This probably will not happen . . . but what if you sneezed and suddenly
found yourself in the Roman Empire two thousand years ago? A man is
screaming at you in Latin, but for some reason you understand him. He
says that you have to build a building in which most of the people of
the city can fit. It needs to be beautiful with a round ceiling, and it
needs fresh water running into it at all times. Also, you cannot use
any of the machines we use today, like bulldozers or anything like that,
and the building has to last for at least two thousand years. Again,
this probably will not happen to you . . . But just in case, you should
know a thing or two about how Roman buildings were built and where we
can see these ideas in our world today.
There are a lot
of things you have to do to build a big building with a round ceiling. So let's start with the easy things. All buildings need walls and ways
to get in. That should be easy, right? Just put up walls and then cut
some doors and windows into them. I hate to say it, but that will not
work. You are two thousand years in the past. You can only work with
stone, and you don't have any tools that will cut through them. The
Romans used the
arch as a way to make doors and windows for a building
without cutting holes. They made arches by stacking stones in two
pillars slightly tilted toward each other. When the two pillars almost
touched, they placed a keystone at the top, which pushed down on the
stones from both sides and kept them from falling over. You will find
arches all over the place today, including on many stone bridges and
sports stadiums. Now you have walls with doors and windows on your
building. That's one down.
It isn't raining so we don't
need to worry about the roof just yet. Let's get some fresh water in
here. Why not use that river right next to the house, you ask? People
use that as a bathroom and let their cows drink from that river. Does
that answer your question? To make sure people had safe water, the
Romans brought water from other places to their cities.
Aqueducts are
channels, pipes and tunnels that use gravity to carry fresh water from
far away rivers to cities. Think of them as tiny man-made rivers that
brought water to people. With these, everyone can use safe water to
drink and bathe. Most of them were built under the ground and would let
water flow down with gravity to where people lived. When the water has
to pass over a valley, they would use arches to keep the water flowing
downhill and across. We still use these in modern times to bring a lot
of water to cities and farms that don't have rivers running through
them. That's two down!
Now it's time for the hard part:
the roof. The Romans didn't only make buildings that worked well; they
also made them beautiful. To help rain fall off to the sides, they
would build a round roof that looks like the top half of a ball. A
dome
is a roof shaped like half of a ball and it gives rooms much more open
space than a flat roof. It's tough to make, but the Romans built these
by stacking up pieces of concrete over a round shape. Then they would
take away the frame. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but
we do not need to go into it now. These are so beautiful and work so
well that we see them in all kinds of buildings around us today, like
the US Capitol building. That's three down!
Still not
ready? You need more ideas on how to build your building? Well, we
could go to Italy . . . It's home to some of the finest pieces of
architecture on Earth. But you do not need to go there in order to see
Roman buildings. As you just read, we use parts of Roman buildings all
the time in the things we build now
. Greco-Roman means that something
is made in the same style as a lot of Greek and Roman things were made. Arches, aqueducts, domes and marble statues are all things that we have
borrowed from the Greeks and Romans and still use today.
Nice!
You built a Roman building! Or at least now you know how to. You can
make walls with doors by building arches. You can bring fresh water
into the building by making aqueducts. Last, you can make that big,
beautiful dome to bring in lots of admiring visitors. Still not sure
you could build a building with a round roof? Hmm. I'd say that until
you really understand Roman buildings, try not to sneeze. You know,
just to be safe.
References:History For Kids.
"Roman Architecture" historyforkids.org, 2014.
<
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/architecture/romarch.htm>
Ducksters.
"Ancient Rome - Engineering and Construction" Ducksters, 2009.
<
http://www.ducksters.com/history/ancient_roman_engineering.php>
"Constructions
Techniques of Roman Vaults: Opus Caementicium and the Octagonal Dome of
the Domus Aurea." Proceedings of the Third International Congress on
Construction History, Cottbus, May 2009
<
http://www.bma.arch.unige.it/PDF/CONSTRUCTION_HISTORY_2009/VOL1/Conti-Cinzia_Martines-Giangiacomo_Sinopoli-Anna_Paper_layouted.pdf>