Plan the principal hall as a long rectangle entered on its short side through a porch with two columns between the side walls and a vestibule, and put a great round hearth in the centre of the hall, ringed by four columns carrying a raised roof.
Temples on a conspicuous site
Set the temples where they can be seen from the whole city and approached apart from its traffic: on a raised, commanding site above the agora.
Socrates says the most fitting place for temples and altars is one that is conspicuous and little trodden, so that people may pray at the sight of them and come to them in purity; Aristotle wants the temples on a site that is visible and strong. At Priene the temple of Athena Polias, designed by Pytheos, whom Vitruvius praises, stands on its own terrace a block above the agora, facing east over its altar.
Related rules
Plan a Greek theatre by inscribing three squares in the orchestra circle; the side nearest the scene fixes the front of the stage (proscaenium), and the scene is set back to a line tangent to the circle.
proscaenium at r cos 45° ≈ 0.71 r from the centre; logeion 10–12 ft high
Divide the city into equal rectangular blocks by straight streets crossing at right angles, and assign whole blocks to the public buildings; but let walls follow the ground, not the grid.
Keep a free agora for public life, clear of merchandise and near the magistrates, the temples and the gymnasium; put buying and selling in a separate market place convenient for goods.
Make the Greek agora square, surround it with spacious colonnades, double if possible, with close-set columns and architraves of stone or marble, and walks above on an upper floor.
Put the court on the south side of the house and the principal rooms, fronted by a porch, on its north side facing south, so that the winter sun enters the porch and the summer sun passes over the roof; build the north side high and the south low.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Temples on a conspicuous site”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/conspicuous-temple-site. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.