Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
raise up into place the heavy masonry meant that l ooring and wall face were in
considerable part obscured during construction requiring the necessity for mark-
ing the record of axes on bed joints.
In short from primary setting out marks outside the area covered by the temple
axes were incised in the masonry construction and raised up course by course so
as to be always available to control the setting of the rudely dressed blocks. h e
faces of these blocks projected far outwards from the eventual i nely dressed wall
face so that in ef ect the wall plan of the temple had to be marked out afresh with
every course of masonry.
Setting
out con-
trols for
Classical
Greek
building
(b)
Classical Greek Ashlar Building
Of recent years a lively controversy has developed concerning the use made of
design drawings by Classical Greek architects in formulating their designs (for
temples). Some consider drawings developed more or less
pari passu
with Classical
Greek building (i.e. during the 6th century BC), and that Vitruvius' statements con-
cerning architectural drawing (E. Frézouls, “Vitruvius et le Dessin d'Architecture”)
have an extended anterior reference. Others, notably J. Coulton (Greek Architects
at Work chap. 3), advocate that in Archaic and Classical Times (6th-4th Cent BC)
Greek temples were designed by mathematical calculation of details based on
given standard forms; and that Vitruvius' remarks refer back only to his immedi-
ate sources in (later) Hellenistic times (3rd Cent. BC onwards). h eoretically this
dif erence of outlook should not control or condition setting out practice; and
nowhere is setting out mentioned in connection with the dispute.
Additionally, consequent on the abnegation of drawings in formulating design,
it has been advanced that design of a building was not totally settled before con-
struction began; but that details of design were worked out during the course of
construction as they become manifest. At i rst view this question of “incomplete
preliminary planning” might be thought to bear closely on setting out practice.
However this is not necessarily so. Although attention is never drawn to the fact,
the details of design supposedly marked out during construction all are signii -
cantly questions of design in elevation. When construction has incorporated the
designed plan according to the setting out controls, such detailing in elevation as
is conformable with this construction can be decided on and implemented with-
out prejudice to what has been set out. In short the setting out of a Greek temple
refers to the design of the stylobate on which the exact wall plan is marked out in
detail. Nowhere does the setting out refer to elements of e.g. the entablature such
as position of the triglyphs and metopes in a Doric frieze.
Consideration being given to the above remarks, it is useful to observe one
outcome of the setting out of a Greek temple. h is concerns the design of the
peristyle, a very signii cant measure indeed.
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