ROMAN

ARCHITECTURE

SUBMITTED BY:- KUMAR VIPUL

BARCH/15021/14
Roman Architecture
• As with public buildings, the
Romans borrowed heavily from
two cultures that they conquered
– the Etruscans and the Greeks.
• Elements of Roman architecture
show very significant Greek
influence.
• However, Roman functional Model of an Etruscan Temple
needs sometimes differed,
resulting in interesting
innovations.
• The Romans were less attached
to “ideal” forms and extended
Greek ideas to make them more
functional
• Romans needed interior
space for worship,
whereas the Greeks
worshipped outside.
• Their solution was to
extend the walls
outward, creating
engaged columns, while
maintaining the same
basic shape.
2.Roman Innovation :
• Roman orders:
• To the original Greek orders,
the Romans added two:
• The Tuscan order.
• The Composite order.
Tuscan order

• Tuscan order: Like the Doric,

except this one has a base

• The Composite order combined

elements of both the Ionic and
Corinthian.
• It appears to be Corinthian
acanthus leaves, supplemented
with volutes.

Composite Order
• Engineering style:
• The Romans were the great
engineers of the ancient world.
• Their structures, particularly of
public works, were often massive in
scale.
• The Roman ability to build massively
was largely determined by their
discovery of slow-drying concrete,
made with pozzolana sand.
• This allowed not only bases, but also
walls to be constructed of mainly Ruins of the Basilica of Constantine
concrete or concrete and rubble.
• Facings could be made of more Materials:
expensive stone or inexpensive brick. Limestone
• The result was strong structures that Concrete
could be formed in any desirable
shape. Mortar
Arches:
They used half point or
semicircular arches
They could use lintels
above these arches
Pediments were
combined with them
• The Arcaded Arch • Romans did not invent this form, but
they used it well in bridges, within
buildings, and to allow aqueducts to
span rivers and gorges.
• Building systems:
• Lintelled:
• Copied from the Greeks
• Spaces are closed by
straight lines
• Vaulted
• Taken from the Etrurian
• Use of arches
• Barrel vaults
• Use of domes
• Strong walls so that they do
not use external supports

• Composite Walls

• Note the use of a brick

outer facing and a fill of
concrete and rubble.
• Walls were made in one of these ways:

Ashlar Masonry Brick

3.Architectonic Typology:Featuring public
Building:
Roman Architecture has a rich typology
that includes:
• Religious building: temple
• Civil buildings:
• Public: basilicas, baths
• Spectacles: theatre, amphitheatre, circus
• Commemorative: Triumph arch, column
• Domestic: house, village, palace
• Funerary: tombs
• Engineering works:
• Bridges
• Aqueducts
 A) Forums:
• Forums were cultural centres in cities.
• They were often placed at the crossroads of
important urban ways: cardo maximus and
decumanus.
• A great porticated square was the centre of a
group of buildings around it.
• They were communicated through it.
• Temples for Imperial worship, schools,
basilicae, markets or even termae had a direct
access through forum.
• In many cases even buildings for spectacles -
circus, theatres and amphitheatres- were
communicated so.
• Forums were a way in for important persons to
tribunals.
 B) Roman Public Water Supply
Pont de Garde Aqueduct, Nimes

• Aqueducts were built in order to

avoid geographic irregularities
between fountains or rivers and
towns.
• Not only valleys were crossed by
superposed cannels, but also
mountains were excavated by long
tunnels, pits and levels of
maintenance.
• They were used to bring water to
cities
• The Romans transported
water from far away to cities
via aqueducts.
• Cities themselves were
plumbed, providing private
water for the rich and for
baths and communal
supplies for poorer
neighborhoods.
C) Roman Entertainment Venues :
 The Roman Colosseum :
• The Colosseum seated 50,000 spectators, and
was used for gladiatorial contests and public
spectacles such as mock sea battles, animal
hunts, executions, re-enactments of famous
battles, and dramas based on Classical
mythology.
• The building ceased to be used for
entertainment in the early medieval era.
• It was later reused for such purposes as
housing, workshops, quarters for a religious
order, a fortress, a quarry, and a Christian
shrine.
• Although in the 21st century it stays partially
ruined because of damage caused by
devastating earthquakes and stone-robbers,
the Colosseum is an iconic symbol of Imperial
Rome.
• It is one of Rome's most popular tourist
attractions and still has close connections with
the Roman Catholic Church, as each Good
Friday the Pope leads a torchlit "Way of the
Cross" procession that starts in the area around
the Colosseum.
 Spectacles: Theatre • Public spectacles – be they
gladiatorial combat or theatrical –
were given public venues.
• Theatres and arenas were built to
hold multiple thousands of people
and were engineered so as to allow
quick and effective entry and exit.
• It is similar to the Greek but it is not
located in a mountain but it is
completely built
• It has a semicircular scenery
• The doors to facilitate peoples’
movement are called vomitoria
• It does not have the orchestra
because in Roman plays was not a
chorus
• The rest of the parts are similar to
those of the Greek theatre
 Spectacles: Circus

