Discussion Forum Question Unit 7
Describe the layout and function of the various kinds of dwellings used by the Ancient Romans in the cities and countryside.
In the previous studies in unit 6, we learned that Romans were in influenced by Greeks in so many ways and among others was in the works of Art where the Romand began adorning their buildings with Greek ornaments (Morey, 1901). Generally, the Romans have drawn architectural inspiration from the Etruscans as well as the Greeks.
In ancient Rome the dwelling kinds were referred to as domus meaning “house” in Latin. These were taken to mean a structure designed for either a nuclear or extended family and located in a city or town (Becker, J., 2017).Thedomus was the type of house occupied
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their use is unknown), Cubiculum (Bedroom) ,Culina (the kitchen in a Roman house)- was dark and gloomy and smoke filled the room because there was no chimney, where slaves prepared food for their masters and guests in Roman times and Posticum which was a servants' entrance which was also used by family members wanting to leave the house unobserved.
A schematic of a domus can be similar to the picture below:- Courtesy of www.khanacademy.org
Another kind of apartment in Roman architecture was an Insula (Plural Insulae, which meant Island in Latin). This apartment building housed most of the urban population of ancient Rome including ordinary people of lower or middle class status (plebs) and all, but the wealthiest from the upper middle class (the equites) (Crystalink, n.d.). The Insulae could be up to six or seven stories high.
Example of Insula is shown in the picture below. Courtesy of www.khanacademy.org
There was also another kind called Roman Villa. A Villa was originally a Roman country house built for the upper class (Crystalink, n.d.). The earliest examples of building grouped into this category, sometimes referred to by then Villa rustica (country Villa), are mostly humble farmhouse in Italy (Becker, J.,
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It is noted that an ideal Villa is internally divided into two zones. The urban zone for enjoying life (pars urbana) and the productive one (Pars rustica) (Becker, 2017).Villa often focus internally around courtyards and atrium
In the calsarium they used a tool to scrape dirt off of their bodies which was called a strigil. The last room for the Roman baths was the frigidarium (cold room) where the people dip into a cold pool to get the rest of the dirt off. The bath houses were free to some to people or people would have to pay a reasonable amount of money to access/use them. The Romans had roads for transportation or trading. The roads sped up the time for long distance trade.
As a matter of fact, the system of entrance and exit of the Colosseum is another important aspect to explore how significant the impact caused by the Roman social structure on the architecture design is. Corresponding to strict arrangement of seating, after arriving at the Colosseum, the spectators are able to find out the specified entrance and exit routs for different social classes.7 Colosseum has an efficient network of vaulted passageways consisting eighty archways serving as entrance and exit.8 Without a doubt, it is certain that the entrance for the emperor is separated from the gates opening for the crowds. Among the eighty archways, there is only one special entrance used by the most powerful men with a great contrast to the public entrance. The walls leading to the special entrance have rich decoration, such as painting and stuccoes.9 Additionally, in order to achieve the efficiency as much as possible, the “admission tokens”10 with numbers of the seats are created to “enable the public spectators to go directly to the proper entrance for reaching their own seats”.
- Much is made of the temples and public buildings of ancient Greece, for good reason. But what were the houses of the average Greek citizen like? You will have to do some outside research for this topic. Include architectural descriptions and historical background information.
If you were a poor Roman citizen living in a Roman city, chances were you were living in a cramped apartment building know as Insulae . The vast majority of the people living in Roman cities lived in cramped insulae which were generally three to five stories
Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 106. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 106. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 106. Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 109 Frank Sear. Roman Architecture (London: BT Batsford Ltd, 1989), 59. Darryl A. Phillips, “The Temple of Divius Julius and the Restoration of Legislative Assemblies under Augustus”, Phoenix 65 (2011): 382 Stamper, The Architecture of Roman Temples, 130 Sear, Roman Architecture, 58 Sear,
As the Romans traveled on many conquests they came in contact with some highly developed cultures, especially the Greek lifestyle, which encouraged the spread and development of their innovations in architecture, engineering, literature, and art.
Moreover, Magness describes Roman public latrines as places to not only do one’s business but also to carry on a conversation with peers. In Rome, latrines were not designed for privacy, but for necessity. They were basically long rows with numerous
A Roman Villa was a upper-class country house built for Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. A Roman Villa is a brilliant architecture complexes and were decorated with paintings and sculpture. A Villa of a wealthy Roman family was much larger and more delightful than a regular standard Roman house. A Roman Villa had multiple rooms. The multiple rooms included a triclinium (dining room), peristyle (garden), impluvium (pool), culina (kitchen), and cubiculum (the bedrooms). Some Roman Villas had sloping roofs, covered in broaded tiles. The Roman Villas windows were covered with blinds of linen, but most likely covered with shutters of wood. The very wealthy had glass windows. Roman villas had water straight piped to them. Lead pipes brought water to the villa.
The idea of courtyard goes back to Neolithic Times. It was conceived for such needs as providing protection from natural forces : weather, wild life or human invasions. Later on, it was transformed in functional architecture that can be characterized by its design, structure and environment uses. Apart from its climatic functions, the cultural aspect has the same importance.
The design and structure of a city is as important as the people who dwell within her walls. The placement of streets and the structures built there are carefully plotted for optimal use. Foot and cart traffic, fire hazard, and access to water were all key factors in city planning. Eventually the Romans had fine tuned their design principals in such an advantageous way that they molded all of their city states similarly.
Gathering information regarding Roman architecture, from the aforementioned time period, providing both background as well as references to Roman architecture.
Ancient Roman structures are truly amazing! I really found all of them fascinating,but the one that was the most surprising to me were the Insulae (Insula is Latin for “island,” plural insulae). There were so many people living in Rome at that time, and they needed to create and build shelter for their community. In Roman architecture, and Insula was sort of apartment building that housed most of the urban citizen population of ancient Rome this included ordinary people of lower- or middle-class status (the plebs) and all but the wealthiest from the upper-middle class (the equites). Like modern apartments buildings, an insula might have a name, usually referring to the owner of the building. Living quarters were typically smallest in the building’s
There are three types of meals in ancient Rome Ientaculum (which means breakfast) started with a glass of water and the ientaculum which at this
The architecture “norm” for aristocratic homes was in the Shinden-zurkuri style, “which was clearly based on the principle that the individual parts of the building should be merged as much as possible into the garden” (Yoshida, p.12). The main building, named the Shinden, represented the area reserved for the master himself, and always opened up to the south side of the garden. There were corridors, or tai-no-ya, connecting the Shinden to the rest of the buildings in the complex. There corridors created an enclosure which is where a lake would be placed and where the stroll garden was erected.
The Romans and Greek houses were similar, yet different. The Roman houses usually composed of many stories, but many of the Greek houses didn’t, due to their lack of concrete. The Romans had many rooms in their houses, usually each for a specific purpose. Greeks, on the other hand, had many of their rooms dedicated to gods, and only a few rooms. Many Greeks had their houses made out of pebbles, clay, or mud, which had to be kept up, since it would wear away and disintegrate. Greek houses were planned around a courtyard with a garden and statues in it.