THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE 2

TOPIC: ROMAN ARCHITECTURE

REPORTERS:ESTRADA, MICHELLE S.CUEVAS, CAREN V.

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE

ROMAN ARCHITECTURE The Roman architecture is utilitarian, practical, because the Romans

are pragmatic in spirit. Most of the Roman buildings are for civil use, not religious.

Romans invented materials and construction techniques that allow them to build multi-storey buildings – concrete, brick and the arch. Ceramic is the most durable material in the world. Indoor plumbing, hypocaust heating.

Roman engineers no longer depend on the landscape, they can alter it to their needs.

ROMAN ARCHITECTURAL REVOLUTION also known as the Concrete Revolution was the

widespread use in Roman architecture of the previously little-used architectural forms of the arch, vault, and dome.

Roman Utilities

Aqueducts – using arcades to deliver water to cities from mountain sources.

Bridges – permanent crossings of rivers. Roads – for army use and trade. Amphitheaters – for mass entertainment, not culture or arts. They

have 2 parts – Theatron for spectators and Arena for performance. No religious significance.

Baths – community centers with attached library, gym, swimming pool, spa and conference rooms

ROMAN AQUEDUCTS

Roman Bridge

Roman Road

Ancient Roman Theatre

Ancient Roman Baths

Political Architecture

The Forum – center of public life and trade. The largest is the Forum of Trajan. Rectangular shaped with public buildings around it. Second forum build by Constantine I in Constantinople.

The Triumphal Arch – built by Emperors as a symbol of Victory in war. Oldest is the Arch if Titus. Last is the Arch of Constantine the Great. They have inscription about the event – primary source. Usually built near the Forum.

The obelisk – precedes the arch, same meaning

Private Architecture

The Roman house – accommodates the extended family. Comfort and durability.

Well decorated – mosaics, wall paintings. The Roman villa – a cottage in the country or by the

sea, eventually some of them developed into country estates.

The Roman Temples

Roman temples were built close to the forum. Religion was a very public function in Rome. Temples accommodate several gods. Emperor Hadrian built the temple of all gods – Pantheon. Romans often built round temples accessible trough only one door. Some have internal atrium. Greek columns were borrowed, but the orders were mixed; often only decorative.

Christian basilicas were build in the 4th and 5th centuries – have the shape of a cross.

Roman Basilica

ORIGINS & EVOLUTION

Roman architects continued to follow the guidelines established by the classical orders the Greeks had first shaped: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Corinthian was particularly favoured and many Roman buildings, even into Late Antiquity, would have a particularly Greek look to them.

The Romans did, however, add their own ideas and their version of the Corinthian capital became much more decorative, as did the cornice - see, for example, the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome (203 CE).

The Romans also created the composite capital which mixed the volute of the Ionic order with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian. The Tuscan column was another adaptation of a traditional idea which was a form of Doric column but with a smaller capital, more slender shaft without flutes, and a moulded base. The Tuscan column (as it came to be known in the Renaissance period) was especially used in domestic architecture such as peristyles and verandahs.

The Romans also favoured monolithic columns rather than the Greek approach of using several drums stacked on top of each other. 

Three Important Elements of Successful Roman Architecture: Ancient Roman Architecture has endured for about 2,000 years because the Romans perfected the use of the three elements:

The Arch The Vault The Concrete

The Arch One of the Rome’s most important contribution to the world of architecture was

the development of the arch. The Romans were the first to use the form of the arch to create monuments

that commemorated victories of war. One of the Rome’s most important contribution to the world of architecture was

the development of the arch. It consists of the two supports, called piers, each topped by a platform called an impost. Angled blocks of brick or stone, called voussoirs [voo-swars’], are placed on the imposts in an arched, curved pattern that is capped by the central block of the arch called the keystone.

A row of arch is called arcade. Arches allowed the Romans to create wider, taller, and lighter structures. They also learned that if they built arches entirely the walls of their building would become even stronger.

Arch of Titus

Arch Of Constantine

Parts of an Arch

Different Types of Arch

The Vault A vault is a ceiling of brick, stone, or concrete built in the principle of

the arch. Are extended arches and then Romans used them to create large

open rooms and high covered passageways.

Different types of vault

Concrete

Concrete was probably the greatest Roman contribution to Architecture. Roman concrete, also called opus caementicium, was made with a special Roman mortar or cement, called caementa, created by mixing water, lime, and a special volcanic ash sand, called pozzolana, that gave the Roman caementa its special strength.

It was a material used in construction during the late Roman Republic through the whole history of the Roman Empire.

Roman concrete was based on a hydraulic-setting cement. Recently, it has been found that it materially differs in several ways to modern Portland cement.

