History of Architecture I

Lecture V
Roman Architecture

Unity University
Department of Architecture and urban planning
Feb, 2023
Lecture contents
 Historical Background
 Architecture of the Civilization
 Roman Buildings
 Roman city Planning and Design
 Architectural Characteristics
Learning Outcomes
We should expect to learn the following about the civilization
 Structural revolution and invention of new materials
 Innovative use of structural solutions in engineering and
buildings structures
 The invention of new building types for different purposes
 The invention of functional space in architecture
 The use of the orders as decorative elements in design
Historical Background
Location
 Roman architecture refers to the architecture of Rome and of the
Roman Empire
 The Roman Empire was one of the largest early empires in history,
stretching from England in Northern Europe to the Ancient Near East
and Africa
 Rome, located on the Italian peninsula was the capital of the empire.
 From the capital, an infrastructure of roads and communication
systems was established to connect the whole empire
 Rome is today the capital of Italy
Roman empire
117 AD
Historical background cont’d
Period
 The city of Rome was founded in 753 BC.
 Roman civilization with Rome as capital lasted for more than a
thousand years.
 The history of the civilization can be divided into three
periods;
 Etruscan Period 753-510 BC
 Republican Period 510 –44 BC
 Imperial Period 44 BC –476 A.D.
Cont’d
Etruscan Period
 Romans fix the date of the founding Rome at 753 B. C.
 Prior to this date, the Etruscans established an urban culture in the Italian
peninsula, which reached the height of its development around 600 B.C.
 They had conquered and established their authority over a loose
federation of cities
 Rome at its foundation was a minor city and became a colony of the
Etruscans
 Rome was ruled by Etruscan Kings aided by a popular assembly
 Towards the end of the 6th century B.C., Etruscan power began to decline.
Cont’d
Republican Period
 After the expulsion of its Etruscan Kings, Rome gradually assumed leadership
of a number of settlements for mutual defense
 This gradually led to the expanding influence and dominance of Rome
 By 273 B. C. Rome became the established dominant force in the region
 It conquered its rivals, defeating
 Cathage in 146 B.C.,
 Macedonia in 168 B. C.,
 Greece in 146 B.C., and
 Syria in 64 B. C.
 With time Rome also developed a system of Representative government.
Cont’d
 Rome was government by a body of elected male
representatives of the population known as the Senate
 This is why the period is referred to as republican or in
other word democratic
 Towards the end of the last millennium B.C. Rome entered
into a series of civil wars which brought about the rise of
some military dictators, of which Julius Caesar was the
most successful.
 This brought about the end of the republican period
Cont’d
 Following a series of civil wars that ended in 27 B.C. Caius
Ocatavius, who later took the name Caesar Augustus
assumed the title of emperor
 This ushered in the Imperial period of Roman history
 Emperor Augustus undertook a significant reorganization of
the Roman Empire
 The golden age of architectural development was witnessed
during this period and he revitalized national life and created
new building works.
Cont’d
Imperial Period
 Augustus was credited with saying that he met Rome a city of
brick and left it a city of marble
 Later it was to transform to a city of concrete
 The 3rd century A.D. was a period of political confusion in
the Roman Empire
 The Barbarian people living in the north of Europe started
attacking the Empire
 In 286 A.D. Roman Empire was split into two;
 a western empire and
 an Eastern empire
Cont’d
 Emperor Constantine was able to reunite the Empire again in
324 A.D. and established a new capital for the empire at the
city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople
 After his death, the Empire was split again and each had a
different destiny
 In 476 A.D. the western empire with its capital at Rome fell
after century of attacks by Vandals and Visigoths ending the
history of that part
 The Eastern Empire with its capital at Constantinople survived
and became the focus of a civilization that lasted until 1453
A.D. when it was sacked by the Ottoman Turks
Social Characteristics & Beliefs
Social Life
 Roman society had an active social life
 The forum was the center of social life; it is very similar to the
Greek Agora
 The forum was the place for social, political, recreational and
religious activities
 Romans participated in a lot of entertainment activities.
