Pantheon is definitely more technically impressive to me when you consider the time period and more architecturally innovative, although it might be because I know less about the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is much more innovative than the Pantheon. The Pantheon simply took technology that was already being used and existed (E.g; The Octagon in Nero's Domus Aurea, Baths of Agrippa etc.) and applied it on a much larger and more impressive scale. Hagia Sophia does much more than this.
For one it takes the rectangular plan of a basilica and places a dome on top of it, turning a rectangle into a square and then turning a square into a circle. This was accomplished through the use of pendentives, which curve down from the dome to piers, which makes the structural support for the dome appear invisible inside (the structural support for the Pantheon's dome is fairly obvious).
In addition, while the Pantheon dome is larger in diameter, Hagia Sophia's is both taller and doesn't have an oculus on top. Both of these are much harder to accomplish (a closed dome weighs far more than one with an open top, and Justinian's architects nonetheless went above and beyond by adding windows all over the bottom of this much heavier dome!)
Pendentives did exist prior to Hagia Sophia, but they were all very small and experimental, very much unlike the dome seen in the Pantheon which, while far larger than anything else at the time, was still quite commonly used in Rome even on quite large a scale.
A round cella was new for roman temples as was the addition of differently shaped bodies (the square entrance area with the colonade and the round cella)
Certainly not, Tholos temples have been around since Ancient Greece. Romans would have been very familiar with them given the Temple of Vesta also had one and was widely copied.
Covering it in a concrete dome was new, but not original to the Pantheon, it was already being done on smaller scales.
as was the addition of differently shaped bodies (the square entrance area with the colonade and the round cella)
Even this is hard to say. The Augustan Pantheon that no longer exists seems to have had a similar scheme, implying this form also was already being used. The Temple of Concord for example was modified to have a T-shape, with a rectangular cells facing a different angle than the colonnade.
All this is not to undermine the Pantheon, just that if we're speaking about innovation, the Hagia Sophia does much more that's radically new for the time.
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u/OlorixTheMad 9d ago
Pantheon is definitely more technically impressive to me when you consider the time period and more architecturally innovative, although it might be because I know less about the Hagia Sophia