The first buildings that were built in Greece, in the New Stone Age, are small houses or huts, and wooden walls around them for protection. Later there are bigger houses, and stone walls around the villages.

By the 300's BC, in the Hellenistic period, there are some new architectural types. Less time is spent on temples. The new form is the theater, and many theaters are built all over the Greek world. Also, there is new interest in town planning at this time: streets begin to be laid out in straight lines, instead of just developing naturally. With the conquests of Alexander the Great, architecture becomes an important way to spread Greek culture and show who is in charge in the conquered countries.

Etruscans built palaces, public buildings, and early temples in wood and brick, so nothing remained. Etruscan temples were the same as Greek temples in some ways, but in other ways they were different. Ceramic models of temples, as well as traces of later stone structures, indicate how temples were built in enclosures and had tiled, gabled roofs supported on pillars, like their Greek counterparts. In Etruscan temples, the columns were only across the front, not all the way around. An Etruscan temple, to meet religious requirements, was located on a north-south axis and stood on a high podium with a four-columned porch. Roman temples were patterned on the form developed by the Etruscans.

Most Etruscan cities were fortified and with encompassing walls enforced by double gates and towers. No remains of Etruscan homes have been found. The Etruscans also built aqueducts, bridges, and sewers. Outside the cities were cemeteries containing family tombs. They were built underground but had large vaults of overlapping stones covered by mounds of earth.

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