May_1966 — Page 59

By Professor W. G. Gregory

and forms resolve themselves into a quiet somnolent arrangement. well rooted to the ground, held down by the strong sunlight and defined by the blue and mauve shadows discovered by the impressionist painters, and found to be true in Mykonos,

Here is revealed a folk architecture: architecture at its best, where the in- dividual has expressed his own instinc- tive creativity and his functional needs. This is not the work of the ar- chitect, but of the intuitive craftsman. No pathway is straight, no two build- ings are quite the same, but here is a unity that the most dedicated architect and dedicated planner could hardly dare hope to achieve in a townscape.

The old paths first trodden by the sure-footed donkey, carrying grain from field to mill, seeking the easiest path, has formed the "street pattern". but only wide enough to allow for his burdened passage. Turning off from the waterfront between narrow clefts. one enters a labyrinth, soon to be lost.

The reminiscence of mythological times is an experience which is inescapable anywhere in Greece, where one can never be sure if one has passed the same tiny square, or the same tiny church before. One is forced to navigate by the glimpses of the sun and the direction of its cast shadows.

City Ordinance

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How is this unity achieved? the mandatory white wash to all ex- terior surfaces, which “city ordinance” requires to be kept fresh and clean: by the flat roof with low parapet and the continuity of facade, breaks be- tween buildings being joined by low walls; and by the maintenance of scale and proportion even the 360 odd churches preserve this continuity and unity.

The forms are plastic, no sharp edges or too straight lines. The pre- cise instruments of the surveyor, or the structural precision of the engineer have not been at work.

The buildings look as if weathered by the wind, as indeed they are, like the boulders on the hill sides, or melted by the sun and merged toge- ther in some semi-liquid state.

Here also is real environmental town planning, full of interest and surprises. You look back over your shoulder to see how it looks and find that from the opposite direction it might be quite a different lane you are

Far East Architect & Builder May, 1966

treading, evoking new sensations.

The narrow "street" suddenly breaks out into an informal "square" or divides round a chapel, or widens out into a small "open space". But all is orientated to the wide curved waterfront, the shore being lined with fishing boats with their sterns centred on some point in the harbour like a gaily painted fan. This is the town "centre", where every one knows everyone else and his business, where there is a good deal of horse-play among the younger men, and a good deal of no doubt ribald comment

PARAPORTIAN)

walls are thick, the windows are small and the white distemper, probably compounded from the marble remains of ancient Delos, reflects the heat.

How much does the architecture of a place contribute to the nature of a people and how much the people to the architecture? An interesting ques- tion to which opposite answers may be found in Mykonos and Delos.

The architectural gem of Mykonos. is the Paraportiani church, cubist in form and inspiration, invented long before cubism became a cult. It is of the same genre as Corbusier's Chapel at Ronchamp. except that Corbusier had to provide his own shadows, with deep overhangs to the roof, and except that Paraportiani owes no allegiance to an intellectual concept but to man's natural creative instinct.

Some have obviously felt concern- ed about this solid little building and have arbitarily buttressed it against the prevailing wind: then, as if as an after thought (the buttress appearing to exert too much force direction) have buttressed the buttress. It has the traditional dome and the small open arched belfry of all the

CHURCH MYCONOS

1966

from the older men; where Andros and his motor-tricycle is spotted away off and room is made for him at the bar-room table in anticipation of his arrival; and where Peter, the pelican's lack of traffic-sense is respected and tolerated.

This curving esplanade is a real centre, to which each day every in- habitant must surely gravitate.

In such a community unified by human toleration, class distinctions are non-existent, the natural inclina- tion is to be assimilated. The foreign artist community despite it's "queer" ways, is thus absorbed and accepted. No one is odd despite his dress or his habits, provided he is "with it.”

Much of this has to do with the friendly nature of the Aegean people, but much has to do with the nature of the place itself. The architecture is friendly, uncompromising, a warm haven where the winds which drove Odysseus off-course sweep across the island; a cool retreat when the Medi- terranean sun cooks the roofs. The

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other churches, but somehow this is special, this is different. Perhaps its exposure to the sea, has caused it to become more organic, more moulded into the earthscape.

And the wind-mills cannot be left out of the reckoning. Perfect in form, perfectly satisfying to the eye in their stability, neither will their revolving sails entice them into flight nor the winds overturn them like flowerpots after a storm. Their sails are bred from the sea, not of a landsman's knowledge. reefed to the strengths of the wind like a mainsail

a truly folk architecture born of an intuition of what is right. But so are all windmills, be they on the polders of Holland or the proverbial plains of Spain.

Making the passage to Delos, the rolling caique with its pounding hot- box oil engine, soon shakes off the heady atmosphere of Mykonos, and alerts the senses in anticipation of a new sensation, a gathering excite- ment. But on arrival this is soon

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