 These activities include spectator sports such as drama, chariot
racing, and gladiatorial contest
 They also had new unique social activities such as recreational
bathing.
Cont’d
Religious Beliefs
 Roman people were not deeply religious, particularly during
the early part of their development
 They did not have religious beliefs and mythologies of their
own, but borrowed from societies they come into contact
with.
 Contact with other people always resulted in changes to their
culture, art and way of life
 Most of their religious beliefs were borrowed from the
Greeks, and like the Greeks, they also believed in a number of
Gods
Cont’d
 The state spent money to built temples to the various
gods
 Public assemblies, such as senate meetings, war victories
and most state functions were always started with
sacrifices to a particular god in his temple
 The religious well being of the individual Roman was his
own concern
Cont’d
System of Government
 The System of government in ancient Rome was democratic
 During the Republican period, Government consisted of two
elected consuls, a senate and judiciary
 The consuls acted as the executive arm of government
overseeing the activities of the senate, army and other
executive institutions such as tax collectors and police
 The senate was an assembly of selected land owners, the
upper class of Roman society, who approve budgets and
suggest laws
Roman Architecture
Early Influences-The Etruscans

 The Earliest civilization in the region around Rome

were the Etruscans
 The Etruscan civilization existed in the northern part
of what is now Italy, prior to the formation of the
Roman Republic.
 They brought sophisticated Eastern and Greek
culture to the region.
Cont’d
 Not much has survived of Etruscan
buildings to the present however.
 The temple shown in the image is a
reconstruction of a typical Etruscan
temple
 The Etruscans introduced another
order of architecture
 This order, known as the Tuscan
order became popular with the
Romans
Cont’d
The Tuscan order had a simpler base
and the shaft was without flutes
 The capital and entablature were
also without decoration
 In proportion it is similar to the
Doric order with a column that is
seven diameters high
 Compared with the other orders,
the Tuscan order looks the most
solid
Engineering Achievement
Structural Innovation-Arches
 The arch was not a new building form, as it had been
known by other civilizations including the Egyptians and
the Greeks
 But the Romans used it to its fullest potential
 The arch is an organic structure with the elements of the
arch resting on each other and transferring load to the
column
 It was particularly useful over doors and openings
Cont’d
 With an arch, there are no tensile
stresses as all the forces are in
compression and building stone has
enormous compressive strength
 Up to a certain point also, the more an
arch is loaded the stronger it becomes
 Arches were used over doors and
openings and sometimes, they are built
over a lintel to deflect the load to the
surrounding walls.
arch
Cont’d
Vaults
 Vaults are used to cover an area as a roof
 The simplest of the vaults is the Barrel vault, which is just
made up of an arch extended over a certain distance
 It can be adapted to suit different types of plans by making
simple modifications to it
 The disadvantage of the vault is that it exerts a continuous
load and therefore needs some form of continuous
support
 It is also difficult to light the space under a vault except
from the ends. The Romans invented unique ways of
overcoming these difficulties
Cont’d
 The cross vault was created from the barrel
vault to overcome some of the problems of
the ordinary vault
 This is formed by intersecting two barrel-
vaults at right angle and is called a “groin
vault”
 The weight of the groin vault is
concentrated at the corners eliminating the
need for continuous support
 The opening of the space in 4 directions
means that ample light can be provided to
the area below it
Cont’d
Concrete
 The Romans were the first to develop concrete
 The concrete developed by the Romans is different from
modern concrete and is made up of lime, sand and water
 Around the 2nd century BC, Pozzolana or volcanic ash was
also added
 Concrete did away with the need for stone quarries
 It also did away with the need for the shaping and
transportation of stone and for high skilled labor for
stonemasonry
Cont’d
 Concrete has the advantage that it can
be cast in any shape and in far larger
sizes than the megalithic blocks of
stone used in buildings
 With concrete, it was possible to
construct monolithic vaults and arches
 Concrete buildings were normally
faced with other materials to hide the
ugly look of the concrete.
