ETRUSCAN AND ROMAN ARCHTECTURE

7. ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS, CHARACTERS, INFLUENCES AND FEATURES/

DECORATIONS with text and illustration

 Roman’s Materials
o The earliest buildings built in and around Rome were made of tuff, a type of
volcanic rock of varying hardness, which could be worked mostly with bronze
tools. Later, harder stones were used, like peperino and local albani stone from
the Alban hills. During the empire, the most common stone used for building
was travertine, a form of limestone quarried in Tivoli, as used on the exterior
of the Colosseum in Rome. Marble was used only for facing or decoration, or
sometimes in mosaics. Coloured marbles and stones like alabaster, porphyry
and granite, were also popular, as exemplified by the remains of Hadrian's
Villa at Tivoli. The majority of domestic homes were made with a variety of
unburned bricks faced with stucco
o The Romans used many materials to create everything from masonry pastes to
walls and flooring.
o These are few of the materials used;
Chalk – Sand – Pozzolanic concrete – Broken pottery – Pumice stone – Lime
– Sandstone – Marble – Granite Building materials and tools •Wood
•Terracotta •Ceramics •Tin •Iron
o Similarly to today, the Romans used many different tools to survey the land
and construct buildings.
o These are a few of the tools that were use: » Dioptra » Leveling staff » Groma
» Axes » Adze » Lathes » Saws » Planes » Flies » Calipers Building materials
and tools •Saw blades •Folding rule •Chisels •Gouges •Hammer •Square
•trepan
 2. Building Feature and Character
o BUILDING FEATURE
o 1. Columns
Tuscan- plain, without carvings and ornaments — represents one of the
five orders of classical architecture and is a defining detail of today's Neoclassical
style building
 C omposite- column style that combines characteristics of the ancient Greek-era
Ionic and the Corinthian columns. Composite columns have highly decorated
capitals (tops). Typical of the Corinthian capital, the floral ornamentation of the
Composite capital is styled after the acanthus leaf.`

2.ARCH AND VAULT

o An arch is a very strong shape as no single spot holds all the wight and is still
used in architecture body
o The Romans uses arches to support the things they built
They built victory arches, buildings and, aquedcuts
3. Barrel or Tunnel Vault
A vault having semi-circular cross-section, windows can be place at any place
These vaults requires buttressing to counter act the downward thrust of weight

4.Groin Vault
Also called a cross vault , a compound vault formed by the perpendicular
intersection of two vaults forming arched diagonal arrises called groin

5. Multi Groin Vaults

A series of groin vaults can have open lateral arches that from Clerestories.
Windows that allow light into the interior of churches

6. Dome
Is a vaulted structure having a circular plan and usually the form of a portion of
a sphere, so constructed as to exert an equal thrust in all directions.
With the dome, the Romans could surpass earlier cultures by their ability to
span.
o ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER.
o Roman architecture proper may be said to have lasted from the first to the
fourth century a.d. The Romans adopted the columnar and trabeated style of
the Greeks, and joined it to the Arch, the Vault, and the Dome, which it is
presumed they borrowed from the Etrus cans, and the union of these two
elements of arch and beam is the keynote of the style. The Colosseum (No. 36)
at Rome is a good example of the junction of these two great constructive
principles. As it has been pointed out, the piers between the arches on the
different storeys are strengthened by the columns applied to them ; and thus
the columns without doubt act the part of buttresses] the column has become
part of the wall, and does not any longer carry its entablature unaided. This
introduction of the arch as an architectural form led, through the basilica, to
the construction of those glorious Gothic cathedrals, which were erected in the
Middle Ages. We have been accustomed, in Greek architecture, to buildings of
only one storey in height ; now, however, owing to the varying needs of the
Romans, we find buildings of several storeys ; and the orders, with column
and entablature complete, are piled one on top of the other. Thus the orders
ceased to be a constructive element, and became decorative features. The
Temples follow in the main the Greek type, but with far less refinement in
design and detail. The great Baths for recreation and study, the Amphitheatres,
Aque ducts, Bridges, Tombs, Basilicas, and the Fora, are the proofs of Roman
greatness. Herein was shown great constructive ability, and a power to use the
materials to hand, with the best possible results (see page 61 in Examples as to
the Baths of Caracàlla). Conquest, wealth, and power were the ideals of the
 Roman, and these are well expressed in the architecture which has come down
to us

 Influences from other culture

o Roman architects absorbed a great deal from Etruscan art and design, and had
huge respect for both Greek architecture and Greek sculpture. They also
learned from Egyptian pyramid architecture and stonework
•The Romans were indebted to their Etruscan neighbours and forefathers who
supplied them with a wealth of knowledge essential for future architectural
solutions, such as hydraulics in the construction of arches.
•Later they absorbed absorbed Greek and Phoenician Phoenician
influence,influence, apparent apparent in many aspects closely related to
architecture; for example, this can be seen in the introduction and use of the
Triclinium in Roman villas as a place and manner of dining. •Roman
architecture flourished throughout the Empire during the Pax Romana
 Ornaments and Decorations
o Ornaments
Mosaic-used on walls floors etc., with the following patterns
Opus- Tesselatum or Verniculatum – made of square shapes
 Opus sectile or Sculatum- usually cut in various shapes and used
on walls

Opus Spicatum- used specifically on floors and is often in

Chevron or Herringbone pattern

o Mural Paintings
 Etuscans Materials
o Etruscans built their temples of wood, clay, with terracotta roofs
and ornaments. Were it is usually built out of the local tufa and
travertine Today the wooden superstructures have almost entirely
disintegrated. Only the stone foundations and the terracotta roofs
and decorations remain
o Etruscan people built their houses from wood and mud brick
 Building Feature and Character
o Roman writers described an Etruscan temple as a high podium on
which rose a broad, square building with gabled roof, wide
overhang, and deep porch. Inside, three dark chambers ended in
solid walls. In front of the temple was an augural area, where
priests stood to observe messages from the gods in the flight of
birds. A tiled roof protected the perishable wooden or mudbrick
building blocks below. Half-round "cover" tiles protected the joints
of a first layer of flat "pan" tiles. The end of a row of cover tiles
was capped with a terracotta antefix. An array of terracotta fittings
shielded important beams and joints. Revetments included frieze
plaques to cover longitudinal beams, and gutters or simas to draw
off rainwater. Beam ends, where exposed to the elements, were
sheathed with rectangular columen or mutulus plaques.
o Etruscan temples had a stone room, the cella, on the inside, and
they were on a platform that raised them above the ground. And,
like Greek temples, they had peaked roofs and columns.

o
 Influences from other culture
o They learned from the Greeks and the Phoenicians to build big
stone temples for their gods.
 Ornaments and Decorations
o The exteriors of both Greek and Roman temples were originally highly
decorated and colourful, especially in the entablature and roofs, and this was if
anything even more true of Etruscan temples. When wood was used for
columns, the bases and capitals were often encased in painted terracotta.

o Acroterion
an architectural ornament placed on a flat pedestal called the acroter or plinth, and
mounted at the apex or corner of the pediment of a building in the classical style
o The Apollo of Veii
was part of an acroterion group
is a life-size painted terracotta Etruscan statue of Apollo (Aplu), designed to be
placed at the highest part of a temple