• It was a building for horse races and cuadriga

competitions.
• It has the cavea, the area and a central element
to turn around, the spina.
 Ampitheater at Nimes :
• It comes from the fusion of two
theatres
• It was the place for spectacles with
animals and fights (gladiators)
• There could be filled with water for
naval battles.
D) Ports and Lighthouses:
• Roman ships and those for commercial
trade should travel from port to port with
the speed and security adequate to the
life of a great Empire.
• In these ports every necessity for the
execution of the usual works in a port
ensemble should be found:
• gateways with stores and bureaux,
• shipyards for stationing ships,
• roads for taking ships to earthly
ground,
• drinkable water fountains and
• machinery for loading and
downloading merchandises.
• Indeed, a system of indication was
necessary in order to mark the right
access and exit to the port.
E)Roman Worshiping Places:
• It copied the Greek model
• It has only one portico
and a main façade
• It tends to be
pseudoperiptero.
• The cella is totally closed
• It is built on a podium
• Instead of having stairs all
around, it only has them
in the main façade
 The Pantheon: • There were other kind of
temples:
• Circular: similar to the Greek
tholos.
• Pantheon: combined
squared and circular
structures and was in
honour of all gods.
• The magnificent interior space
of the Pantheon was achieved
by:
• Employing a dome over a
drum.
• Coffering the dome to
reduce weight.
• Placing an oculus to allow
light to enter.
 The Temple of Fortuna Primigenia:

• The Temple of
Fortuna Primigenia
was a massive
structure, made
possible by concrete
construction.
F) Roman Housing:
 Insulae:

• Large apartment
buildings housed most of
the population of a
Roman city.
• There are urban houses
• In order to take
advantage from the
room in cities, buildings
up to four floors were
constructed.
• The ground floor was for
shops -tabernae- and the
others for apartments of
different sizes.
• Every room was
communicated through a
central communitarian
patio decorated with
flowers or gardens.
 Domus:
• It was the usual housing for important
people in each city.
• It was endowed with a structure based
on distribution through porticated
patios:
• the entry -fauces- gives access to
• a small corridor -vestibulum-.
• It leads to a porticated patio -
atrium-.
• Its center, the impluvium, is a bank
for the water falling from the
compluvium.
• At both sides -alae- there are many
chambers used as rooms for
service slaves, kitchens and
latrines.
• At the bottom, the tablinum or
living-room can be found, and close
to it, the triclinium or dining-room.
• This atrium gave also light enough
to next rooms.
• At both sides of the tablinum, little
corridors led to the noble part of
the domus.
• Second porticated patio
peristylium, was bigger and
endowed with a central garden.
• It was surrounded by rooms -
cubiculum- and marked by an
exedra used as a chamber for
banquets or social meetings.
 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.
G) Road Construction: • The need to move regions and trade
goods in all weather led to the
development of the best roads in the
world (to the 19th century).
• Paved roads were needed to reach to
any point of the empire
• They facilitated both communication
and political control
• The roads were made with strong
foundations
• Different materials were put into
different layers
• To meassure the distance they
created the Milliarium or stones
located in the sides
Section of a Roman paved road
H) Civic Buildings: • Basilica were first built
to house audience
facilities for government
 Basilica: officials.
• When Christianity
became the state
religion, this kind of
building was adapted to
Christian worship.
• A large nave is flanked
by side aisles behind a
row of supporting piers.
• An Apse draws attention
in the direction of the
altar.
• It was the residence of
the tribunal
• It is rectangular and has
different naves
• The central nave is higher
and receives light from
the sides
• The building ends in an
apse
• It is covered with vaults
• Barrel over the central
nave
• Edged over the lateral
naves
 Baths of Caracalla:
• Roman baths were the recreation
centers of Roman cities, incorporating
pools, exercise facilities and even
libraries.
• They could serve hundreds or
thousands at a time
• 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
• .
Caracalla´s Bath House
I) Bridges:
• Roman engineers were true masters building them, since constructions
were essential elements for reaching places and cities often situated at the
bank of rivers.
• This location was due to defensive and infrastructural reasons -supply and
drainage.
• They are characterised by:
• Not pointed arches.
• Constructions of ashlars masonry often with pad shape.
• Route of more than 5 m. wide.
• Route of horizontal or slightly combed surface "few curved".
• Rectangular pillars from their basis with lateral triangular or circular
cutwaters that end before the railings.
Conclusion:
• The Romans were brilliant
engineers.
• Their innovations form the
basis of much of our civil
engineering today.
• The public lifestyle of the
romans was very much well
developed and was
organised .
• Roman empire is still known
for its public buildings.