a lesson in continuity

7/27/2019 A Lesson in Continuity

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A Lesson in Continuity; What the Arhontika of Pelion Can Tell Us.

Who can argue against honouring andpreserving traditional architecture? Itspeaks to us of a profound sense of fit.It resonates with the culture that formedit, it extends into the local environment,seems to grow out from it. Sometimes thebuildings appear almost human. It is beautyin the world we have inherited and must pass

on to our children.What we can argue about is the uglinessthat is built around us now, something weare so blinded by that we dont acknowledge.Most of what we build is commercialproduct, repetitive boxes that sometimesoffer a theatrical stage for thepresentation of a life style.

If we fell guilty about this we candisguise these built boxes with tra ditionalfeatures, design elements from thebuildings we love, copied in new materialand used as decoration to cover theemptiness.

In turning beauty into a decorativefeature something is lost in translation. Wedont take that beauty seriously because the

hubris and conceit of modernism, aided bythe servant technology leads us to believethat the past has nothing to teach us. So wecontinue to build blind. With attachedfeatures.


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I would like to offer the humblesuggestion that we still have a lot to learnfrom traditional architecture. Not that weneed to build authentic replicas for no

matter how severe our nostalgia we cant goback to live in the past. What I suggest isthat its not the built form we should lookto, but to the way these buildings wereconceived and designed. Here we may find alesson in continuity. To help us move onfrom the ugly.

Although I recognize they are only part

of the extensive traditional settlements ofPelion, I would like to focus on thearhontika. As well as exhibiting anachievement of superb quality and refineddetail, they are spectacular, major works ofarchitecture on par with the worlds best.Due to circumstances of culture and locationmost other traditional architectures inGreece are less complex, less refined.

The archontika are not isolatedphenomena, particular to Pelion alone. Onthe contrary they are a local manifestationof historical Balkan building practices thatgo back many centuries. Byzantine as well asOttoman influence can easily be read. Whatwe find throughout all of the area fromsouthern Albania, through Macedonia,

Bulgaria, northern Greece and western Turkeyis that while every house is different,every house shares similar features, or moreprecisely, qualities. Built over manycenturies for different culturalpluralities, different ecumenical


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communities, radically different settings,both for the rich and the less rich, overthousands of kilometres each buildingexhibits a profound sense of fit, and a

family resemblance. Most noteworthy in Pelion are the

buildings from the classical period, definedby G. Kizis as being from 1750 to 1850.Using as an example the Kiriakopoulos housein Visitsa built for the Papanastasioufamily in 1790, we can bear witness to themarvel of these buildings: The massive stone

walls with their intermittent woodreinforcement. The clever wooden structurefor the upper floors. The cantilevers, theirtips carved and relieved. The supportingbrackets reaching out. Tiny openings on thelower floors. Wide windows above withmultiple shuttering. Coloured glassfanlights above, each design different. Aforty-ton roof, yet with eaves that come toa fine edge. Dressed stone doorwaysinscribed with dates, family names, ortraditional symbols. Delicate rails andstairways. Raised areas to demark specialplaces like the sachnisi. Wall cabinets,storage and multi-panelled doors each fittedtogether without nails. Filigree and lightlypainted motifs around the walls. A shelf,

like an inner horizon, that runs around theupper spaces.Let me restate; I am not saying this is

what we should be building today, but tounderline that it will be worth our effortsif we could discover how this beauty and


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complexity was made. Can we lean somethingfor our modern world that is fast becomemore diverse, more plural, yet more mired inugliness?

We do know that it was members of thebuilders guild, the isnaf, who createdthese buildings. Descending in the springfrom builders villages like Zoupani (nowPentalofo), teams of about a dozen men wouldtravel to Pelion and beyond to buildthroughout the summer months.

Did they have drawings and plans? Did

they have planning rules and regulations?Did they use models? It seems not, only awritten contract listing the rooms, thenumber of fireplaces and speciallyconstructed doors. Were looking at whatcame from a different kind of designprocess. How was this done, and not only inPelion but throughout the whole region? Letme suggest that such quality such diversitycould not have been created by a restrictivedesign process like what we have today, butonly by using a generative design process.What does that mean?

The master builder(s) when faced with anew project would have held in the mindseye a loose vision of what was a valid andauthentic house. If he were to build

something unique, something off the wall,such as a Zaha Hadid curved roof, this wouldbe invalid. I call what he held in hisminds eye an iconic house

And how was this shaped in his mind? Bythe coming toge ther of a number of central


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qualities in a loose but generative way.These central qualities I suggest were notformal features, rather they were acollection of intentions with regard to

built form reality. They were not aboutmeasured repetitions, nor were theygeometric rules of adjacency, like thelanguage of neo-classicism that came later.

Let me summarize eight of the centralqualities so you can get an idea of whatthe builders generative design processmight have been like.

1. The Seasonal House People migrated within the house

according to the seasons. There were winterrooms to retain the heat, open rooms forwork and summer. People lived in thesehouses in harmony with nature and theseasons. Contrast this to modern houseswhere every day uses are the same throughoutthe year

2. Strong Back / Open Front Whether on a hillside or facing into a

courtyard each house had a strong protectedback and an open front? We must see this asanthropomorphic, a family totem.

3. Mass and Fine Detail The buildings exhibit extremes of mass aswell as fine detail. This is more thanstructural necessity, details as fine as afingernail co-exist beside massive stonelintels and wall thickness. It was about


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pushing contrast, exhibiting the skill ofthe particular builder.

4. Ascending LightnessThere is a defined vertical dimension to

the light within each building. Beginning atthe base in almost total darkness, oneproceeds up through floors towards alightness of the precariously bright upperrooms. One might speculate whether thisascent towards light has some spiritualsignificance.

5. Floating RoofThe roof is made to float over the

building, almost as if it is detached fromthe walls. The structure, holding what maywell be forty tons, is made visible.Protection from the rain and snow, (from thegods?) An echo of a tent? A head?

6. Balanced Centre Avoiding symmetry, the life of the house

comes from a careful balance not from fixedgeometric rules. Memory of the central spacetravels with you as you ascend through thebuildings; but its a loose balance, stairsto the side, doors at an angle, an above-door shelf running around the upper rooms

tying the whole together. The tentativebalance is felt, not seen.

7. Struggle to Square The irregularity seen in most house plans

may lead one to doubt the ability of the


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builders. I suspect they were more than ableto make rectangular rooms in an exactmanner. Rather they chose to allow thesloped wall, the slightly angled wall, the

cantilevered bays to be a off squarerealizing this would set up a tension,impart more life to the rooms and building.Rectangularity was to be sought, but notmade exact. This set up a dialogue.

8. Special Room The literal high points of each house

were the special rooms, the Kalos Ondas andthe Sachnisi. For guests and special familygatherings these were the head of thehouse. Other rooms from the lower entranceup through the body of the house all ledto this crowning experience. Their locationwas half in, half outside - precarious. Adistant echo of a Persian palace? Probably,for the word sachnisi descends from thePersian meaning the room of the Shah. ASufi connection, half way between this worldand another? Possibly.

.If you have been envisioning these eight

qualities o ne by one as Ive been describingthem then you have probably built up in yourminds eye a valid and authentic

Pilioritiko arhontika. And if you were todraw it out, then compare it to that of theperson sitting next to you it would bedifferent, yes, but of the same family. Thisis what I mean by a generative designprocess. Is this the lesson these archontika


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want to whisper to us? About a designprocess that could lead us both to coherencyand diversity - and away from ugliness?


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a lesson in continuity

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