Università Roma Tre

The course aims at offering the students the tools for analyzing and understanding ancient architecture through a didactic strategy exploring both an historical process-based outlook (crucial for any architect's background) and more practical design-based topics, highlighting traditional materials and building techniques, structural behavior of traditional construction, principles of architectural design, the architectural language of classical orders.
During the lessons the students will be encouraged to understand a ruined construction through diagrams and sketches as well as to have a structural approach to the building techniques used in Greek and Roman architecture. In order to gain a wide understanding of classical architecture the classes and site visits will focus on the aesthetical issues of classical architecture, the political significance of Imperial architecture in Rome, metrology, design issues, the building process, the context in which the buildings were designed and built, the historical sources and ancient treatises.

CONTENTS OF LESSONS
The course is focused on the history of architecture of buildings in Ancient Mediterranean from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD, examined through a multidisciplinary approach based on the archeological evidence, the technical and functional aspects, and the historical significance. The course takes place in the first semester, and the program includes field-trips to archaeological sites and monuments, during which special drawing-assignments may also be given. Central to the course is the analysis of the context, the building techniques employed in antiquity, the structural solutions adopted by ancient builders, the design and building process and the use of architectural orders. The focus will be on major monuments and archeological sites in central and southern Italy, including Rome, Ostia Antica, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum. Topics treated along the course may include:
1. From Auguste Choisy to Pierre Gros: epistemology on ancient architecture.
2. Construction techniques and structural principles of dry and mortared masonry.
3. Post and lintel and arched construction.
4. Ashlar masonry in Greek and Roman architecture.
5. Origins of vaulted construction: Mycenae and Assyria.
6. The construction process: from the quarry to the construction site.
7. Vitruvius' "On Architecture".
8. Religious and public buildings in Greece (Athens and Paestum).
9. Architecture in Rome from Augustus to Hadrian.
10. Welfare and consensus: theatres and bath buildings.
11. The Image of power in the architectural program of the Imperial fora and mausolea.
12. Building Roman Greece.

Bozzoni C., Franchetti Pardo V., Ortolani G., Viscogliosi A., L’architettura nel mondo antico, Roma – Bari 2006, chapters by Ortolani and Viscogliosi
Gros P., L’architettura Romana, 1. Edifici pubblici, Milano 2001, chapters 4-6
Vitruvius, De Architectura: books 1-4
Zanker P., Augusto e il potere delle immagini, Torino 2006: chapters 1-3
Vitti P., Building Roman Greece. Innovation in Vaulted Construction in the Peloponnese, Roma 2016, chapters 1 and 4
Papers from Academia.edu:
Jackson M., Kosso C. 2013, Scientia in Republican Era Stone and Concrete Masonry
Jackson M. et alii 2011, Building materials of the Theatre of Marcellus
Jackson M et alii 2014, Mechanical resilience and cementitious processes in Imperial Roman architectural mortar
Lancaster C. L., Materials and Construction of the Pantheon in Relation to the Developments in Vaulting in Antiquity
Ortolani G., Le Terme dei Romani disegnate da Andrea Palladio, ed. Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi
Ortolani G., Vitruvio (I, 1, 5) e la cultura dell’architetto: Cariatidi e telamoni nell’architettura ‘imperiale’
Vitti P., 2014. Il Mausoleo di Adriano, costruzione e architettura
Vitti P., 2010. Argo, la copertura ad intercapedine della grande aula: osservazioni sul sistema costruttivo della volta

Contents of lessons
The course introduces the history and the architecture of buildings in Ancient Mediterranean from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD, examined through a multidisciplinary approach based on the archeological evidence, the technical and functional aspects, and the historical significance. The course takes place in the first semester, and the program includes field-trips to archaeological sites and monuments, during which special drawing-assignments may also be done. Central to the course is the study on location of major monuments and archeological sites in central and southern Italy, including Rome, Ostia Antica, Pompeii, Herculaneum and Paestum.
Topics
1. From Auguste Choisy to Pierre Gros: epistemology on ancient architecture.
2. Construction techniques and structural principles of dry and mortared masonry.
3. Post and lintel and arched constructrion.
4. Ashlar masonry in Greek and Roman architecture.
5. Origins of vaulted construction: Mycenae and Assyria.
6. The construction process: from the quarry to the construction site.
7. Vitruvius' "On Architecture".
8. Religious and public buildings in Greece (Athens and Paestum).
9. Architecture in Rome from Augustus to Hadrian.
10. Welfare and consensus: theatres and bath buildings.
11. The Image of power in the architectural program of the Imperial fora and mausolea.
12. Building Roman Greece.
Teaching Activities
Attendance to lessons is mandatory. The course includes 100 hours of lessons (8 credits) and takes place at the 4th year. Classes will be balanced between general discussion on Ancient Architecture and specific topics. Lessons will take place in the class and during visits to museums, archaeological sites, and monuments. Graphic activities will be strongly encouraged.
Exams
The exam is oral or written and individual. Student's knowledge and critical skills will be evaluated, also based on their capacity to refer to a historic frame; they are expected to know the contents of the different books of Vitruvius, and analyse the main features of the most relevant monuments of each historic period, and of the classical orders, through diagrams and sketches.

Bibliography

Bozzoni C., Franchetti Pardo V., Ortolani G., Viscogliosi A., L’architettura nel mondo antico, Roma – Bari 2006, chapters by Ortolani and Viscogliosi
Gros P., L’architettura Romana, 1. Edifici pubblici, Milano 2001, chapters 4-6
Vitruvius, De Architectura: books 1-4
Zanker P., Augusto e il potere delle immagini, Torino 2006: chapters 1-3
Vitti P., Building Roman Greece. Innovation in Vaulted Construction in the Peloponnese, Roma 2016, chapters 1 and 4

Papers in Academia.edu:
Jackson M., Kosso C. 2013, Scientia in Republican Era Stone and Concrete Masonry
Jackson M. et alii 2011, Building materials of the Theatre of Marcellus
Jackson M et alii 2014, Mechanical resilience and cementitious processes in Imperial Roman architectural mortar
Lancaster C. L., Materials and Construction of the Pantheon in Relation to the Developments in Vaulting in Antiquity
Ortolani G., Le Terme dei Romani disegnate da Andrea Palladio, ed. Ottavio Bertotti Scamozzi
Ortolani G., Vitruvio (I, 1, 5) e la cultura dell’architetto: Cariatidi e telamoni nell’architettura ‘imperiale’
Vitti P., 2014. Il Mausoleo di Adriano, costruzione e architettura
Vitti P., 2010. Argo, la copertura ad intercapedine della grande aula: osservazioni sul sistema costruttivo della volta
Further readings:
Amici C. M., ARCHAIA Survey and technical analysis: a must for understanding monuments
Amici C.M., L’utilizzazione delle catene metalliche nei sistemi voltati di età romana
DeLaine, J. (1990), Structural experimentation: the lintel arch, corbel and tie in western Roman architecture
Lancaster C. L., Il cantiere del Colosseo
Vitti P. 2015. Con la matita in mano: elogio del vecchio, caro disegno
Wilson Jones M. , ‘Who Built the Pantheon? Agrippa, Hadrian, Trajan and Apollodorus’,

http://www.persee.fr/web/guest/home
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https://bham.academia.edu/ManthaZarmakoupi