This book demonstrates how architecture can be visually conveyed despite historical uncertainty. It is an architectural contribution to resolving the dilemma that historical representations, in order to be vivid, often consist of pure fantasy. The method presented here translates archaeological hypotheses from words into images. As a result, the outcome is scientifically sound, even if it frequently involves analogical reasoning. This ambiguity is conveyed through the abstraction of the model. Thus, it is not the built structure itself but its concept that is depicted—and so clearly that misunderstandings are minimized. This transforms our perception of lost architecture. Instead of a glorified, romanticized past, it is conveyed as a timeless message.

Henner Hesberg was a professor of Classical Archaeology in Munich and Cologne and director of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. He has been emeritus since 2014. His research focuses on Greek and Roman architecture and the cultural history of Hellenism.

Dominik Lengyel holds the Chair of Architecture and Visualization at the BTU Cottbus. He is a member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg and the Koldewey Society, as well as a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute.

Catherine Toulouse is an architect and founding partner of Lengyel Toulouse Architekten Berlin. She is a long-standing academic staff member at the BTU Cottbus and a former member of the City of Cologne's Design Advisory Board. Previously, she worked at the architectural firm of Prof. O.M. Ungers.