Author: Dimitris Philippides, Architect, professor emeritus, School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens
MELISSA Publishing House
286 pages, 445 color and 13 b/w photographs, 10 drawings, hardback, 28x24.5 cm, English
This book is about the design and decoration used in architecture in Greece. Its particular architectural milieu comprises the richly decorated Greek traditional mansions built before mid-18th and early 19th century as well as the equally opulent neoclassical mansions that followed, once Greece became a free state in 1827. Also included are the forms of decoration used in rural areas and in working-class neighborhoods over the above periods. The book is divided in three equal parts. The first, and rather more abstract, deals with the theoretical issues inherent in a study of the decorative arts. The second singles out the crucial factor of change in the decorative arts, be it temporal or spatial. Finally, the third concentrates on the meaning of the decorative arts in their social context.