00:00today we're going to talk about ancient
00:01Rome and as we have in our previous
00:04discussions of cultures we're going to
00:06initiate our conversation with a brief
00:08look at some of the ways the human
00:11figure is represented and the way art
00:13begins to set us up for certain
00:15expectations we might have about how
00:18architecture is engaged and developed
00:20within the culture this is of course is
00:23not Roman this is a Greek statue the
00:26famous de rivers by Polly Klaas and I'm
00:29simply showing it to remind you of the
00:33fact that the Romans conquered the
00:34Greeks and in conquering the Greeks they
00:36did not simply discard all that was
00:39Greek but rather they brought Greek
00:41cultural developments philosophical
00:43developments artistic development to
00:45Rome and continued with some shifts for
00:49example will we look at the difference
00:50we noticed that this is a highly
00:52idealized image of a man it is almost as
00:57though the figure is more governed by
00:59geometry the idea of the oval the idea
01:02of the golden proportions embedded
01:05within the disposition of parts and some
01:08kind of classical demeanor of a type
01:11rather than an individual of a calm
01:15universalized passive expression rather
01:18than a figure who is deeply engaged with
01:21the psychological complexities that one
01:23encounters in the world in fact if we
01:26compare a trajectory from Egyptian and
01:30this is our old friend ran affirm we've
01:32discussed before to Greek and here's the
01:35good old Darris to Roman a couple of
01:38conclusions would have to be made one
01:40obvious conclusion is that the Romans
01:42were nowhere near as good-looking as the
01:44Greek and the Egyptians but another
01:47would be that a different set of
01:50interest is at play people are looking
01:53at nature much much more closely to get
01:56specific information about specific
01:58individuals the Roman dust that we're
02:03looking at at the right it's not an
02:05idealized description of an idealized
02:07man governed by mathematics
02:10and cosmological ballads lather is a
02:13portrait this is the individual there's
02:16an individual who is being observed very
02:19closely every little wrinkle every
02:21little bulge in his nose is being marked
02:24because the personality and the personal
02:27contributions of the individual are
02:29beginning to matter more than simply a
02:31abstract type and you see it again and
02:35again this guy well not quite so beat up
02:38as the previous roman we looked at
02:39nonetheless has a kind of broken nose so
02:43that he would be recognizable people
02:44would know who he was
02:46as opposed to this Greek guy over here
02:48who is a little blank stared staring out
02:52blankly the kind of neutral repose on
02:56his face this kind of looks troubled
02:58this kind of quickies thinking hard this
03:00guy looks like he needs a shave this guy
03:03has just come from the beard Weiser
03:05we have Romulus and Remus the legendary
03:09founders of Rome two little boys who
03:11were suckled by the she-wolf and went on
03:14to found Rome to establish Rome and this
03:17is the diagram of rope which represents
03:20the basic constituent ritualized
03:23gestures that Romulus went through to
03:26set up the precinct of Rome a perimeter
03:30plowed and the description of a major
03:33north-south and east-west axis the
03:37statue of the she-wolf by the way is at
03:39Ruskin and it's ancient Korea the
03:43civilization of the Etruscans preceded
03:46the Romans on that site so much of what
03:49we have that is characteristic of Roman
03:51architecture is really a kind of hybrid
03:53of things left over from the Etruscans
03:55and things borrowed from the Greeks
03:57for example the Etruscans had an
04:00architecture which was much more reliant
04:02on bearing walls than on columnar
04:04structures and as we go forward today we
04:07will see evidence of that in Roman
04:09architecture just something that I think
04:12is pretty interesting about this
04:13foundation diagram of Rome the perimeter
04:16with the cross axes and here we have an
04:19augur or a sort of soothsayer fortune
04:21teller in the middle making
04:23that ritualized gesture every time a new
04:26roman town or new roman camp gets laid
04:28out and these are just a couple of
04:30similar diagrams if anybody is Chinese
04:34and doesn't think this is true I didn't
04:37make this up I found it in a book
04:39is this a Chinese ideograms or village
04:42Chinese people true or false
04:44never seen it before so we can pretty
04:47much assume this is also not an Assyrian
04:49diagram for a village or an Egyptian
04:53diagram for village or an Icelandic
04:54diagram for village somebody just made
04:57all that stuff up but if it were true
04:59it's an amazing house it's amazing how
05:01consistent that order extends from
05:04civilization to civilization every Roman
05:07camp has two major axes the Cardo
05:10running north-south and that tends to be
05:14the road on which commerce is organized
05:16little shops little vendors and so forth
05:19and the decumanus a road running
05:22east-west which tends to be the road
05:24that organizes civically important
05:26structures so this is a little diagram
05:29of the Roman town and I just clarified
05:31it by telling you this is the forum the
05:33intersection of the cardo and the
05:35decumanus and these are the roads
05:37leading out of this world
05:39precinct of the town we spoke last time
05:43about a town that is Roman and it's
05:46layout a magnificent town and the great
05:48prairies of the Midwest
05:50what is that town sorry
05:54Columbus yes what's Cardo good what's
05:59Jacquemont us good where's the forum
06:03right the Statehouse excellent and we
06:09also saw how certain buildings like the
06:11Palace of Diocletian and split which is
06:13on the coast of Croatia across the
06:15Adriatic establishes the imprint of Rome
06:19even on these far-flung lands by
06:22basically rehearsing the general layout
06:24of pieces and we noticed also that the
