ISSUE 153 – ARCHETYPES

Overview

‘DOMES’ presents an anthology of recent and contemporary Greek architectural ‘archetypes’, a collection/publication which will include the (historical-theoretical and design) templates of today’s Greek architecture.
On the basis of the conclusions of architectural theory, and regardless of the ‘rhetoric’ of the various trends in architecture or the romantic conviction of architects, the production of architectural forms, from the general layout to the detail of the architectural project, takes place inescapably by means of a reversion to other forms, architectural or otherwise.
The original forms may lead to the new forms by functioning:

a.    as models, when the new form seeks to constitute an exact copy of the original;
b.    as precedents, when the new form is simply inspired by the original without seeking to be a faithful reproduction;
c.    as types, when the new form is a specialisation of an abstract general diagram of a form.

It will be obvious that in the case of each architectural project, the three processes co-exist, and –also– that they co-exist with a varying share, which is portrayed in the –more or less familiar– final result, without necessarily a similarly familiar meaning. The mean-ing involves different production processes in which the addressee takes part equally, which does not happen in the case of the design, where specialisation is required.
The selection and apprehension of the original forms are personal and in the end supply the particularity of the individual work.
This is also true in the case of collective architectural creation, in which, however, the retrospections are multiple as they contain a plurality of creative subjects and end in a common result without necessarily being identical.
It is going back to pre-existing forms which makes architectural design a process of composition in which these are chosen and, en-tire or elaborated, constitute the new ones. The chronological order and the degree of elaboration clearly do not imply superiority of any kind of some over others. This is registered by the final overall result alone.
The ‘archetypes’ which we are seeking for publication are not primary and unaltered original forms which, on the basis of the above, inspire the new forms. They are the primordial new/derivative forms, the overall vehicles of architectural principles and ideas which have arisen from the original forms.
They are the primordial new/derivative forms by the further elaboration of which individual works of architecture are produced. The ‘archetype’ is the original type.

As a type, it produces, as above, new forms as specialisations of it. The ‘archetype’ is a personal work/product of the personal prefer-ence and creative disposition of the creator. It already exists, since the creator already produces architecture, as a plan or as a theory. What remains, perhaps, is its crystallisation in a visual or verbal presentation.

ARCHETYPE

‘Dimitrakos Dictionary’
archetypal [...] having the original type, the first to take on a type, original, serving as an original, ant. copy [...] metaphor. exemplary, ideal [...] the original type, the original, serving as an example [...] the original of a seal [...] general picture

‘Triantafyllidis Dictionary’
archetype, noun [...] that which serves as model, as an original [...] totality of memories which are established in the structure of the brain as ancient and elementary images and which reflect historical collective experiences of man [...]

‘Kriaras Dictionary’
archetype, noun [...] model, that which serves as an original exam-ple [...]

‘Georgakas Dictionary’
archetype, noun [...] the original or primary form of sth, prototype [...] abstract or ideal conception of sth [...] typical example, arche-type, paradigm [...]

‘Georgakas Dictionary’
archetypal [...] constituting the product or model from which cop-ies are made, original (syn. original, ant. derivative), original work, mould [...] having the form of an early model, antique [...] original, initial, primary, pristine