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Circulating through the Acropolis, it is possible to imagine its former existence. Therefore the Subject begins to provoke his own memory and imagination to fill in the gaps of contextual information. The link between present and past is at all times existent in the projection of the Subject’s consciousness on the surroundings. The western Propylaea threshold to the Acropolis: and acts as a gateway to the gods, a space situated between “the sacred and the profane.”118 It is composed of many elements, including a step, a door, a vestibule, and a space between interior and exterior. This entrance contains five doorways of three hierarchies. This allows an individual to use any of the doors, altering the initialintentions of their spatial progression through the Acropolis. Although there are multiple different sized doors, the variance of scale suggests a primary method of entry to the Subject yet does not deny him the right to enter as he pleases. The Acropolis is always offering primary circulation methodologies, but recollects the decision making process of the Subject in order to engage him in a spatial conversation. After the point of hesitation in the space in-between the mortal world and the next, the Subject is then 30
greeted by the clear attic sky and infinite peace associated with the freedoms of choice.119 The Parthenon is shifted off axis of the Propylaea and rotated so that the length of the building could be perceivable at all points along the projected promenade. It anticipates the manifested perception of the emerging Subject through the use of parallax (that is to say, the apparent movement of the structure’s columns in relation to one other). It then reveals itself as a destination, calling out to the Subject. The long ramp that ascends to the temple platform, builds the tension of an overall gesture in order to provide the subject with adequate appreciation of its scale and detail. These constituent details associated with the Acropolis help to relate the human body to the architecture at hand, and present a certain expectation of how to proceed.The Parthenon offers points of stasis at the ends of its major axis. These porticos utilize eight Doric columns on the façade, with six columns interior to them as thresholds to the spiritual realm..121 The temples of the Acropolis provoke a spatial transition from a politically religious field to a house the gods.