06:28method of execution called crucifixion
06:31by the Romans was not simply the only
06:35thing they could think of to kill there
06:37criminals of state let's say but it was
06:39also a way of reimprinting the symbol of
06:42Rome and using the very symbol of Rome
06:46as the tool for the execution here's a
06:48Roman atrium house this is the atrium of
06:51the courtyard around which it's
06:52organized and this one is fairly
06:54idealized and by idealize I mean the
06:57perimeter wrapper is almost as idealized
07:00as the centre but that's not always the
07:03case here's another example where the
07:06atrium or the courtyards are fairly
07:10clear in their geometric form but the
07:13perimeter goes crazy and the reason the
07:16perimeter goes crazy is that these are
07:17urban buildings they're nested together
07:19you never really experienced the
07:21perimeter because it's above another
07:24building with a crazy perimeter I want
07:27to speak a little bit more about the
07:29organization of the atrium house not
07:31really in terms of how these different
07:33rooms go together but how the center
07:37this courtyard or atrium becomes really
07:40a strong way that irregularities at the
07:43perimeter get held together this is a
07:45good design device for studio and for
07:48those of us who like to speak about food
07:50whenever possible you can call it a
07:52fried egg scheme you know what a fried
07:56egg is that's a fried egg we have many
08:00different kinds of fried eggs I'm sure
08:01all of you have produced some of these a
08:03kind of good fried egg a kind of wobbly
08:06fried egg a fried egg from an egg with
08:09two yolks have you ever had that
08:11experience with industrial farming
08:14probably you never get it anymore but if
08:15you get the organic eggs sometimes you
08:19so what's clear about this the reason we
08:21know that all of these different
08:22organizations are fried eggs is that the
08:25center is so clear the center is so
08:28knowable that any kind of perimeter
08:33idiosyncrasies collect around the center
08:36and can become knowable so if we look at
08:38a series of these little atrium houses
08:41from Pompeii where we have a really good
08:44collection of domestic architecture that
08:47was preserved by the eruption of Mount
08:48Vesuvius you can see that these kind of
08:51might collect my little fried eggs we
08:53have a clear center and an irregular
08:56perimeter here we have a couple of
08:58double yolk two eggs with absolutely
09:00crazy sprawling perimeters and honestly
09:04this is a great scheme in studio if you
09:06can't figure out what to do if you're
09:07absolutely stumped courtyard courtyard
09:11is always a good idea hard to miss with
09:13the courtyard well you'll do it you'll
09:16make a bad courtyard scheme someday but
09:19at least it's a strong organizational
09:21device that begins to make possible not
09:24only formal relationships but also
09:26social and and functional relationships
09:29across the state so now I'm going to go
09:31back a little bit to Roman engineering
09:33much of what is particular about Roman
09:36architecture has to do with the
09:38technology that the Roman made use it
09:41and that allowed them to build in a very
09:44different way than the Egyptians Minoans
09:46the Mycenaeans the Hellenic Greek and a
09:50lot of that had to do with vaulting
09:53volting means the making of arches and
09:57if you take an arch and you spin it
10:00around on its axis you get a dome take
10:04the curvy thing and you spin it and you
10:06get a dome so this is a bridge in Spain
10:09and the Roman Empire extended all over
10:12Europe and North Africa amazing scale
10:15huge thing and it's accomplished by
10:19means of not simply understanding the
10:22geometry of the arch and its ability to
10:25bear loads but also developing new
10:28building materials like concrete there's
10:30a Roman wall for example you've got this
10:34kind of rubble embedded in a concrete
10:37mix that's faced with a harder kind of
10:41brick on the exterior these are examples
10:43of different ways that the Romans nested
10:46the bricks together so that you would
10:47get surfaces that were kind of through
10:50gravity self adherent hard to break down
10:53soft material in the middle hard
10:55material at the perimeter but what is
10:59really characteristic let all this roman
11:00building material is that it's small
11:02it's portable it is not
11:05difficult to move to the site so that
11:07when the Romans come to Spain and they
11:11start building things like the alicante
11:14bridge or the Segovia aqueduct they can
11:17do it with locally available materials
11:19and it's easy to hoist up locally
11:23available materials to these high
11:25elevations because you're not taking
11:28giant megaliths with you
11:31the Segovia aqueduct also represents
11:35another aspect of Roman engineering and
11:37that is simply the miracle of plumbing
11:40or the miracle of introducing water
11:42sources an aqueduct was organized to
11:45bring water down from the mountains on
11:47an incredibly gradual slope so that it
11:50could reappear fresh cool mountain water
11:52in villages that were far away not only
11:56did the Romans bring water to their
11:58outposts but they also drained the
12:00swamps and if you drain the swamps you
12:03reclaim land and you also increase the
12:05general health of people you get rid of
12:07the pestilence of mosquitoes and the
12:09likelihood of cholera by getting rid of
12:12standing water and not only did they do
12:14that but they also provided a system of
12:18roads and bridges that made possible
12:21movement of troops across great
12:23distances very very easily and therefore
12:26expanded the reach of the Roman Empire
12:28and not only did they do that but they
12:31also made plumbing possible
12:32they had toilets the Romans had toilets
12:35if you which I think are a great
12:38invention I have to say I don't know
12:40what people did without them but if you
12:42go to some Roman settlements there's one
12:45in Sicily called Pia piazza armerina and
12:47there's a very well-preserved Roman
