The Hierarchy of Contextual Factors in the Genesis and Evolution of the Architectural Phenomena of Antiquity

The task of identifying and systematizing of the contextual factors that contribute to the specificity of cultural phenomena is a traditionally relevant for the theory of culture. Reconstruction of the social and cultural context of antiquity as a hierarchical system of factors that determine the formation of the image of ancient architecture is the aim. Social and cultural context of antiquity first of all set mental dominants of ancient culture: the cult of the beautiful human physi-cality, timelessness, relaxed personality, intellectualism. Great, accordingly, is understood as the beauty of the human body. Subsequently, the beauty is in its universality denotes the invariant allocated in all beautiful objects, but carries the generalized features of a perfect human embodiment. Accordingly, such a lovely image is transmitted through the concepts of proportionality, harmony, symmetry. This understanding of beauty determines the calculation of the specific proportions of the human body, and on their basis the proportions of architectural structures, specifies the size of the structures as commensurate with the person that generates the formation was originally of two orders - ionic, emboding the beauty of the female body, and Doric, emboding the beauty of the male body. Beauty as kalokagathia is stated in the classical epoch with the dominance of intellectualism, but does not destroy the intention of finding anthropomorphic proportions in architecture. The dominance of the cult of wealth in the formation of identity leads to an understanding of beauty as proportionality, shares and decorum characteristic to the Roman era in the development of antiquity, the allocation of the leading role of arcitecture among all the arts, dominance in the architectural environment of the buildings, civilization purpose: bridges, aqueducts, villas, high-rise residential buildings. The philosophical intentions of the Pythagorean aimed at identifying the content as beauty as the arithmetic and geometric proportion, as harmony determine the search for specific immanent beauty of proportions. Understanding of beauty by Socrates as the appropriateness prepares pragmatic turn in architecture made by the Romans. Private methodological principles are formed as a concretization of the more general levels of contextual factors that is embodied, for example, in the works of Vitruvius.

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