Ancient Roman architecture | EPFL Graph Search

Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. Roman architecture flourished in the Roman Republic and to even a greater extent under the Empire, when the great majority of surviving buildings were constructed. It used new materials, particularly Roman concrete, and newer technologies such as the arch and the dome to make buildings that were typically strong and well-engineered. Large numbers remain in some form across the former empire, sometimes complete and still in use today. Roman architecture covers the period from the establishment of the Roman Republic in 509 BC to about the 4th century AD, after which it becomes reclassified as Late Antique or Byzantine architecture. Few substantial examples survive from before about 100 BC, and most of the major sur

Architecture Without Content 11: Roman Architecture

Kersten Geers, Jelena Pancevac, Giovanni Piovene Porto Godi, Dries Rodet, Andrea Zanderigo

This book presents the first part of an investigation in the possibility of a universal territorial architecture with a radically simple materiality. Essentially, our contemporary iteration of the Roman project is a negotiation of the European territory through the architectural project. Europe here has to be understood as a cultural and geographic entity with an enormous cultural diversity but a fascinating cohesion. The Roman project is an attempt to understand this territory as an Even Covered Field. If Europe has originally been the cradle in which the figure-ground relationship developed, it becomes now of utmost importance to look again into the place of its obsolescence. Our studio’s core interest is to better ‘define’ the even covered field and to look for tools to design in it. Manoeuvres that are capable to create hierarchies and points of reference are crucial to aspire for a certain order in a world increasingly hard to grasp. For all this, Roman Architecture is our guide, as we believe it is precisely in this proto-architecture that we find the kernel of an enlarged understanding of the architecture of hierarchies. It is about time to revive this radical and simple idea of a proto-architecture, as it might give a valuable answer to our current and fundamental desire to build without waste, to embrace a veritable equilibrium between living, working and the world. It is now that we can develop fundamentals of sustainability, not through silly rhetoric, but through the re-development of an ancient relationship between man and territory, since any architecture should celebrate the act of building as a substantial effort produced by any society in a necessary long-term perspective. Roman Architecture has the disproportionate ambition to create a base for this endeavour. It is presented here as a treatise, owing a lot to the impressive tradition developed in western architecture in the past six centuries, after the Renaissance started reworking the seminal work by Vitruvio. Its most direct ancestor is the Entwurf für eine Historische Architektur by Fisher von Erlach, although also the Recueil et parallèle des édifices de tout genre, anciens et modernes … by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand plays a fundamental role in the final definition of its content. In the course of the research, three meta-chapters have been defined, like magnetic cores able to coagulate certain constellations of projects, to organize them meaningfully. The overall collection comprises—as an echo of the organization of the Entwurf—sixty ancestors, spanning from the Pyramids of Cheops to Patchinko Parlor III, plus fifteen new projects that bridge between these. Together they present a possible canon of a universal territorial architecture with a radically simple materiality.

2015

The ancient Chinese opera spiral wooden domes

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jingxian Ye

The zaojing is an ancient architectural element that is widely found in various public buildings, such as temples, pagodas, palaces, and theatres. It is a richly decorated sunken ‘dome’ with a round top and a square bottom set into the ceiling and assembled from a large set of pieces using purely interlocking wood connections. In ancient times, the secular activities, like festivals, gatherings and celebrations, were always closely related to religious worship. They consequently formed the most important public place in the area. In these ancient opera stages, zaojings were frequently employed for their structural, aesthetic and acoustic properties. Despite their unique qualities, zaojings are poorly documented. This paper is based on a field research into existing opera wooden domes in Shanxi province (north) and Zhejiang province (south), which has revealed at least six types of Zaojings. This study concentrates on the spiral wooden dome, its typology, its construction process and its restoration.

2019

Architecture Without Content 11: Roman Architecture

Kersten Geers, Jelena Pancevac, Giovanni Piovene Porto Godi, Dries Rodet, Andrea Zanderigo

2015