Series: My Favorite Architects of All Time, Part 2

There are Architects and many more buildings that I have visited, learned about, or otherwise admire, so it is hard to choose favorites. I am fascinated by the Architectural ideas and accomplishments of Ictinus, Vitruvius, Mimar Sinan, Andrea Palladio, Michelangelo Simoni, Louis Le Vau, Francois Mansart, Fredrick Der Grosse, Louis Sullivan, Henri Labrouste, Camillo Sitte, Antoni Gaudi, Frank Lloyd Wright, and many others. It is utterly humbling to be a student in a profession that has such an amazing heritage and tradition.

When considering architects to choose as my favorites, I decided to choose some of the less well known yet perhaps most influential Architects of all time. In no particular order, here is my second favorite in this series:

Calicrates and Ictinus
and Classical Architecture

Calicrates and Ictinus designed many buildings using the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. They are attributed with designing:

• Temple to Poseidon in Sunion,
• Temple to Apollo in Delos,
• the Hephaesteum,
• the Temple to Ares in Acharnae,
• Temple in Rhamnous

However, their best known work is the world renown Parthenon and the Temple to Athena built on the Acropolis in Athens commissioned by the Athenian Senate.

What fascinates me about these ancient buildings is that, despite being in ruins, they continue to maintain their magestic beauty to this day. Some notable features:

• The symmetry and proportion of each detail element (grooves in the columns, column capitals, abacus, architrave, and the repetition of the triglyphs and metopes) conveys something that appears effortlessly complex and graceful.
• The variation in scale between all these repeating elements makes it possible to appreciate the buildings from a distance and up close.
• The different detail elements follow a hierarchy in their arrangement and are all proportional to each other and to the building as a whole.

The result is something that is timeless and breathtakingly beautiful.   

Further Reading:

Anderson, Janice. World Architecture. Chartwell Books Inc., 2007.

French, Hilary. Architecture A Crash Course. Watson-Guptill Publications, 1998.

Norwich, John J, editor. Great Architecture of the World. Bonanza Books, 1978.