12:49toilet there there's a little channel of
12:51water running beneath and there's a
12:54marble bench with three holes cut in the
12:57side like on the town street so if
13:00you're walking around this little town
13:02and you need to go to the bathroom you
13:04pick one of the three holes you sit
13:06there and the running water carries away
13:09whatever you have chosen to deposit so
13:13we spoke about an arch when you are
13:14looking at the aqueducts and the bridges
13:18and the logic of the art has to do with
13:21the different stones and these stones
13:25are called loose wores vou ss oh I are
13:30not a really important word but it's
13:33worth knowing that an arch is made up of
13:35multiple things and they keep a kind of
13:38work like the corbelling that we looked
13:40at earlier when we were looking at
13:42Minoan civilization and civilization
13:45because they keep translating their load
13:47sideways here they do it smoothly they
13:52don't do it through the displacing of
13:54elements they do it in a radial fashion
13:55but each of these elements work together
13:58to create a structure that can span at
14:00great distances the top buspar
14:03is called the Keystone Pennsylvania is
14:06the Keystone State so if you took the
14:08top loose wore out the whole system
14:10would fail that's why Pennsylvania calls
14:12themselves the Keystone State a problem
14:16with a barrel vault is you're always
14:19having these loads kick out sideways
14:21they're always kicking out sideways so
14:23you need a pretty FG massive wall in
14:26order to support the lateral thrust of
14:28all these loads kicking out sideways but
14:31Roman architecture gets a lot of its
14:34power from the masonry so it's it's
14:36something that you find in Roman
14:39architecture and it's not a problem if
14:41you intersect two barrel vaults you
14:43begin to get a more complex vaulting
14:45system the cross bolt or the groin bolt
14:49and here you can have a larger space or
14:53you could have an intersection of two
14:55spaces and this is just the idea of the
14:58arch with the Keystone and the goose
15:00Juarez you want more terms these are
15:02spring blocks that the arch comes down
15:05and rests on and notice there's a fairly
15:08substantial amount of mass here because
15:11the loads coming down from the arches
15:12are coming down diagonally and you have
15:15to have enough mass to absorb that
15:17thrust the construction of Roman arches
15:21and Roman vaults usually relied on the
15:24building of timber formwork here you can
15:26see some form work with seminole
15:28carpenter guy has built a centering out
15:31and then you lay the stuff up and once
15:35the mortar has dried the system becomes
15:37self-supporting so Roman architecture
15:40uses brick and concrete which are cheap
15:44and easily available everywhere
15:46hence Rome expands its its domain
15:51this is just a magnificently drawn
15:54description of Roman Road work because
15:57Rome also had this vast network of roads
16:00that were maybe about I don't know eight
16:03feet deep the roads so they're still
16:06fine you can still find roads like the
16:09Appian Way or the aurelion way and
16:11they're pretty much as good as in the
16:13street and Clintonville or better
16:15because they're so they're so solidly
16:17built and there are different kinds of
16:20stones there are certain flat ones to
16:22walk on there are other ones that water
16:24drains through layer upon layer upon
16:26layer and these are just some aspects of
16:30Roman technology draining the swamps
16:32mining ores making concrete building
16:35sewers having aqueducts building bridges
16:37making mills that run through water
16:39power is so inventive the whole hyper
16:43idealization of the Greek world really
16:46allowed people to try to come to a
16:48mental and intellectual understanding of
16:51the phenomena around them and you might
16:53say that the Roman engagement with the
16:56world was much more practical that
16:58instead of trying to figure out a kind
16:59of mathematical picture that would
17:02explain things they would roll up their
17:04sleeves and start making things that
17:06would solve their problems here's
17:09another type characteristic of Roman
17:11architecture and that's the temple we
17:14saw a temple when we looked at Greek
17:16architecture but Roman temples are
17:19slightly different slightly different
17:20for a number of reasons one reason is
17:24they are frontal and their frontal
17:27because they tend to be in a very
17:28delimited enclosure a courtyard or a
17:32forum so they only have one face that is
17:36primarily accessed by the people there
17:41also bearing wall structures and this is
17:43a really little temple in Rome
17:45called the temple of Fortuna various or
17:47the temple of portunus it as various
17:50named and you can see looking at the
17:53plan how it's working how the columns
17:56are working we see the columns here when
17:58we look at the temple but there works
18:00very differently than the columns in a
18:02Greek temple they are engaged columns
18:05they're embedded in the wall so the
18:08columns on the porch are freestanding
18:10but the columns adhering to the sella
18:13are embedded in the wall there are
18:16almost no longer structure they've taken
18:19on the function of ornament or their
18:21main function is to articulate the wall
18:23so we look at things like the temple of
18:26portunus virilis or we look at things
18:28like a much larger role in temple that
18:31Maison cafe in NIEM and you get the
18:34rhythm you get the idea of the Greek
18:36temple but a totally different idea
18:39about what the interior space is in fact
18:42think about Greek interior space these
18:44are extremely contained hierarchically
18:48segregated spaces that interior space in
18:52Roman architecture becomes something
18:54that gets expanded and expanded and
18:56elaborated on and one reason that that's
18:58possible is because of the technology if
19:01you can start revolting structures you
19:03can begin to develop interior space in a
