Assignment 3

As far as Roman Architecture goes, it is difficult to compare it with that of other nations, because the Romans applied architecture to so many and such varied purposes, and so constructed monuments involving both architectural and engineering skill, as to make it doubtful to what class they belonged. The Romans were the first people to treat architecture as a minister to the numberless needs of a great nation. Before them, except in the Greek theatres, it had served the gods, the royal families, and the dead, alone.

Roman Architecture is our connection with the most advanced civilization of its time. In Rome, ancient history ends and modern history begins; and all her story, both the old and the new, possesses a fascination thus far unequalled in history; and that this fascination should ever be equaled by another nation seems now beyond imagining.

Actor: The Romans
Intention: To lead a better life
Act: Invent and build monuments.
Rules: Geometric, physics laws.
Product: amphitheaters, public amusement, temples, durable roads, aqueduct...
Site: Rome

Pantheon

The Pantheon is one of the great spiritual buildings of the world. It was built as a Roman temple and later consecrated as a Catholic Church. Its monumental porch originally faced a rectangular colonnaded temple courtyard and now enfronts the smaller Piazza della Rotonda. Through great bronze doors, one enters one great circular room. The interior volume is a cylinder above which rises the hemispherical dome. Opposite the door is a recessed semicircular apse, and on each side are three additional recesses, alternately rectangular and semicircular, separated from the space under the dome by paired monolithic columns. The only natural light enters through an unglazed oculus at the center of the dome and through the bronze doors to the portico. As the sun moves, striking patterns of light illuminate the walls and floors of porphyry, granite and yellow marbles.





Roman Colosseum

The Colosseum or Flavian Amphitheater was begun by Vespasian, inaugurated by Titus in 80 A.D. and completed by Domitian. Located on marshy land between the Esquiline and Caelian Hills, it was the first permanent amphitheater to be built in Rome. Its monumental size and grandeur as well as its practical and efficient organization for producing spectacles and controlling the large crowds make it one of the great architectural monuments achieved by the ancient Romans.

The amphitheater is a vast ellipse with tiers of seating for 50,000 spectators around a central elliptical arena. Below the wooden arena floor, there was a complex set of rooms and passageways for wild beasts and other provisions for staging the spectacles. Eighty walls radiate from the arena and support vaults for passageways, stairways and the tiers of seats. At the outer edge circumferential arcades link each level and the stairways between levels.

The three tiers of arcades are faced by three-quarter columns and entablatures, Doric in the first story, Ionic in the second, and Corinthian in the third. Above them is an attic story with Corinthian pilasters and small square window openings in alternate bays. At the top brackets and sockets carry the masts from which the velarium, a canopy for shade, was suspended.

The construction utilized a careful combination of types: concrete for the foundations, travertine for the piers and arcades, tufa infill between piers for the walls of the lower two levels, and brick-faced concrete used for the upper levels and for most of the vaults.





Pont du Gard

"This bridge, over the river Gard, is 275 metres (900 feet) long and 49 metres (160 feet) high. It was part of an aqueduct nearly 50 kilometres (30 miles) long which supplied Nimes with water. On its first level it carries a road and at the top of the third level, a water conduit, which is 1.8 metres (6 feet) high and 1.2 metres (4 feet) wide and has a gradient of 0.4 per cent. The three levels were built in dressed stone without mortar. The projecting blocks supported the scaffolding during construction."

— John Julius Norwich. The World Atlas of Architecture. p154






Influence or Roman Architecture in Modern Architecture

The world of architecture has been greatly influenced and affected by Roman architectural design and development. Their innovative designs and influential developments developed centuries ago have provided a basis for architectural masterpieces found across the planet and, what's more, have remained relevant into the 21st Century. While the Romans borrowed many architectural designs from the Greeks and Etruscans. In additions that they did make to the world of architecture changed that world forever. Their invention of cement, their new use of arches and vaults, the development in aqueducts, and the development of road systems brought about change that affected not only the Roman Empire but also the many peoples that that great culture touched in its many travels and conquests. "With the Roman invention of concrete in the first century BC and their growing understanding of the architectural principles of stress and counter-stress, Roman architects were able to experiment with new and elaborate forms of building, many of which were to pass in to the western architectural tradition. (Cunningham and Reich 156)."

Bolzano, Italy, Courthouse in Piazza del Tribunale

Well, what is the relationship of all this ancient architecture styles with the prediction matter on 21 Dec 2012? All i can think of is the cyclical time-line --> Cycle of Civilization. There sure will be time for this world to be ended and destroyed. However, i do believe that REBIRTH of earth will happen. And if that happens, again, the law of the nature will continue as referring to the Cycle of Civilization.