 Fired brick used as formwork was the
most popular covering material use of brick on outer facing and filling of
concrete rubble
Cont’d
Dome
 A dome is a vaulted structure
having a circular plan and usually the
form of a portion of a sphere, so
constructed as to exert an equal
thrust in all directions
 Romans used domes to span and
cover very large open spaces.
 They used it in many public
buildings like basilicas, the pantheon
etc.
Cont’d
Structural elements
 The structural revolution introduced by the Romans enabled
them to introduce a variety of new civil structures and building
programs never seen before their time
 The ability of the Romans to create large structures enabled
them to build significant civil structures including aqueducts,
bridges and sewers
 The Romans lived principally in cities and generally cities need
a steady supply of fresh water
 Rome itself was projected to have a population of more than a
million at the peak of its power
Cont’d
Road and Bridges
 The Trojan’s Bridge Alexandria is an example of
ancient Roman structural achievement
 It is also amongst the most impressive of the
surviving Roman bridges
 The bridge consist of tall piers and wide
spanning arches
 The central arches are slightly above 27 meters in
length
 The roadway is carried 48 meters above the River
 A commemorative arch stands at the center of the
Bridge; the commemorative arch bears the name of
the architect of the bridge
Cont’d
Aqueducts
 Aqueducts were used to supply
water to Roman cities
 The Pont Du Gardis probably the
most magnificent of the Roman
aqueducts
 It was constructed around 50 A.D.
to supply water to the city of
Nimes
 The Aqueduct in some places is
almost 50 meters above the deep
valley of the River Gard
Cont’d

 The Aqua Claudia is also another

example of Roman aqueduct
 The Aqua Claudia was one of the
eleven aqueducts that supplied
Rome with water
 The aqueduct supplies water to
Rome over a distance of 66
kilometers
Roman Buildings
Roman Buildings
Introduction
 The focus of Roman building design was on functional spaces
 The Roman people demanded buildings of various functions from
the Roman architect
 The architects were able to respond, creating buildings that answer
to their functional requirement by providing appropriate interior
spaces
 The buildings types include theaters, amphitheaters, basilicas,
circuses, basilicas, temples and baths
 All of these buildings were erected within the dense fabric of the
city
 We will examine each of these building types
Cont’d
Theaters
 The Romans adopted the Greek theater
transforming it into something Roman
 There was an expansion of the stage and
the whole theater was contained within a
high-unbroken wall
 The Greek Theater was blended into the
landscape
 In contrast, the Roman Theater was an
urban form located in a flat city
 The structure of the theater consists of
massive structural arcades on piers
Cont’d
 A purely cosmetic layer of
trabeation was added to the front
 The trabeation was of the Greek
orders and gave scale to the
building
 It also creates a rhythm of solids
and voids on the elevation
 The three orders of Greek
architecture were used on the
theater elevation
 Theaters were built in every
Roman City
Cont’d
Amphitheater-Introduction
 The amphitheater is a roman structure
with no Greek equivalent
 Amphitheatre is a public building used
for spectator sports, games and displays
 Apart from function, the important
outward distinction between an
amphitheater and a theatre is that
amphitheater is round or oval in shape
 An amphitheater was first built in Pompeii
in 80 BC, but the best example of the
Roman amphitheater is the colosseum
Cont’d
Coliseum, Rome
 The Colosseumis an amphitheater in Rome
 Its construction began under the Emperor Vespasianin 72 A.D.