19:06much much more complex way so just as a
19:09point of comparison here's the Parthenon
19:12and here's the Maison Cafe and the
19:15Parthenon is approached with stairs
19:18ringing the stylobate on all sides the
19:22Maison Cafe is frontal the Parthenon has
19:26timber trusses as its roof support and
19:29and that's a real limit to how big you
19:32can get in terms of interior space now
19:34how big is the wood that you're going to
19:36get at a certain point the wood that
19:38they were going to find in Greece was
19:40really limited because they cut down
19:42their forests to build ships and it
19:45takes a while in a southern
19:46Mediterranean climate for the forest to
19:48build up again by that time a lot of the
19:51soils had eroded and washed to the sea
19:53so they began to get timber from places
19:56like Lebanon which had famous cypress
19:58and cut down all of those trees and so
20:01there's a limit to what you can do if
20:04you're using wood spans couldn't get as
20:07big as that you might want them to get
20:08here the superstructure the roof
20:13structure of the Maison Cafe is a big
20:16barrel hold and because it's a barrel
20:18vault it can be quite large and it can
20:21give you quite a capacious interior
20:22space we approach these two temples in
20:26quite different ways obliquely here for
20:30our friendly Parthenon and frontally
20:34this is of course the side for the
20:36these are probably some words you
20:38already know but what the heck let's
20:41introduce them again you know the word
20:44poche perhaps from architecture 200 or
20:47if you don't let me tell you about it
20:49crochet is a French word and it means
20:51pocket more or less it's actually
20:54interesting as a concept because the
20:58word pocket or poche is used to describe
21:01the darkening of a solid if you're
21:04looking at it in plan so we know that
21:06this is solid because it's been colored
21:08in we know that this is void here at the
21:11porch because it hasn't been colored in
21:13but the word potion suggests that every
21:16wall in fact is a pocket of some sort
21:18that a wall is not simply a line but a
21:20wall has thickness and width the
21:23thickness of a wall you can begin to
21:24carve you can begin to sculpt you can
21:27begin to mold space and if you look at
21:29the interior of temple of fortuna
21:31there's a little bit of that kind of
21:33sculpting going on through the sickness
21:36of the poche many years ago there was a
21:40famous moment when the Spanish architect
21:45gave a lecture and he's this very sweet
21:48man talking about his architecture which
21:51is fine and you're expecting him to just
21:54say I wanted the light to be like this I
21:56wanted the space to be like this but he
21:59got up there and said I want you to know
22:02but when you do architecture you must
22:05always think of two things sickness in
22:08this sickness and death
22:11for the world is nothing without
22:14sickness and death and everybody in the
22:17room was sort of like oh my god what is
22:20the creepiest talk I've ever heard and
22:23then suddenly one person thought
22:26thickness and depth that's what you said
22:28and this whisper went around the room
22:31and you could feel people kind of
22:32exhaling with relief because you thought
22:34there was a crazy man in the front of
22:36the auditorium so thickness and depth is
22:39really the story of crochet that a roll
22:41is not simply a surface a wall has the
22:44potential to be activated spatially with
22:46thickness and depth let me be very clear
22:50about how I say that so the temple types
22:54that we've been looking at both Greek
22:55and Roman have been more or less boxes
22:58more or less rectangles in plan but
23:00there is a variation on that temple type
23:03that also exists in Greece and we have
23:06it here in Rome and that is the round
23:08temple or solos this is the temple to
23:12the Vesta in Tivoli and it's not so
23:15different really from a rectilinear
23:18temple if you think about the pieces
23:20that you need to get a temple you need
23:22to have a platform or a style of eight
23:25got it you need to have an interior Sela
23:28got it you need to have columns got it
23:32and you need to have a porch and not so
23:35much unless all of this could be
23:36understood to be the porch there are
23:39even more elaborate variations on the
23:41idea of the Roman temple type and this
23:44is an early temple from 80 BC the temple
23:47of fortuna primigenia in Palestrina on
23:51the outskirts of Rome one thing that
23:53makes this temple complex so
23:55extraordinary is its site most of the
23:58Roman temples at least the Imperial the
24:00later Roman temples are really densely
24:03embedded in urban context and because
24:06this is early it carries with it a
24:08little bit of Greek site planning ideas
24:09that there's something about the
24:11specialness of this site that the
24:13architecture will begin to reveal to you
24:15so its processional it's this elaborate
24:19procession of the hill this is what it
24:21would look like if you were approaching
24:23it in its present state of preservation
24:25and as you proceed up the hill you are
24:29constantly experiencing the landscape in
24:32different ways this is a of course a
24:34reconstruction this axonometric drawing
24:36where it shows that you are put into
24:39these little pathways that are always
24:42inflecting around the axis you want to
24:44experience this thing actually you're
24:46always being taken off access and as
24:49you're taken off access your view is
24:51redirected to other elements in the
24:52landscape also the space keeps
24:55contracting from the vastness of a plane
24:59below to these increasingly narrow
25:02spaces kind of nice little rectangular
25:05space you pop into a theater space on
25:09the axis but experienced by moving off
25:12the axis and then you probably move
25:15through the theaters base as bang here's
25:17your little temple your little fellows
25:19temple organized at the very margin of
25:21the whole thing so this is an important
25:24building because it is a kind of hinge