It is widely acknowledged that roman concrete is the most durable type of cement of its kind due to its use of volcanic ash. 

Types of Concrete

The four main types included: (1) Opus quadratum concrete, a type of ordinary stone walling that was used to face important public buildings.

(2) Opus incertum concrete, the most popular facing for ordinary concrete walls, prior to the Imperial era.

(3)Opus reticulatum concrete, similar to opus incertum but with pyramid-shaped stones.

(4) Opus Testaceum concrete, a type of brick/tile-facing which became the most widespread form across the empire.

(5) Opus Mixtum concrete, a combined brick/stone facing, popular with later empire architects during the Diocletian period.

Roman Buttress

Building Techniques: Arch, Vault, Dome In Architecture, however, the romans absorbed some important

techniques from the Etruscans before Greek influence was decisely felt. This included the arch and the vault, which were destined to carry Roman Engineering into a development directly away from that of Ancient Greece, who preferred “post and lintel” building methods to arches and domes

The vaulting technique used by the romans were the simple geometric forms: the semicircular barrel vault, the groin vault, and the segmental vault. The vault surfaces were typically covered with stucco or tiles. An excellent example of Roman vaulting is the Basilica of Constantine and Maxentius in Rome.

The mastery by Roman Architects and Engineers of the Arch, vault and dome further enhanced by their “development of concrete”.

CHARACTERISTIC

Rome produced very little distinctive creative art.

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The Romans cut off rather than absorbed the one significant development on Italian soil, the Etruscan, and turned to import decadent Greek sculptors, decorators, and painters to give a Hellenistic surfacing to their culture. In the aesthetic scales the contribution of mighty Rome weighs more lightly than that of tiny states such as Sumeria and Siena.

Hellenic moderation and reasonableness became Roman practically and Roman swagger.

Banks of columns crowned by the rich Corinthian capitals; on every side a profusion of vulgarized Greek ornament, interspersed with the new panels of Roman relief sculpture: in all, a wonderful display of grandeur and exhibitionism.

Influence of Ancient Greece

The most obvious Hellenistic gift was the series of Greek Orders of architecture - Doric, Ionic and Corinthian - from which the Romans developed two more: Tuscan and Composite (variants of the Greek Doric and Corinthian styles, respectively). In general, Roman Doric, Ionic and Corinthian Orders were slenderer and more ornamented. Columns tended to be left unfluted, but the fascia of the entablature, left plain by Greek architects, was heavily decorated.

Obelisk An obelisk (UK: /ˈɒbəlɪsk/; US: /ˈɑːbəlɪsk/,

from Ancient Greek: ὀβελίσκος obeliskos; diminutive of ὀβελός obelos, "spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. These were originally called "tekhenu" by the builders, the Ancient Egyptians. The Greeks who saw them used the Greek 'obeliskos' to describe them, and this word passed into Latin and then English. Ancient obelisks were often monolithic (that is, built with a single stone), whereas most modern obelisks are made of several stones and can have interior spaces.

The Ancient Romans were strongly influenced by the obelisk form, to the extent that there are now more than twice as many obelisks standing in Rome as remain in Egypt. All fell after the Roman period except for the Vatican obelisk and were re-erected in different locations.

The largest standing and tallest Egyptian obelisk is the Lateran Obelisk in the square in front of the Lateran Basilica in Rome at 105.6 feet (32.2 m) tall and a weight of 455 tons.

Architectural Character

VASTNESS & MAGNIFICENCE OSTENTATION & ORNATENESS

The Colosseum

The Colosseum (also spelled “Coliseum”) Measuring some 620 by 513 feet (190 by 155 meters), the Colosseum

was the largest amphitheater in the Roman world. Unlike many earlier amphitheaters, which had been dug into hillsides to provide adequate support.

The Colosseum was a freestanding structure made of stone and concrete. The distinctive exterior had three stories of arched entrances–a total of around 80–supported by semi-circular columns. Each story contained columns of a different order (or style):

At the bottom were columns of the relatively simple Doric order, followed by Ionic and topped by the ornate Corinthian order.

Located just near the main entrance to the Colosseum was the Arch of Constantine, built in A.D. 315 in honor of Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at Pons Milvius.

Arch Of Constantine

Ancient Roman Architects

Rabirius

Rabirius  Rabirius was an ancient Roman architect who lived during the

1st and 2nd Century AD. His designs included the massive Flavian Palace, situated on the Palatine Hill at Rome, and the Alban Villa at present-day Castel Gandolfo, both erected on a commission by his patron, emperor Domitian.

It has been suggested that Rabirius designed the extant Arch of Titus, a commemorative arch.