and was completed in A. D. 80
 It was used for spectator sports including gladiatorial combat
 It is said that 9,000 wild animals were killed in the one
hundred inaugural days celebrating its opening
 The Colosseum hosted large-scale spectacular games that
included; fights between animals, the killing of prisoners by
animals and other executions, naval battles via flooding the
arena, and combats between gladiators
Cont’d
Coliseum, Rome
 It has been estimated that about
500,000 people died in the Coliseum
games
 The coliseums elliptical in shape
 It measured 48m high, 188m long,
and 156m wide
 The wooden arena floor was 86m by
54m, and covered by sand
 The coliseum had a seating capacity
for 50,000 spectators
Cont’d
 The Colosseum was ingeniously designed;
most spectacle venues have been
influenced by the Colosseum's structure
into modern times
 The seating formed a uniform elliptical
ring capable of supporting the 50,000
spectator capacity of the facility
 The substructure of the amphitheater is
very much like that of the theater
 Vaulting was used both radially and
concentrically to support the structure
 The Colosseum also had a passageway that opens into a tier of
seats from below or behind
 Each entrance and exit was numbered, as was each staircase
 The passages quickly dispersed people into their seats and
upon conclusion of the event disgorged them with abruptness
into the surrounding streets
 Seating was divided into different sections
 Above the podium was the maenianum primum, for the other
Roman aristocrats who were not in the senate
Cont’d
 The third level, the
maenianumsecundum, was divided
into three sections
 The lower part, the was for
wealthy citizens, while the upper
part was for poor citizens
 A third, wooden section was a
wooden structure at the very top
of the building, added by Domitian
Cont’d
 The most ingenious part of the
Colosseum was its cooling system
 It was roofed using a canvas covered
net-like structure made of ropes, with a
hole in the center
 The Arena where the action takes place
is located at the center of the ellipse
 Underneath the arena was the
"underground", a network of tunnels
and cages where gladiators and animals
were held before contests began
Cont’d
 The arena floor no longer exists, and the
hypogeum walls and corridors are clearly
visible in the ruins of the building
 The orders were used in the elevation in
the same manner as on the theater
 The Colosseum was in continuous use
until 217, when it was damaged by fire
from lightning
 It was restored in 238 and gladiatorial
games continued until Christianity
gradually put an end to some sports
Cont’d
Circuses
 The Romans developed circuses or stadium
for horse and chariot racing
 Every city usually had one located close to the
forum
 The circuses had stalls at one end where the
chariots emerge at the beginning of the race
and a track which they race around
 The structure of the circus is very similar to
that of theaters and amphitheaters
 Circus Maxima is an example of a Roman
Circus
Cont’d
 It is located in Rome and is one of the oldest
 It went through a series of transformation over the period of
its existence
 The image shown is its final form around 400 A.D.
 Its is 600 meters in length by 200 meters in width
 The circus had 3 tiers of seat, and there are stalls for 12 race
houses or chariots
 Each race was of 7 laps covering a distance of about 3.6
kilometers
Cont’d
Bath
 The Romans had a unique need for exercise, bathing and
relaxation and they devised a unique architectural element, the
Bath to address that need
 The roman bath was more that just merely swimming or
washing
 This practice became so popular that at some point, they took
it more serious than their gods
 It was a daily practice of almost all Romans to go to a Bath
once a day to relieve stress
Cont’d
There were spaces for public life
They consisted of different rooms:
 Changing rooms
 Different temperature rooms:
• Frigidarium (cold)
• Tepidarium (warm)
• Caldarium (hot)
 Swimming pool
 Gymnasium
 Library
Cont’d
Bath of Caracalla
 The bath of caracalla is a good
example of a Roman bath and among
the best preserved
 The bath is set free standing within a
square precinct enclosed by walls
 The precinct has a water reservoir to
the south, supplied by an aqueduct to
service its water need
Cont’d
 The reservoir is located beneath a stadium used for athletic contest
 The east and west walls have a curved exedra that defines space for
cultural activities such as library, music performance, philosophical
lectures, etc
 The front wall has a series of shops with the entrance at the center
 The main bath building is rectangular, 225 meters by 115 meters and
is situated within the walled precinct
 It has a perfect bilateral symmetry along its north-south axis
 The bath has a large dressing hall, apodyteriumat the center of the
building
Cont’d
Temples
 Temples were a significant part of roman architecture
 Scores of temple were built during every period