25:26between attitudes about a landscape but
25:28it was also a kind of hinge in the
25:30Renaissance when Renaissance architects
25:33are thinking about how to build a guard
25:34what Roman precedence could they look at
25:37for how to build in a landscape and they
25:39looked at this and this idea of the
25:41ground plane and this idea of the
25:44scripted procession and the idea of the
25:46inflection around the axis we're all
25:48elements that were used this is a
25:51description of what that section is that
25:54is one heck of a section and here's a
25:57model showing you the different terraces
26:00in fact even here this first movement up
26:04is in a tunnel so that here you are the
26:07landscape is all around you you begin to
26:09proceed up towards your destination and
26:12you're completely pulled out of that
26:14landscape only to come out here and to
26:17see it again but having been removed
26:19from the landscape you now see it again
26:21in a special way if I were a 20th
26:24century architect say the Courvoisier I
26:27would call this scripting of movement
26:30through a site an architectural
26:31promenade or I would say oh she didn't
26:35odd because I would be a swiss guy
26:37and that's something to think about in
26:38architecture because architecture is not
26:40static you as designers will probably
26:44make little models and you'll think
26:46you're done think about what it's like
26:48to move through the space and I think
26:49Knowlton is a really good example Norton
26:51Hall of what an architectural common art
26:53is because the ramps through Norton are
26:55constantly revealing different
26:57experiences to you along the path the
27:00temple of fortuna primigenia is clearly
27:03an exceptional idea about how the type
27:05of temple is transformed based on
27:08specific circumstances but even the most
27:11famous of all Roman temples the Pantheon
27:14in Rome is a bit of an odd man out and
27:17by odd man out I mean it's kind of a
27:20temple but it's kind of a Solo's so it's
27:23a hybrid it takes together two typology
27:25and transforms them looking at the plan
27:29of the Pantheon you really see how
27:33powerfully manipulated the thickness of
27:36the wall can be through carving into the
27:39poche all of these little subtractive
27:42spaces are niches in the wall that make
27:46make it possible to have altars or make
27:49it possible to have statues and that's
27:51necessary because the Pantheon
27:53programmatically is quite different from
27:55most Roman temples pan means all Phenom
28:01more or less means the gods all the gods
28:04so the Pantheon is a temple to all the
28:06gods so if a typical temple needs to
28:10have one altar for an exceptional temple
28:13like the Temple of Venus and Roma that
28:14we saw last time needs to have two
28:17altars the Pantheon the temple to all
28:20the gods has to have a lot of altars
28:23altar for all the gods or at least it
28:25has to somehow symbolise this connection
28:28to the cosmos in a way that's much more
28:30all-inclusive than a typical temple and
28:33it does that in a number of ways first I
28:36want to say a little bit more about
28:37carving the wall is when you were
28:39talking about voltage we're talking
28:42about how these curveballs kick out
28:45their load sideways and that requires a
28:48thick wall to pick up the lateral thrust
28:50the sideways thrust of the vault so the
28:53pantheon is great because that is one
28:55heck of a fifth wall but what happens
28:58when you begin to carve all these niches
29:00into a thick wall doesn't that undermine
29:03the solidity of the wall have they in
29:06their desire to find places for altars
29:09and statues is a structural rigidity of
29:12does anybody have any thoughts about
29:14that yes if this is a very practical
29:20young man no because it's still standing
29:23true does anybody think it makes it
29:25better is it a hand up you guys should
29:29try to never to touch your head during
29:31class yes what it does is it folds the
29:36surface it crenelated the surface and if
29:39you guys are probably familiar with
29:40corrugated cardboard for example the
29:42corrugated cardboard is really rigid
29:44because there's something about the
29:45curvature of the surface that's self
29:47bracing so by doing this it's actually
29:51allowing the curved geometries to become
29:54part of the bracing the columns don't
29:56brace themselves because if you push on
29:58a column it fails but arches are self
30:01bracing they have self-stabilizing
30:02structures so by cutting out niches with
30:06arched openings it becomes like a
30:08corrugation and in fact even inside this
30:11thing where we don't even experience it
30:13they've cut away cavities to take
30:15advantage of this notion that certain
30:17geometries can enhance the rigidity of
30:19the structure the emperor under which
30:21the Pantheon was constructed with
30:23Hadrian and there are two rulers in the
30:27history of the world ever who loved
30:29architecture and one was Hadrian and the
30:32other was Thomas Jefferson and so
30:34Hadrian is willing to experiment and
30:37willing to take chances this is a site
30:39plan of how the Pantheon would have been
30:42experienced in Roman times it would have
30:44been there would have been a courtyard
30:45up here and the back of it would have
30:48been really packed in packed in tightly
30:50to the fabric because characteristic of
30:53Roman urban space is the idea of the
30:57figural void as opposed to the figural
30:59object so even when you have something
31:01that's screaming about its figure ality
31:04like a cylindrical building you think
31:06you've got to be able to the cylindrical
31:08building in the city the case was it was
31:10packed in tight and the things that you
31:13experienced as clear form with a void
31:16the little courtyards or forums in front
31:20this is Roman space by the way this and
31:23this are both views of a model on
31:27display in the Museum of Roman
31:29civilization in this part of Rome called
31:31EU are built by mr. Mussolini mr.
