Arch 2 Rome

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Roman Architecture & Society
History (periods)

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-Three phases: king, republic, and empire
-Four historic periods associated with ancient Rome:
-Early Kings: before 508 BC; descendants of Etruscans
-Republic/ Republican period: 508-46 BC; time of Vitruvius; representative government with senators (originally patricians and the wealthy, then added the lower class)
-Empire/ Empirical period: 46 BC to 400 AD; began with Julius Caesar; Trajan- 98-117 AD; Hadrian 117-138 AD; most buildings were built under these two rulers during the peace and expansive economical development during the reing of Augustus, Flavians, and the Five good Emperors ( Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus_
-Decline and Fall: 400-488 AD; reasons for decline
..Number One reason: dangerously high unemployment rate in Rome
-Government took farmland from farmers and gave it to veteran soldiers, but the soldiers didn’t know how to farm

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Roman Economy

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-Roads
-Slave based.. major concern was feeding everyone in the empire
-Agriculture and trade
-Aqueducts- clean water to the people (14 aqueducts and 200 million gallons a day)

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Roman Religion

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-Centered in the home; gifts rendered to spirits that governed every aspect of nature.
-Etruscans introduced pantheon of gods and construction of temples.
-Copied the Greek gods.
-Temple similar to the Greek temple and was embellished with Greek orders and architectural details. Only difference as which the sacred precinct around the temple was dedicated to the gods: through actions that set up an axis that dominated the orientation of the temple and the space in front of it, and how the temple was placed in relation to that space.
-Greek temple set in an open area; Roman temple was placed at the end of a defined open space, aligned on the axis of the space. Set on a podium, unlike Greek. Approached only from the front
-Contained cellas which had many rooms to house the image of the god: only priests could enter them,

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Roman Politics

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Politics: Roman colonies fell under Roman law

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Roman Geography

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basically took over everywhere around the Mediterranean Sea, parts of Africa, and what is now the Middle East. Incessant warfare which the geography made inevitable. Control first over the Italian peninsula.
-Endeavored to achieve universality and a clearly perceivable order in all of life, and their unique achievement was to visualize this civic order in the urban spaces they shaped.

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Roman Character

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liked war, loyal; used Greek language for philosophy, the arts, and scholarship; used Latin for law and business
-Discipline and responsibility. Rigid mortality.
-Religion: used Greek gods, but changed the names; made rituals as part of the state government; many emperors were deified after their death; took in Christianity that led to their fall

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What are the architectural types?
1. At the urban scale?
2. Building scale?
3. engineering structures?

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1. Urban scale- Forum (open space in Roman town used as a marketplace/public gatherings..held legal and economical discussions; .similar to the agora)

2-. buildings scale?
- amphitheater (mock battles and gladiator fights), baths of Carcalla (exercise, social gathering) etc
3. engineering structures?
-arcade (aqueducts and viaducts)

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What technologies (material and systems) were used? and why?

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Romans used the arcuated system with superimposed orders (columns or pilasters)
-Borrowed their aesthetics from the Greeks
-used orthogonal planning from the Greeks. Based army campus in this grid.
-Used concrete (volcanic ash mixed with water) for the walls and vaults. had to use brick forms on top because it took the concrete 5 years to set. Exposed concrete didn’t weather well so they used stones/brick on the outer facing.

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Why use concrete (Romans)?

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-Why use concrete: so that they can build massive structures to show their dominance (and fit a lot of people) Concrete is strong and can be made “lightweight” if using coffering

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Theatre of Marcellus, Rome

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-Seats inclined on a system of radiating and tilted concrete barrel vaults supported by radiating stone piers
-Exactly semi circle (unlike Greek) 11,000 spectators. Seats faced wall (scaenae frons)
-Plays and entertainment but didn’t have a religion function like the Greeks.
-Seating on tilted vaults raised on stone vaults.
-Located near the middle of the city, away from temples

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Baths of Caracalla:

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-Roman baths: thermae were used for much more than simply washing. Combined aspects of a health club with a library and school.
-Contained shops, libraries, restaurants, exercise yards, swimming pools, middle was a garden with sculpture

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Circus Maximus

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-Used for chariot races
-Shaped like a football stadium

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Colosseum: (flavian amphitheater)

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-Principal innovation in theater design: amphitheater.
-Gladiatorial contests and mock battles
-Seating rose in tiers
-Bottom covered with wood: underneath were chambers
-Curved outerwall of four superimposed arcades.
-Stone arcades incorporated engaged columns.

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Forum of Pompeii

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civic open space. Same as the Greek agora.

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Forum Romanum

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Each added by an emperor commemorating a significant military achievement.
-Clear architectural definition and its rectangular shape dominated by a temple of Jupiter at one end of the axis of the forum.
-Giving it shape would be buildings, housing, offices, and a basilica that surrounded it

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Insulae

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-apartment houses.
-Three/four stories
-Built with brick and concrete
-Poor work

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Villa [house of Pansa]

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-In Pompeii- typifies the arrangement of a single story Roman town house.
-Relative closure to the street and inward focus
-Symmetrical floor plans
-Entrance connected with a large public room (the atrium), open to the sky through an opening in the roof and ringed with cubicles
-Roof of the atrium pitched inward, so that rain water would drop down
-Axis behind the atrium was principal public room…beyond was peristyle, then reception room.
-Around the house were small residences on the east side, six small shops opening to the street on the south etc. provided income for the owner
- Cities were the building blocks of the Empire: center of trade and commerce

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Pantheon

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best symbolizes the Roman enclosure of space
o Temple to all gods
o Dome symbolized the universe of earth and the realm of the gods. (earth as disk with dome as heavens)
o Built with concrete
-The hemisphere rests on a drum of equal height, so the distance from top to bottom is the same as the width of the dome (perfect sphere)
-Only source of light is the oculus or eye.
-Concrete exerts downward thrust, diverted by 8 barrel vaults in the drum wall to eight piers.
-Between piers are nitches were statues were placed
-Hidden from the front by a large colonnaded rectangular forum in front that prevented view of the dome
-Exterior plain; interior with colored marble..marble floors/walls
-Sums up the roman achievement. Exploits concrete to its fullest…vast scale

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Basilica of Maxentius

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-Covered by three groin vaults, with three chambers on each side.
-Each side chamber covered by a barrel vault could accommodate additional court proceedings.

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Basilica Ulpia

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large roofed building where legal cases were heard by judges, and the public could listen. (contained 2 concentric internal colonnades.
-Long rectangular building placed adjacent to a forum, it had an internal encircling colonnade, with an apse at one end where judges could sit.
- Center of the apse would be an altar acknowledging the spiritual presence of the emperor

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Maison Carree

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temple: dominated the Roman forum. One of the most preserved Roman temples. (Nimes, France), “square house.”
-Clear rectangular geometry
-Imperial building