 Most of the roman temples were combination of Etruscan and
Greek prototypes
 The typical temple had an axial plan, an entrance porch with
widely space columns in front
 The temple also had a cella or sanctuary
Cont’d
 The whole temple is raised on a high
podium with frontal steps providing
access
 A good example of the early form of
the temple is seen in Maison Carreein
Nimes
 The best preserved of the temples and
the one showing the highest
achievement in temple architecture is
the Pantheon
Cont’d
Maison Caree, Nimes
 Maison Carree is located in Nimes France
 It was built by the Emperor Agrippa
 The temple shows Greek influence on early
roman temples
 The temple is 26.5 meters long, 15.5 meters
wide and raised on a podium 3.3 meters high
 It is a temple with 6 Corinthian columns in
front, 10 diameters high
Cont’d
 Its podium is three and half times the
height of the entablature with 15 access
steps in front
 It has an entrance porch that is 3 columns
deep
 The temple has a cella that is one and half
times long as its wide
 The walls of the cellahave attached half
Corinthian columns on its visible three
sides
Cont’d
Pantheon
 The Pantheon is the best surviving of all
classical buildings
 It is also represents the highest
achievement of Roman architecture
 It was built between AD 118 and 128 by
the Emperor Handrianon the site of an
earlier temple by Agrippa
 It was built as a temple dedicated to all
the Roman Gods, hence the name
Pantheon
Cont’d
 The Pantheon essentially consist of two
parts; the an entrance portico and a
circular part or rotunda
 The portico is 8 columns wide and 3
columns deep and leads to the
entrance of the temple
 The columns are of unfluted Corinthian
order
 The wall of the rotunda is 3 storeys
high on the outside; they are made up
of brick faced concrete and support
the dome roof of the temple
Cont’d
 The interior has eight large niches with
one serving as the entrance and the
remaining seven used dedicated to the
seven major Roman Gods
 The Dome roof forms a perfect sphere
with a diameter of 142 feet in the
interior
 At the head of the dome is a 30ft wide
oculus, that opens up the great dome
to the outside and illuminates the space
with light
Cont’d
Basilica
 Basilicas are among the most important categories of roman
architecture
 There were no basilicas before the Roman era
 The basilica are rectangular and usually contained interior
colonnades that divided the space into aisles at one or both
sides, with an apse at one end
 The central aisle tended to be wide and was higher than the
flanking aisles, so that light could penetrate through the
clerestory windows
 The function of the basilica is close to that of the Greek stoa
Cont’d
 It is also the place where magistrates to hold court to dispose
of legal matters
 The oldest known basilica, the Basilica Porcia, was built in
Rome in 184 BC
 The most splendid Roman basilica is the one constructed for
traditional purposes during the reign of the pagan emperor
Maxentius and finished by Constantine after 313
 In the early Imperial period, a basilica for large audiences also
became a feature of the palaces
 We will examine the Basilica Ulpia and the Basilica Maxentius
Cont’d
 The Basilica Ulpia was built by Emperor
Trajan in the period A.D 98-117 for his
imperial forum
 Basilica Ulpia stretches for 120 meters in
length over the width of the Trajan forum
 The Basilica consists of a central hall, 25
meters wide surrounded on all sides by
double colonnades
 The Basilica had two semi-circular apses at
it’s two ends
Cont’d
Residential Buildings
 Roman cities had a range of various types of
private dwellings
 The private dwellings reflected the rank and
wealth of the inhabitants
 At the lowest level are the multi-story
tenements where a large proportion of the
population stayed
 They consisted of shops on the ground floor
and apartments on the upper floors
 The apartments were built around a courtyard
for light and air
Cont’d
 The common roman house was
the domus
 These were reserved for the
more well off members of the
Roman society
 The domus was essentially a
courtyard house, with a peristyle
colonnaded courtyard
 It had few or no windows to the
outside
Cont’d
 At the high end are elaborate
palaces and villas for the very rich
 The Domus Augustana, also called
flavian’s palace, is an example of the
high-end residential palaces
 Domus Augustana was both a
house for the emperor as well as
his palace for official functions
Cont’d
 It was laid out around two peristyle
atriums
 The atrium to the left is for state function
 Entry is from an inconspicuous door from
the top
 The residential part of the palace is
arranged around the courtyard located to
the right
 To the right of the residential part is a
sunken garden in the form of a stadium
 This is the private garden of the emperor,
where he can interact with nature
Cont’d
Houses: Villa
 Houses far from cities, were thought for
realizing agricultural exploitations –villae
rustica-, or else as places for the rest of
important persons -villae urbana-.
