The classical orders

• Stylobate: the top step the columns stand on
• Column: base, shaft, capital
• Entablature: architrave, frieze, cornice
• Pediment: the triangular gable over a temple front
• Module: the lower diameter (for Vignola, half of it); every part is sized in modules

• Entasis: a slight swelling of the shaft, so it does not look pinched
• The stylobate curves up towards its centre
• The columns lean slightly inwards
• Corner columns are thicker and more closely spaced
• Why: the Doric corner problem, a triglyph over every column yet one at each corner

• Superposition: the Colosseum stacks Tuscan, Ionic and Corinthian, heaviest at the bottom
• Engaged columns and pilasters: the order as dress on an arched wall
• Added the Tuscan and the Composite
• Corinthian became the imperial default

Proportion

• Orders are proportional systems, not just column decorations: column height, diameter, capitals and entablature relate to one another to create a coherent visual scale.
• A column’s diameter can act as a working module for setting other dimensions; exact ratios vary by building, period and local practice — no single scheme applies to all Greek architecture.
• Proportion affects perceived weight and slenderness: column height relative to diameter, and the depth of the entablature, shape whether a building reads as robust or light.
• Spacing (intercolumniation) sets the rhythm of the colonnade: closer bays read as denser and more continuous; wider bays as more open, but can make supports seem isolated.
• Spacing must work with the frieze and structure. In Doric buildings, triglyph positions constrain bay layout; corner adjustments can resolve the conflict between the frieze pattern and the end of the façade.
• Exam point: read proportion and spacing together — they organise structure, façade rhythm and visual character; avoid treating an order as a fixed set of measurements.

• Vitruvius, De architectura (c. 30–15 BC): firmitas, utilitas, venustas
• Serlio, Book IV (1537): the first to set out five orders as a set
• Vignola, Regola (1562): each order in proportions of one module
• Palladio, I quattro libri (1570)

• Greek Doric has no base; Roman Doric and Tuscan do
• Ionic volutes face front and back, so a corner capital needs an angled volute
• Tuscan and Composite were codified in the Renaissance, not by the Greeks
• Proportions are canons, not rules: real buildings vary

• Read the capital first: plain, cushion, volutes or acanthus
• Triglyphs in the frieze: Doric
• Tuscan: no flutes, no triglyphs
• Doric: 20 flutes meeting in sharp arrises. Ionic and Corinthian: 24, with fillets between
• Big volutes over acanthus: Composite, not Corinthian

• Doric: a man’s proportions and strength
• Ionic: a matron’s slenderness; the volutes her curls
• Corinthian: a maiden’s slenderness
• Callimachus saw acanthus growing round a basket on a grave: the Corinthian capital

• Renaissance: Alberti and Bramante revive the orders from Roman ruins
• Greek Revival (18th–19th c.): the baseless Greek Doric returns
• Colonial Australia: Georgian and Greek Revival porticos on banks, courts and churches
• Modernism strips them off: Loos, Ornament and Crime (lecture, 1910)

Civic settings

• Stoas around agoras used colonnades to define sheltered public routes and frame civic space; the order made the boundary legible without closing it off.
• Propylaia and other gateways used ordered columns to mark thresholds and give public entrances a monumental, ceremonial character.
• Colonnades also appeared in civic buildings such as council halls and public porticoes: the order conveyed formality and helped organise façades and movement.

Commemorative settings

• Monuments and treasuries used orders to make offerings, victories or civic identity visible in prominent public places; architectural form gave commemoration a durable, collective setting.
• The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens (c. 334 BCE) uses engaged Corinthian columns on its exterior — a notable early use of the order in a small commemorative monument, not a temple.
• Exam point: beyond temples, orders shaped civic circulation and public presence, and framed memory, status and communal identity.