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• This section will cover the architecture of the

civilizations from 0 to 400 ce :

• Roman Architecture
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The Founding of Rome
• Rome assumed uncontested control
over the Mediterranean basin 146
bce .
• The religious life of the Romans
centered on the temples of Etruscan
style.
• The civic heart was the Comitium; a
meeting place
• The Comitium was a shallow circular
amphitheater in front of the council
chamber, or curia, Not building but a
templum, which was a sacred space
laid out on a north-south axis.
• The buildings were arranged around
a n open public space the “forum”
• The Basilica, for public services, was
two stories of arcades overlooking
the forum.
The Roman Forum
• The forum is the urban square in Roman architecture. All functions are organized 0
around it. Center of the Roman city.
• Served as a public area in which commercial, religious, economic, political, legal, and
social activities occurred
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Temple of Fortuna at Praeneste, Italy
• 35 kilometers east of Rome
• Spectacular series of terraces, colonnades,
exedras, and porticos on four levels
descending down the hillside
• linked by monumental stairs and ramps,
designed by an Anatolian or a Greek
• The uppermost terrace was crowned by a
double L–shaped Corinthian colonnade
that framed a colonnaded semicircular
theater
• Behind this, on the central axis, stood a
small round temple, or tholos, cut partially
out of the rock, indicative of a particularly
sacred site
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The Basilica

• A building type invented by the

Romans,
• Rectangular buildings somewhat
similar to a Greek stoa
• Except that they had a central
aisle that tended to be higher
than the flanking aisles so that
light could penetrate through
clerestory windows beneath the Basilica Armalia
roof of the higher center
section.
• The buildings served as law
courts and as places where legal
matters could be transacted.
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Concrete

• Romans invented concrete.

• Exploiting the potential of the
new material, several kinds of
vaults were used, including
ramping and ringed forms.
• Later, a new form of cement,
known as pozzolana- made from
volcanic ash, was invented.
• Pozzolana properties allowed for concrete wall
building under water which
facilitated the design of ports
and harbors.
• Roman concrete consisted of
three parts: hydrate lime,
pozzolan ash, and a few pieces
of fist-sized rocks.
• formwork was constructed of uncut stones Tufa placed around a
core of cement.
Brick finish
wood in the desired shape
Three types of Roman concrete walls
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Vitruvius
• Vitruvius Pollio (70–25 bce) composed a
treatise entitled De architectura (“On
Architecture”), known today as the Ten Books
on Architecture.
• The book contains a vast amount of useful
information on construction materials, choice
of site, and even the education of an architect
• he argued that the three orders—Doric, Ionic,
and Corinthian—should be governed by
proportions unique to each.
• quotes from Vitruvius
• Architecture depends on fitness (ordinatio) and
arrangement (dispositio); it also depends on
proportion, uniformity, consistency, and Corinthian capital
economy.
• Proportion is that agreeable harmony between
the several parts of a building,
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The Colosseum
• Built in 72–80 ce
• Derives its structural strength from
its concrete vaults
• Was the first one that was designed
as a freestanding object.
• It is elliptical in plan and could hold
fifty thousand spectators, with boxes
for the emperor and dignitaries at
the centers of the longer sides.
• The system of attached columns and
arched openings allows for a
balanced interpretation of structure
and mass
• The 53-meter-high wall was divided
into Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian
layers. The fourth story had no
openings
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The Colosseum
• Partial section and elevation: Colosseum
 0 The Imperial forums
A remarkable urban composition.
• There are no streets and no spatial or axial
• connections between the spaces.
• The elements are simply bonded to each other to create a sequence
of open, colonnaded, and enclosed spaces

Figure ground: Imperial forums

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Column of Trojan Plan: Imperial forums

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Nabateans and Rock-Cut
Architecture
• The Nabataean architectural legacy
is best preserved in the city of Petra
• On this site, temples, theaters, and
hundreds of tombs—all cut into the
rock of the steep mountains that
surround the Petra Valley
• a 1.6-kilometer-long Siq leads to the
city
• The site was fitted with well-
developed systems of water control
and storage, including rock-cut
cisterns and ceramic pipes
• Romans later added a Roman city
with all its elements in the middle
of the valley.
Plan : Khasneh al Faroun, Petra
0 The Pantheon , Rome
• The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian
columns. Eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind under
a pediment
• A rectangular vestibule links the porch (Greek style) to the rotunda
(Roman style).
• The dimensions of the interior height and the diameter of the dome
are the same, ~43m.
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The Pantheon , Rome
• The dome is made of concrete:
• The concrete is thinner at the top,
and thicker near the base.
• The density of concrete is lighter
towards the oculus (volcanic stone)
• The oculus, as well as being a
beautiful and unique feature to admit
light, also reduces the weight of the
dome.
• Ceiling was however most unusual,
being made of bronze.
• Rectangular tubes of bronze (the first
waffle slab)
0 Arch of Constantine, Rome
• To commemorate victory
• 21 m high, 25.9 m wide and 7.4 m deep
• Three archways
• A staircase formed in the thickness of the arch
• Brickwork covered with marble
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Roman Cities
• A Roman city had streets, squares, fountains, baths, gates, memorial columns, and
public buildings that formed a type of skeleton around which the rest of the city
grew
• At the core of the city was the forum, the political and economic center of the
city’s activities.
• Timgad in Algeria and Miletus in Turkey are perfect examples of the rigorous
application of the grid in some Roman cities

Miletus
Timgad
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
Typical Cardo and Decumanus plan
• 1) Umayyad mosque;
• 2) Possible Islamic administrative
center;
• 3) Umayyad 'House’ and potential
market area (suq);
• 4) South tetragonia –
• 5) Macellum & Southern Cardo;
• 6) Oval Piazza - domestic quarter;
• 7) Zeus temple forecourt;
• 8) Hippodrome and Bishop
Marianos church;
• 9) SS Peter and Paul church;
• 10) Churches
• 11) Christian complex of two
churches, a bath
• 12) Artemis compound
• 13) church;
• 14) North Theatre
• 15) Umayyad mosque
• 16) Central cardo. (Copyright ©
Alan Walmsley/ IJP)
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
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Roman City of Jerash, Jordan
Next 400 ce