Arch of Titus

The Flavian Palace

Vitruvius Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 BC, died after c. 15 BC),

commonly known as Vitruvius, was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer and military engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled De architectura.

By his own description Vitruvius served as an artilleryman, the third class of arms in the military offices. He probably served as a senior officer of artillery in charge of doctores ballistarum (artillery experts) and libratores who actually operated the machines.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio 

Apollodorus of Damascus (Greek: Ἀπολλόδωρος) was a Greek engineer, architect, designer and sculptor from Damascus, Roma Syria who flourished during the 2nd century AD.

Apollodorus was a favourite of Trajan, for whom he constructed Trajan's Bridge over the Danube, for the 105-106 campaign in Dacia.

He also designed the Forum Trajanum and Trajan's Column within the city of Rome, beside several smaller projects. Apollodorus also designed the triumphal arches of Trajan at Beneventum and Ancona. He is widely credited as the architect of the third iteration of the Pantheon, and cited as the builder of the Alconétar Bridge in Spain. In 106 he also completed or restored the odeon begun in the Campus Martius under Domitian.

The Pantheon

The Pantheon (from Greek, meaning “of all gods”) Is considered as the crowning achievement of Roman Architecture and it

is the best preserved building dating from ancient Roman times. It is famous for it’s round design and dome. The whole building is based on the circle. The porch has a rectangular shape and is topped by a triangle-shaped

roof gable called a pediment. It is roofed with a hemispherical vaulted roof that also contains a 30-foot

diameter circular-shaped opening at it’s top called the oculus. based on stylistic evidence, Apollodorus of Damascus, Trajan's

architect, was the obvious architect of this structure.

“MAGRIPPALFCOSTERTIVMFECIT” Above the entrance, carved in stone, are the words M. AGRIPPA L. F. COS. TERTIUM FECIT which is

translated, "Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, in his third consulate, made it." This basically says that "Agrippa built the Pantheon." However, as with many parts of the Pantheon, this is somewhat paradoxical, because, in fact Agrippa did not make it! 

The building we see today as the Pantheon is not actually the original building by that name. The first incarnation of the Pantheon was built by Agrippa, the son-in-law of the Roman Emperor Augustus, about 25 B.C. The first building was a traditional rectangular Roman temple made of travertine (limestone rock). Although it was on the same site, it was oriented in a different direction. 

As with many ancient cities, Rome suffered the tragedy of large fires in 60, 64, 79, 100 and 110 A.D. The first Pantheon was severely damaged during a fire and was rebuilt by Domitian. That building was destroyed in another fire, supposedly caused by a lightning strike. The Emperor Hadrian built the temple we know today as the Pantheon during the period 118 to 128 A.D. There was a tradition in Rome to rebuild temples like the previous one. Apparently in this case, the only thing to survive in the new temple was the inscription over the portico, which probably gave the new building an important social and political connection to the past.

Oculus is a latin word that means, “eye”.

Hyginus Gromaticus

Hyginus Gromaticus (Gromaticus from groma, a surveying device) was a Latin writer on land-surveying, who flourished in the reign of Trajan (AD 98–117). Fragments of a work on legal boundaries attributed to him will be found in C. F. Lachmann, Gromatici Veteres, i (1848) and in Carl Olof Thulin, Corpus agrimensorum Romanorum, I Opuscula agrimensorum veterum, Leipzig 1913. The 'surname' Gromaticus was falsely attributed to Hyginus: There is only one reading in the manuscripts (Arcerianus A 161) which ascribes the work to a KYGYNVS GROMATICVS. The other mss. give the work the title LIBER HYGINI GROMATICVS, so undoubtedly the book was called Liber gromaticus.

A treatise on Roman military camps (De Munitionibus Castrorum), was formerly attributed to him, but is probably of later date, about the 3rd century AD (ed. W. Gemoll, 1879; A. von Domaszewski, 1887) and is now attributed to "Pseudo-Hyginus".

Hermodorus of Salamis

Hermodorus of Salamis was an ancient Greek architect from Salamis, Cyprus who was highly active in Rome between 146 BC and 102 BC, where his work includes the Temple of Jupiter Stator (2nd century BC) and Temple of Mars. He also inspired Vitruvius and led the construction of the Navalia.

Temple of Jupiter

Cyrus (architect)

Cyrus was a Greek architect who lived in Rome in the times of Cicero. He died the year 53 BC, the same day Publius Clodius Pulcher was killed. It is known that he may have never married or had children even though some resources point that his great-grandchildren were friends of Quintus Mucius Scaevola. He worked as an architect for Cicero, who mentions him as the author of outstanding works in Ad familiares 7.14, Ad Atticum2.3, Ad Quintum 2.21 and Pro Milone 17.