Ancient Rome

Rome was the greatest power west of China. They served as a catalyst in spreading art and civilization. They controlled commerce in the western Mediterranean Sea and were inspired by Greece. They assimilated many cultures. They mastered road buildings, used the post and lintel construction of the Greeks, used decorative and structural columns, extravagant ornamentation in their furniture. They also used vault and dome from the Etruscans. And they are credited with the discovery of concrete. A major development of this time was the arch, barrel vault, and domes. In terms of structures and social values, tombs and temples were used for religious uses, basilicas were used for commerce and law, memorial structures were used for celebrating victories, and arenas were used for entertainment uses like sporting events, circus, concerts, and plays.
The Coliseum seats at least 50,000 people, is made of concrete and stone. It's the original prototype of sports arenas. It uses arches and barrel vaults. Three orders are present in this structure; each level as a podium, column, and entablature. The coliseum was used for gladiator fights and cultural events.
Then Pantheon was built in 126 AD and was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa and rebuilt by the emperor Hadrian. It is a round temple with a dome and it has a roman portico. This structure is the world's largest un-reinforced concrete dome in the world and the oculus is 142 feet in diameter and 142 feet high.
Vitruvius lived form 80 BC to 15 BC. He was an architect, civil engineer, author, and military engineer. He wrote the De Achitecture, which is 10 books of architecture. His main principle states that a structure must be solid, useful, and beautiful. Vitruvius is well known and often cited as one of the earliest surviving sources to have advised that lead should not be used to conduct drinking water, recommending clay pipes or masonry channels. He comes to this conclusion in Book VIII of De Architectura after empirical observations of the apparent laborer illnesses in the lead foundries of his time.
Maison Carree is located in the south of France. It was built in 16 BC and renovated by Marcus Agrippa. This is an example of Vitruvian architecture and one of the best examples of a roman temple. It has a deep porch or portico, corinthian columns, and the Roman sequence, including the podium, columns, entablature, and pediment.
When looking into residential dwellings, Pompeii is a source of much information. It utilized insulas, or blocks of buildings surrounded by streets, domuses, private townhouses of the wealthy, and villas, country houses.
An insult is 5-6 stories with a balcony above the first floor. The ground floor held shops and the higher the level the worse the dwelling. There was no plumbing and poor lighting in these dwellings. They had to heat their homes from their stoves which was very dangerous.
A domus is a blank wall on the exterior of shops. When looking at the main axis, the first room is the atrium and it has a slanted roof and rain fell into the pool below. The tablinum is a room that held important family records. The peristyle is a columned porch or courtyard with white columns. This structure was further made up of private rooms.
Interior spaces were decorated with mosaics, stucco, and frescoes. Their obsession with ornamentation was visible in their interior spaces. They incorporated popular patterns into their flooring. Landscape scenes, figures, and buildings were depicted as framed views. The main colors used were black, gilt, and red.
Roman furniture was made from wood, metal, and stone. Some seat furniture examples are thrones, chairs, couches, and stools. A throne was called a "cathedra", stools were called "sellas" and they were seats of honor and a symbol of legal authority. Tables of the time were multipurpose and made of marble. Beds were in the addition of the back of the couch.

Past examples:

Current Examples:

Extra Credit:
This is a video on Pompeii:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeB5N_bH7E8
This is a video covering ancient Rome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvUMuu1WrT0

Peer Review:
Erin K: I like that your synopsis was short and to the point. It was easy to understand the material the way that you wrote it. I also like how you included examples like current apartment buildings and the St. Louis Arch.
Hailey: I enjoyed your brief paragraph about ancient Rome and liked that you made your examples center stage as opposed to your words. I like that you included a picture of the United States Capital building.