31:35Mussolini was quite powerful and one of
31:37the ideas of his own particular
31:40contribution to Italian history was that
31:42he was creating the third Rome the third
31:45moment of great Roman glory the first
31:48moment was classical antiquity the
31:50second moment with the Renaissance and
31:52in Mussolini's mind the third moment was
31:54his reign and so he got all the
31:57architecture students in Italy to work
31:59more or less and to build a giant
32:02detailed model of Rome must have been
32:04fun being one of those architecture
32:06students building the giant model of
32:07Rome particularly when your alternative
32:09was to be fighting on the Russian front
32:10I think this was it a great job at the
32:14time but this model is possibly the size
32:17of this room or bigger and you can walk
32:21around it and look down on it and it's
32:25it's kind of correct and it's kind of
32:27invented for the further part that they
32:29had good archaeological information
32:30about they built it up for the parts
32:32that they didn't they kind of wind it
32:34but it really begins to allow you to see
32:36this sponge like fabric of the densely
32:39packed building edges yielding to these
32:43wonderful voids within the city so I
32:47said that the Pantheon was a hybrid of
32:49some sort and if you compare it to
32:51something like the temple of fortuna
32:52virilis which we looked at before you
32:55can see ways in which it is hybrid
32:57fortuna virilis is all about one thing
32:59right it's the cell with the engaged
33:02columns that gives you the porch and
33:04disgruntle so in what ways does the
33:07Pantheon reprise those themes well it's
33:11got the porch and it's frontal and it's
33:13got a cell but it is slamming to
33:16different conditions together
33:17and it's slamming them together in a way
33:19that is not even slightly disguised fact
33:23you might say it's planning three
33:25different conditions together because
33:27here's a little mr. temple font
33:29beautiful just like temple of Fortuna
33:33various but much bigger here's big block
33:36of rectangle which is all about the
33:39poche all about this thick mass of
33:42material that gets carved to allow these
33:45two irreconcilable geometries to come
33:48together and then you pop inside and you
33:51get this giant domed space when you
33:54think about the Pantheon or when you
33:56look at any building you try to do your
33:58analysis of any building look for the
34:00crazy parts your analysis gets better
34:02and better and better the more you focus
34:04on the crazy parts if you were doing a
34:06paper on the Pantheon and you said it's
34:08all about a circle I'm done that would
34:12you would not have looked deeply enough
34:13but something about the union of these
34:17three elements the temple the big lumpy
34:20masonry block and the cylinder becomes a
34:24really really interesting temple to all
34:26the gods Pantheon hmm this is a little
34:30diagram of Roman town planning the Roman
34:34town the foundational myth of the
34:36civilization and when you look at the
34:39Dome of the pantheon it's almost as
34:42though in a different way this image is
34:44again being imprinted and the image is
34:48being imprinted in a double fashion that
34:50is to say in plan we have the circle but
34:55we also have the circle in section the
34:57space of the Pantheon is spherical and
34:59at the very top we have an opening
35:07oculis kind of means big I eye to the
35:11sky that there's nothing up here it's
35:14not a window it's just ringing the rain
35:16can come into the pantheon and you might
35:19say how is it possible to put a hole on
35:21the top of the dome just doesn't that
35:23undermine the structural stability of
35:25the dome seems like it would wouldn't it
35:28like if we took our roof and put a hole
35:30in it it would become a much worse roof
35:32than if it didn't have a hole in it but
35:35the logic of building this dome and you
35:37can kind of see this little sketchy
35:38Skippy things everywhere has to do with
35:41stacking compressive around so it's kind
35:44of like building a arch but building it
35:47sideways so each of these compressive
35:50rings these flat rings of stones
35:52become self-stabilizing they lock
35:55together gravity holds them together you
35:58can slightly displace through a kind of
36:00corbelling technique the next ring and
36:03so forth so that you can keep stepping
36:06forward with these compressive rings and
36:09there you have a dome we kind of see how
36:11that's working because it's much thicker
36:12here toward the springing of the dome
36:15and much thinner here toward the oculus
36:17and if the architects had wanted to keep
36:19building they probably could have but it
36:21wasn't necessary the thing stabilizes
36:23and this is the source of light the idea
36:27that it is a circle or rather the idea
36:29that it's a spherical space is loaded
36:32with meaning loaded with meaning because
36:35the Romans borrowed lavishly from the
36:38philosophy of the ancient Greeks the
36:41technique look and this is probably
36:42another reason why the Romans were so
36:44successful in their conquests of foreign
36:46land because they gave people plumbing
36:49and freshwater and bridges and roads but
36:51they allowed the cultures to continue
36:54their own tradition and they borrowed
36:56the best aspects of those traditions so
