Claudio Connena

Greek Monastic Architecture: an Organic Proposal Claudio Connena

Beyond the theological religious symbolism that emanates from this architecture, it is important to note summarily the characteristics of design that make it still interesting in our day as an architectural fact. The builders applied architectural solutions for the monastery buildings in a simple and natural way, we could say, even an empirical one, with a free and creative spirit, as their faith was as well. They built monasteries with the materials that nature gave them in the place where they were located, developing varied organic schemes in harmony with the place of asceticism and on its scale. The dynamics of topography itself consequently, in architectural terms, favor a varied cross-section, creating a rich, interesting, and mysterious character of the space of the building, causing a polysemic interplay of levels among the patios, galleries, small squares, terraces, and staircases, with the inclusion in certain cases of trees and grass, interwoven with stone floors, usually made of smooth stone. We find innumerable spaces with these characteristics and their most varied combinations within this anonymous monastic architecture, an aspect that, naturally, provides it with a stamp of individuality.