Selected Bibliography Architecture - Form Space and Order | Page 323

CL ASSICAL O RDERS

Ionic Order, from the Temple on the Ilissus,
Athens, 449 B.C., Callicrates. After a drawing
by William R. Ware.

To the Greeks and Romans of classical antiquity, the Orders represented
in their proportioning of elements the perfect expression of beauty and
harmony. The basic unit of dimension was the diameter of the column. From
this module were derived the dimensions of the shaft, the capital, as well as
the pedestal below and the entablature above, down to the smallest detail.
Intercolumniation—the system of spacing between columns—was also
based on the diameter of the column.

308 / A R C H I TE C TU R E : F O R M , S PA C E , & O R D E R

Because the sizes of columns varied according to the extent of a building, the
Orders were not based on a fixed unit of measurement. Rather, the intention
was to ensure that all of the parts of any one building were proportionate and
in harmony with one another.
Vitruvius, in the time of Augustus, studied actual examples of the Orders
and presented his ‘ideal’ proportions for each in his treatise, The Ten Books on
Architecture. Vignola recodified these rules for the Italian Renaissance and
his forms for the Orders are probably the best known today.