36:58from the Greeks they took a lot of the
36:59architecture and a lot of philosophy and
37:01in Greek cosmology as described by Plato
37:06in one of his books called the Timaeus
37:08the cosmos are spherical the heavens are
37:11spherical different geometrical shapes
37:14adhere very closely to different
37:20so the earth is rectilinear the earth is
37:25a square the Kosmos are a circle and
37:28this slamming together of two
37:30irreconcilable types and two
37:32irreconcilable geometries in many ways
37:35is making visible the reconciliation of
37:37the earth and the heavens and when
37:40you're inside this space looking up at
37:43the big light-filled disk coming in from
37:46the oculus this notion of a connection
37:48with the heavens become subjectively
37:50something that you can experience it's
37:52like there's another access introduced
37:54to the space not simply the horizontal
37:58axis and the cross axis sort of vertical
38:01axis and access up to the sky and a word
38:03for that access after the sky is axis
38:06mundi mu n di access through the earth
38:10the elaboration and the articulation of
38:13the vault of the pantheon you see that
38:16it is something that seems to be
38:18cheating in terms of its thickness and
38:20its material presence you'd think you'd
38:23want to have this thing be as thick as
38:26possible because then it would be more
38:28solid sir you're nodding your head what
38:32do you think yeah exactly like you want
38:35to make it way less if you can make it
38:37way less then you don't have to have
38:38walls or they're quite as thick because
38:40the load is not coming down quite so
38:43heavily so one of the tasks in the
38:46design is to reduce the weight of the
38:49thing so how can you reduce the weight
38:51of the thing without reducing the
38:52solidity of the thing and the answer is
38:55geometries become self bracing it's just
38:57like corrugation or bubble wrap where
39:00something because of the internal
39:02cellular structure begins to brace
39:05yourself so not only is this lighter but
39:07it's also more rigid and it would be
39:09otherwise and it has one more aspect
39:11which is kind of great because of the
39:15geometry of the dome it's smaller up
39:17here than it is down here and so these
39:20rectilinear cells which are called
39:23coffers Co FF er these rectilinear cells
39:28keep getting smaller and smaller and
39:30smaller and the result of that is a kind
39:34your eye a kind of prospective trick you
39:36look at this thing and you maybe think
39:38the dome is going much higher and it is
39:41going because this element that you
39:43think is one size keeps reappearing and
39:46diminishing sizes like perspective so
39:48we'd say clever clever building looking
39:52at how Greek types get transformed into
39:54Roman architecture is a theme that
39:57constantly comes back to this notion of
39:59different technologies different ideas
40:02of urban space different ideas of
40:04inferiority and so forth and so here
40:07we're looking at the Greek Theatre of
40:09Epidaurus and like so many Greek sites
40:11it seems to be all about revealing a
40:15landscape this is another view of a
40:17theatre Epidaurus sacred mountains in
40:20the distance and a very clear geometry
40:22here but a geometry that allows you to
40:27understand that you're in a specific
40:29place there would have been a little
40:31kind of stage screen here called a
40:35proscenium but it would have been low
40:37enough that if you were sitting in the
40:38stands you would see the backdrop of the
40:40actors but you would also see the hills
40:42beyond this is a Roman theatre built
40:47before movies architecture students
40:49during the fascist period very diligent
40:51kids so typologically it conserves quite
40:55a lot of the things that we saw in the
40:58Greek example like this circle with the
41:02steps on it but the proscenium the
41:05architectural edge closes the space off
41:08also instead of being an object embedded
41:12in a landscape where the natural
41:14declivity of the hill begins to give
41:16geometry to the space it's an
41:18architectural construct it's another one
41:20of these megastructures that the Romans
41:23have no trouble putting up with their
41:24arches and their concrete and because
41:28it's a free-standing mega structure it
41:29could be absolutely right in the city so
41:32this is the theater of Marcellus that's
41:34really my chain so we say in Italian
41:36which is right in the middle of Rome
41:38right behind the Colosseum do you ever
41:40saw the movie la dolce vita it's a great
41:42Fellini film the actress they kind of
41:47interest of Marcello Mastroianni has an
41:49apartment over here and the two
41:53characters have dinner looking at the
41:56it's a classic film you should all see
41:57it here's another Roman theatre this
42:00one's in a better state of preservation
42:01than the Taffer V Machado law because
42:04like so many relics of Roman antiquity
42:07people in the Middle Ages just moved
42:09into the theater of Marcellus and it is
42:11now apartment block somebody likes the
42:13blonde bombshell where we could have had
42:16an apartment in there and this is in a
42:18park of Antiquities in Merida Spain
42:21typologically a theatre is open-ended
42:24giving you a view toward the stage of
42:27giving you a view toward a landscape
