Roman Architectural Accomplishments
Roman was known for their architectural accomplishments. Works like the Colosseum, the Aqueducts, the Pantheon were a few among many of their notable magnificent. The two innovations enabled Rome to attain those achievements were the invention of concrete and arches. In this paper, I attempt to look into their origins, their effect on Roman's life and what was the most notable works result from these inventions.
Concrete was considered one of the most innovative invention in architecture. It enabled building construction to a whole new level. Before concrete, buildings were constructed using brick and stone and other natural materials. Concrete was the first man-made material that can be created on a large scale on the site instead of being transported from other places. Roman concrete was known for its long durability that outlasted its modern counterpart. There are various reasons for that. One is modern concrete was consist of concrete and reinforced by steel (Potter B, 2013). It helped the concrete stay together when the whole construction was stretched. But steels also reduce the concrete's durability. Roman's concrete doesn't have that. Another reason is modern concrete was developed with rapid cure time in mind. Where modern one can cure in 28 days at most, ancient roman concrete can take up to 2 years (Potter B, 2013). …show more content…
The long cure time reduced a lot of stress on the concrete, which resulted in such an astonishingly long lasting building that still stand today.
Another iconic image of ancient Rome is the arch. Although it was not invented in Rome (that honor went to the Etruscans (Akhnatonsjournal, 2010). What Rome did was to use them in large scale. Arches enabled Romans (and Etruscans) to build larger doorway using supporting stones which weren't possible with the old methods. The practice of using stones supporting each other in an arc with the one keystone in the very top result in a very durable structure. And by extending the arches, Roman invented the Vault (Lake Oswego School District, nd). The vault was used to create a large and long passageway, as seen in many Roman's constructions at the time.
Arch and concrete were what enabled Rome to build such wonder like the Aqueduct, where both slow curing concrete and arches worked together in such a harmony.
Rome also built such many triumphal arches that can be seen throughout Italy (ancient.eu, nd). The most impressive one that we all known is the Pantheon, a huge achievement in architectural design that can be made possible by these wonderful Roman inventions. In normal life, arches were used everywhere in road and passageway construction. Also, large insulae was only made possible when concrete was found, and it, in turn, put the first block on modern apartment models (bbc.com,
nd).
Roman's contribution to world's architecture engineering was phenomenal. Without concrete, modern construction simply cannot exist. Sure, ancient Egypt made some huge architectural wonders like the pyramids, but it was only possible with a huge amount of slave labor. Concrete enabled large construction building in a much bigger scale with better efficiency. Compare to concrete, I feel arch left much less impact on modern architecture. It was very well used throughout ancient time until the 19th century, but modern engineering has made the old method of arch constructing nearly obsoleted.
References:
Concrete was considered one of the most innovative invention in architecture. It enabled building construction to a whole new level. Before concrete, buildings were constructed using brick and stone and other natural materials. Concrete was the first man-made material that can be created on a large scale on the site instead of being transported from other places. Roman concrete was known for its long durability that outlasted its modern counterpart. There are various reasons for that. One is modern concrete was consist of concrete and reinforced by steel (Potter B, 2013). It helped the concrete stay together when the whole construction was stretched. But steels also reduce the concrete's durability. Roman's concrete doesn't have that. Another reason is modern concrete was developed with rapid cure time in mind. Where modern one can cure in 28 days at most, ancient roman concrete can take up to 2 years (Potter B, 2013). …show more content…
The long cure time reduced a lot of stress on the concrete, which resulted in such an astonishingly long lasting building that still stand today.
Another iconic image of ancient Rome is the arch. Although it was not invented in Rome (that honor went to the Etruscans (Akhnatonsjournal, 2010). What Rome did was to use them in large scale. Arches enabled Romans (and Etruscans) to build larger doorway using supporting stones which weren't possible with the old methods. The practice of using stones supporting each other in an arc with the one keystone in the very top result in a very durable structure. And by extending the arches, Roman invented the Vault (Lake Oswego School District, nd). The vault was used to create a large and long passageway, as seen in many Roman's constructions at the time.
Arch and concrete were what enabled Rome to build such wonder like the Aqueduct, where both slow curing concrete and arches worked together in such a harmony.
Rome also built such many triumphal arches that can be seen throughout Italy (ancient.eu, nd). The most impressive one that we all known is the Pantheon, a huge achievement in architectural design that can be made possible by these wonderful Roman inventions. In normal life, arches were used everywhere in road and passageway construction. Also, large insulae was only made possible when concrete was found, and it, in turn, put the first block on modern apartment models (bbc.com,
nd).
Roman's contribution to world's architecture engineering was phenomenal. Without concrete, modern construction simply cannot exist. Sure, ancient Egypt made some huge architectural wonders like the pyramids, but it was only possible with a huge amount of slave labor. Concrete enabled large construction building in a much bigger scale with better efficiency. Compare to concrete, I feel arch left much less impact on modern architecture. It was very well used throughout ancient time until the 19th century, but modern engineering has made the old method of arch constructing nearly obsoleted.
References: