Examples include the aqueducts of Rome, the Baths of Diocletian and the Baths of Caracalla, the basilicas and Colosseum. The use of vaults and arches, together with a sound knowledge of building materials, enabled them to achieve unprecedented successes in the construction of imposing infrastructure for public use. In smaller-scale architecture, concrete's strength freed the floor plan from rectangular cells to a more free-flowing environment.įactors such as wealth and high population densities in cities forced the ancient Romans to discover new architectural solutions of their own. The freedom of concrete also inspired the colonnade screen, a row of purely decorative columns in front of a load-bearing wall. More daring buildings soon followed, with great pillars supporting broad arches and domes. Innovation started in the 3rd or 2nd century BC with the development of Roman concrete as a readily available adjunct to, or substitute for, stone and brick. However, they did not feel entirely restricted by Greek aesthetic concerns and treated the orders with considerable freedom. ![]() The Romans produced massive public buildings and works of civil engineering, and were responsible for significant developments in housing and public hygiene, for example their public and private baths and latrines, under-floor heating in the form of the hypocaust, mica glazing (examples in Ostia Antica), and piped hot and cold water (examples in Pompeii and Ostia).ĭespite the technical developments of the Romans, which took their buildings far away from the basic Greek conception where columns were needed to support heavy beams and roofs, they were very reluctant to abandon the classical orders in formal public buildings, even though these had become essentially decorative. The period from roughly 40 BC to about 230 AD saw most of the greatest achievements, before the Crisis of the Third Century and later troubles reduced the wealth and organizing power of the central governments. Stylistic developments included the Tuscan and Composite orders the first being a shortened, simplified variant on the Doric order and the Composite being a tall order with the floral decoration of the Corinthian and the scrolls of the Ionic. The classical orders now became largely decorative rather than structural, except in colonnades. They moved from trabeated construction mostly based on columns and lintels to one based on massive walls, punctuated by arches, and later domes, both of which greatly developed under the Romans. The Romans only began to achieve significant originality in architecture around the beginning of the Imperial period, after they had combined aspects of their originally Etruscan architecture with others taken from Greece, including most elements of the style we now call classical architecture. ![]() Roman architectural style continued to influence building in the former empire for many centuries, and the style used in Western Europe beginning about 1000 is called Romanesque architecture to reflect this dependence on basic Roman forms. Few substantial examples survive from before about 100 BC, and most of the major survivals are from the later empire, after about 100 AD. ![]() 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. Large numbers remain in some form across the former empire, sometimes complete and still in use to this day. 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. 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. ![]() The two styles are often considered one body of classical architecture. 70-80) Centre: Panorama of the interior of the Pantheon from Rome (114-123 AD) Bottom: The Maison Carrée from Nîmes (France), one of the best-preserved Roman temples (circa 2 AD)ĥ09 BC (establishment of the Roman Republic)-4th century ADĪncient 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.
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