42:28coming to you from Greece the Romans of
42:31course are tinkerers they're always
42:33transforming they're always playing with
42:35typology they're always making hybrids
42:36and so you get the type of arena this is
42:41the Flavian arena Flavius was one of the
42:43Emperor's it's a really big arena and if
42:47something is really big you might call
42:49it colossal and if you were a Roman you
42:52might use the Latin word Colosseum to
42:54mean the really big thing
42:55so it's essentially two theaters slapped
42:59together but quite a different presence
43:02tended gently folding into the landscape
43:05of a Greek theater it becomes really a
43:08giant object in the city of Rome against
43:12which other elements organize themselves
43:15the old Roman Forum slams into it this
43:18is the Temple of Venus in Rome that we
43:19looked at before and the rest of the
43:21city kind of unhinges around it probably
43:25all know what goes on inside of policy
43:27ax or the Roman propaganda machine to
43:30subjugate and delight at the same time
43:32the people of Rome so there would be
43:35entertainment the concept of bread and
43:38circus was one way the Romans kept
43:40people in line you made sure that
43:43they're fed and you make sure that
43:44they're entertained so you could have
43:47all kinds of activities going on and you
43:49could get Russell Crowe sometimes to to
43:53fight lions or other gladiators and AH
43:56and you could flood the thing and have
43:59both battles they were
44:01the astonishing entertainment and
44:03another one of the astonishing methods
44:05of entertaining the people of Rome led
44:08to another great kind of architectural
44:10Monument and that's the Roman Baths the
44:13vast deployment of interior space vast
44:17volts and cross vaults and barrel vaults
44:21and domes just an enormous scale and
44:25this is what the baths of caracalla
44:26looked like in the Roman model so
44:28they're sort of at the edge of the town
44:29and they they were available not only to
44:33the noble class but all the citizens of
44:36Rome had an opportunity to go in here
44:38and experience this astonishing ritual
44:42these are yards for sporting activities
44:45and within the baths themself it's not
44:48as simple as just taking a dip in the
44:50pool there are all these different
44:52ritual stages of cleansing you go
44:54through you come in and you might first
44:57go into one of these little rooms where
44:59with a comb of a sort you comb your
45:01sweat away very nice you guys should try
45:05that for skin care ritual then you let
45:08go and you know wrestle a little bit
45:11with one of your friends or enemies and
45:13then you have this whole system of
45:16different baths from the calvarium which
45:19is boiling hot waters to the tepidarium
45:23which is tepid water to the frigidarium
45:26which is cold cold cold water so you
45:29have these different temperatures that
45:30you immerse yourself in at different
45:32stages of your bathing this is a
45:36beautiful plan by the way
45:37and it's embedding of different
45:39geometries and also in its idea of
45:42marking multiple centers of interest
45:44within the complex and one level you
45:47look at this thing and you say hmm more
45:50or less a square hmm more or less a
45:53center to the whole complex so that's
45:56kind of interesting because if you look
45:58at the baths of caracalla and you think
46:00it's just this building you would say
46:02well the cult area doesn't sit very well
46:06with in the space kind of popping out in
46:09a funny way but if you look at it as
46:11something in the overall complex of
46:13things it begins to make a lot more
46:14sent similarly over here we have these
46:18two large vaulted spaces these curved
46:22bends in a wall are called exiguous e XE
46:27d are a they become places that are
46:32habitable the poche thickness and depth
46:35and you could begin to observe sporting
46:37activities over here
46:38lots of things that are screwy in terms
46:40of the local circumstance become
46:42understandable in terms of the overall
46:43circumstance we were to divide this in
46:46half the exceed roots begin to become a
46:49major axis of the overall complex
46:51although slightly askew with respect to
46:54here's a reconstruction of what the
46:57vaulting might have looked like and to
46:58give you a sense of what the scale is
47:00these are people down here and these are
47:04these great cross bolts with Kaufering
47:07of course you want to have coughing you
47:08want to reduce the weight you want to
47:10articulate the surface to break it up
47:12into a system of parts that we made to
47:14the hole you want it to be incredibly
47:16beautiful so to just recapitulate the
47:20major theme roman interior space is
47:25probably the aspect of Roman
47:27architecture that sets it off most
47:30distinctly from the architecture of
47:32Greece which at a superficial level it
47:35resembles very strongly in terms of the
47:37typology of the temple even the idea of
47:39the Roman atrium has kind of looking
47:41like a med ROM but when you begin to
47:43think about interior space and the and
47:46the advantages of vaulting a space or
47:49we're building a space in a more
47:50conventional trade eiated system many
47:54opportunities are available so next time
47:56we'll talk a little bit more about urban
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