College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Architecture 170 - Fall 1996 - Dell Upton - September 26
I. ROMAN SPACES. Urban Space. Domestic life: domus, taberna and insula. The domus: a single-family urban courtyard house with fauces/entry, atrium, often with compluvium and impluvium, tablinum/major room, alae/wings, cubiculae/bedrooms, and later with peristyle garden, often furnished with triclinium (Pompeii: House of Pansa; House of Vetti). Housing the poor: the taberna. High density housing: the insulae of Rome and Ostia, with ground floor domus or tabernae, upper-story cenaculae/apartments. (Wine shop, Macauly).
Public Facilities for Private Life. Water supply: the aqueducts of Rome Aqua Appia (312 BCE) is first; 9 by time they are described by water commissioner Frontinus in 97 CE. Sanitation: the Cloaca Maxima, begun 6C BCE. Foricae/ pay latrines. Roman baths: evolve from private, pay balnae to the free public thermae of the Imperial period. The bathing ritual and its architectural parts: Stabian Baths, Pompeii, 2C BCE. Note: dressing room, tepidarium, caldarium, frigidarium. Hypocaust heating systems. the palestra and other associated facilities. Monumentalizing bathing: Baths of Caracalla (Thermae Antoninianae), Rome, 211-16 CE. (Baths of Caracalla: Plan detail; Interior reconstruction).
Bread and Circuses. Circuses, theaters and amphitheaters. Flavian Amphitheater/Colosseum, Rome, 80 CE. Note: plan, composite stone, brick and concrete structure. The munera. (The Collosseum: Section cutaway; Interior).
The Roman Forum as a Central Public Institution. Forum at Pompeii, various dates. Note: plan, Capitolium, market (Tajan's Market), comitium, basilica. The Imperial Fora, Rome: a coordinated group of fora built over 150 years by successive emperors from Julius Caesar to Trajan. Note: Forum Julium/Forum of Caesar (54-46 BCE) and temple of Venus Genetrix; Forum of Augustus (2 BCE) and temple of Mars Ultor; Forum of Nerva, Temple of Peace/Forum of Vespasian; Trajan's Forum, 109-113 CE (forum, Basilica Ulpia, Trajan's column). Trajan's Market, 109-113 CE.
II. IMPERIAL SPACE. Attempt to spread Roman civilization through the empire by use of urban institutions (forum, amphitheater, basilica) and rectilinear town plan. Origins of the Roman plan: Pompeii, founded as native town 6C BCE, enlarged ca. 520-450 BCE, taken over by Romans 80 BCE. Note: location of old and new fora, rectilinear blocks and perpendicular axes (Pompeii, Forum Civile). The Roman colonial town: square blocks organized by east-west decumanus and north-south cardo. Exs.: Thaumgadi/Timgad, Algeria, founded 100 BCE; Venta Silurum [Caerwent, Wales]. Roman rural planning: limitatio/centuriation, also rectilinear, based on base decumanus. (Basilica Ulpia, Rome)
Regional Ideas in Imperial Dress: The sanctuary at Colonia Julia Augusta Felix Helipolitana [Baalbek, Lebanon], built over nearly 3 centuries up to ca. 250 CE. Note: temples of Jupiter Helipolitana (with enclosed courtyard, tower altar), Bacchus, Venus. (Baalbek reconstruction).