Dafni Riga

During the course of Theory of Architecture, we have approached various subjects regarding the conceptual basis of architectural projects, as well as ways of interpreting architecture and its history. These subjects would have not been as intelligible without the use of some fundamental theoretical principles, such as theory, doctrine, praxis and doxa. This text is a philosophical and critical reflection on the lecture of D. Laroque, Une définition grecque de l’architecture, but also a study on how the lecture’s content can be put in parallel with the aforementioned principles. In order for this parallelism to be comprehensible, we will firstly consider the definitions of these fundamental principles, and secondly, we will examine the nature of ancient Greek architectural concepts. The purpose of this study is to indicate that theoretical principles and architectural concepts demonstrate similarities and are potentially interdependent, especially as far as the process of their development is concerned. 

The basis of all philosophical and abstract principles is what we call theory. A theory (from the greek theoria: visualisation, contemplation) is a system of notions and ideas, deriving from the experience and observation of phenomena, and applied on a specific field. A theory is a structured and systematic intellectual production that contains laws, hypotheses and conclusions; it is thus synthetic, logical and rational.

In philosophy of science, a theory must be composed by several basic characteristics so as to be designated as scientific: it must be internally coherent and at the same time correspond to experimental facts and principles. Moreover, it needs to be fruitful, something that can be accomplished through observations, hypotheses and predictions, without insisting on existing experience and the status quo. Finally, a theory should be modest, powerful, of limited complexity, and valid through the experience of reality. These previously mentioned criteria are what differentiate a theory from a doctrine (dogma); a theory is flexible, global and adapts to the parameters of its context, whereas a doctrine is de facto considered to be true, is based on limited data and entails very specific models of thought and methods.

The notion of theory can be accompanied by the concepts of doxa and praxis. Doxa is the sum of common values and principles of a social group, a doctrine of a society. The act aiming at the improvement of the agent is called praxis, and is in fact the pure realisation of a theory. According to Aristoteles, we should make a distinction between praxis and poesis, since the latter is developed in the more global framework of a society. 

What we call architecture today was firstly expressed by ancient Greeks and the word architektoniki, which is composed by the words archi and techni. Archi designates principle and is an indeterminate notion subject to questioning. Techni is creation, the artificial production realised by humans. Therefore, if interpreted in a literal manner, the word architektoniki represents the creation of a principle or an intellectual construction. 

Ancient Greek architecture praises the analogia, which is the proportion resulting by the equilibrium of all components. This analogia is an aesthetic concept that generates symmetry (symmetria), hierarchy (hierarchia), balance (isoropia), harmony (harmonia) and order (taxis) among architectural elements. The whole is dominated by the concept of moderation (metron), that represents silence and the necessity to avoid emphasis and expressive exaggeration. Architectural theory is the systematic organisation of architectural knowledge, which allows the approach and production, the architectural praxis. According to Mies van der Rohe, “less is more”; an idea borrowed from the ancient Greek quote “pan metron ariston” (everything in moderation). 

By examining the definitions of scientific theoretical notions and ancient Greek architectural principles, we may explain their affinity through the similarities developed among them. The coherence that characterises a theory may be interpreted as harmony in architecture; the connection between experience and theoretical principle may be translated as architectural symmetry and balance; the limited complexity of a theory represents the concept of architectural moderation, of power by simplicity. These connections demonstrate the fact that a theory is and an architectural work are developed through the same process. We may therefore deduce that architecture is theory, since those two notions represent the same phenomenon: the production of a principle, by using the same values and concepts during the process of this production. As a result, the process of decoding and interpreting an architectural work is analogous to that of a theory. What we designate as theory nowadays is a manifestation of ancient Greek architectural principles – it’s by those principles that a theory is established. On that account, ancient Greek architectural reflections and principles have been decisive for the evolution of intellectual thinking.