 Entertaining villa was endowed with
every comfortable element in its age as
well as gardens and splendid views.
 Country villae got stables, cellars, stores
and orchards apart from the noble
rooms.
Cont’d
 Romans also built country villas or
houses, where they could go to be
close to nature
 A very good example of the country
villas, is the Handrian’s villa built for
the Emperor Handrian
 The Handrian villa displays an example
of the level of wealth displayed in
buildings
 This was a large country estate spread
on a vast terrain
Other architectural elements
 Arch of Constantine
 The arch was built in A.D. 81 and
dedicated to the emperor Titus
 It was built to commemorate the
military victory over Jerusalem in A.D.
70
 The arch has a height of 15.4 meters, a
width of 13.5 meters and was
constructed of stone
 The marvel of its stone construction is
evident in the keystone, which ensures
the stability of the arch
Cont’d
 The arch of Constantine was
built much later that than of
Titus
 It was built to commemorate
the victory of Emperor
Constantine over Maxentiusin
A.D. 312
 Its form shows an attempt to
create an arch more majestic
than that of Titus
Cont’d
 It has three arched openings, a
larger one in the center flanked
by two smaller ones
 There are four free standing
columns in front framing the
arched openings
 It is also abundantly decorated,
depicting the victory in relief
sculpture
Roman City Planning & Design
Principles
 Roman cities fall into two broad
categories
 Majority grew in an unplanned
manner over the centuries
forming complex organic entities,
to which sometimes order was
introduced
 Rome is a good example
Cont’d
 The other category consist of Castrum
type cities, a type of military camp
developed with an inflexible regularity of
shape-
 A well preserved example is the city of
Timgadin North Africa
 This was a city laid out by Trajanin A.D.
100 as a colony for military veterans
 The town was laid in a grid of 12 blocks
within a square 1,200 feet wide
Cont’d
Republican Forum
 Additions, modification and growth by
successive republicans and emperors
led to its development
 By 400 A.D. the forum had
accumulated not less than 10 temples,
4 basilicas, 4 triumphal arches and
many other monuments and shrines
 All of these were arranged with no
preordained order
 The buildings therefore loosely define
the space of the forum
Leaders of Roman empire
 Augustus  Nerva
 Tiberius  Trajan
 Caligula  Hadrian
 Marcus Aurelius
 Claudius  Commodus
 Nero  Diocletian
 Galba  Maximian
 Vespasian  Constantine the Great
 Valens
 Titus
 Theodosius the Great
 Domitian  Romulus Augustus
Typology and Type of Buildings
 The Ancient Romans were responsible for significant developments in housing
and public hygiene, for example their public and private baths and latrines,
under-floor heating in the form of the
 hypocaust,
 mica glazing, and
 piped hot and cold water.
They were making buildings such as
 Apartment blocks,
 Warehouses,
 public latrines, and
 amphitheaters to improve the living standards of people residing in towns and
cities across the empire.
 Cities
Roman theatre of Aspendos, Turkey
Forum Romanum Basilica of Constantine

Trajan's Forum in Rome

  Aqueduct in Segovia, Spain

Rome, obelisk in top of

Spanish Stairs
The Arch of Titus
Cistern of the Imperial Palace
Work began on the third Pantheon soon
after Hadrian become emperor and
completed by 125 BC
Forum of Trajan, Rome, 112AD.
1) Temple of Trajan,
2) Column of Trajan,
3) library,
4) Basilica Ulpia,
5) forum,
6) equestrian statue of Trajan.
Insulae House
• There are urban houses/multi family house
• take advantage from the room in cities.
Domus House
It was the usual housing for important people
in each city.
Diocleciano’s Palace at Splitz