Akrotiri, Thera
The Architecture of the West House

By Prof. Clairy Palyvou

Publisher: Melissa Publications
Bilingual publication: English/Greek
Pages: 304
Dimensions: 28 x 22cm
Hardcover

The West House is a typical urban house in the prehistoric city of Akrotiri, Thira, buried under a thick layer of ash after the eruption of the island’s volcano about 3,600 years ago. It has two floors and a flat utility room with another room. It is preserved at a great height and its excavation has been completed. The publication of the architecture of the building is the culmination of a long research, the results of which provide valuable information about advanced building technology and the high standard of living of that time (large, multiple windows, brightly painted murals, toilet on the first floor of the house). The plans for the representation of the original form of the building illustrate the quality of a distant, but paradoxically familiar, architectural conception.