the garden
- Clarity of thought
- Theatres had almost perfect acoustics to remind of man's
frailty and god's superiority
- Had mesh temples to harmonize with the landscape
-provided a series of experiences
- Goal was to perfectly represent god within the landscape
- Developed the central marketplace (Agora) where business
was transacted, women were mostly confined to homes,
there were more slaves than citizens
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