Ancient Greece

The Greek civilization marks the beginning of western ideas and culture. They value the worth of the individual and democracy. They were masters of philosophy, science, fine arts, geography, medicine, legal systems, and astronomy. The region is mountainous and surrounded by three seas: Aegean, Mediterranean, and Ionian. Because of the region's geography there was competition among communities which had independent governments. Sources of conflict could be because of trade, size of community, and advances in architecture. When looking at climate, they had hot summers, bitter winters, and produced tons of marble. Agriculturally they produced grain, grapes, olives, and salt. There were two groups of people in ancient Greece, the Minoans, who lived on Crete in 2,000 BC and the Mycenaeans, who lived on Mainland Greece in 1,400 BC. In Crete the palace was the center of town, housing 40,000 inhabitants. The most important structure is the Palace of Knossos. Here, columns are inverted and distinctive to this civilization. During the Golden Age of 480-400 BC, the Parthenon was created. It is an ancient temple on the Athenian Acropolis and is dedicated to the goddess Athena. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, and is generally considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order. When looking at classic orders of architecture it is important to understand the systems of columns and the details. The order is made up of the base, shaft, capital, and entablature, which further includes the architrave, frieze, and cornice.
Greek domestic buildings were far less impressive than public buildings. They were built of mud-brick on a stone foundation with wooden frameworks and terra-cotta roof tiles. They had an inner courtyard with few windows on the outside for security, and to limit heat from the sun and from hot air. Rooms were given specific purposes as in modern houses. Some rooms may have been reserved for use by different sexes. The homes utilized plan sequence, meaning they were inwardly oriented. These homes had compluviums, where were opening in the roofs, an cistern or impluviums, which collect rain water. If you were wealthy you had plastered and painted floors. They used mosaic techniques with pebbles, glass, and stone to make geometric designs, mythological figures, animals, and flowers in their flooring. The walls were typically un-plastered mud brick walls but if you were wealthy you had plastering and painting on your walls. Floral or marine, egg and dart, and Greek Fret or Key were a few of the many motifs used throughout this time period.
When painting walls the walls were split into divisions, dado, main field, and cornice. the entire was was red, there was a white dado (lower section of the wall), a yellow line between the two sections, they used trompe l'oeil techniques, and the main colors used were black, red, yellow, and white.
Windows were placed high on the wall, doors were framed with wood, stone, or marble, and sometimes bronze or fabric. and there were always coffers in the dining room.
Furniture was typically constructed of leather and cords with gold, ivory, and gem inlays. They were also made of copper, bronze, iron, marble, and wood. Oak, maple, cedar, boxwood, olive, beech woods were the most common used. Popular furniture included pieces like thronos, klismos, kline, and diphros. These pieces of furniture had round-shape legs.
Klismos is the most graceful and influential piece of Greek furniture. Its beauty comes from its form. It is crafted out of wood and has splayed legs and a curved back. A diphros is a stool without arms or back. It is made of wood, the most expensive version was made of ebony and legs were tipped with silver. A kline is a bed that functioned as a modern day sofa and was used for dining. They typically had sweeping curved headboards. Mattresses were stuffed with wool or feathers. The tables were small, portable, and lightweight and regulated by the height of the couch. Storage pieces held clothing, jewelry, and household items.

Past examples:

Current Examples:

Extra Credit:
This is a video about the Parthenon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZG_vP8fT8I
This is a brief history of ancient Greece:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Mgb1mav_U

Peer Review:
Emma: I like the way that you reworded the information in your own words that were easy for the reader to understand. I also like how you integrated your pictures into your text.
Erin: I like how you gave a lot of information on the orders. I also like how you gave examples of the orders in the United States.

Ancient Civilization

Ancient styles of antiquity coming from the prehistoric period originate in the areas of: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Nubia, Greece, and Rome. Around 4,000 BC larger towns and cities appeared. With the immediate needs of food and shelter secured, the people of this time were able to focus their energy on complex inventions and the arts. Two areas where early Western civilization first developed to high levels of complexity were the Nile valley of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Nubia. If you are trying to picture the area in today's times, ancient Mesopotamia is current day Iraq and ancient Nubia is current day Ethiopia and Sudan. This blog will focus on factors that impacted design.

Due to the close proximity, these three civilizations interacted with and influenced each other. During this time large scale buildings were created and architecture was used to distinguish different classes of people. architecture was further used to show power and even intimidate the viewer. Advances were made in not only architecture, but also mathematics, written law, and sculpture during this time. Important artifacts were stored in the tombs of the pyramids. This blog will focus on Egypt.

The Nile River played a key role in ancient Egypt. The rainy season spans from July to September. In this area the Nile was important for agricultural production, transportation of building materials, communication, and trade. Timber was a key material used for construction at this time but its availability proved to be a challenge for the people. It was imported from Lebanon, and they imported Ash, Yew, Ebony, Elm, Boxwood, and Linden. It was also a local material and the woods ranged from Acacia, to Palm, and Sycamore. At this times modifications to construction was made and the joinery developed. Local vegetations of this time were inspiration for decorative schemes and had symbolic connotations. Some of the symbolic plants were lotus blossoms, palm, and the open papyrus flower. Carving of these natural elements was spiritual and used for aesthetic decoration. Other materials used for construction were mud, used for walls or bricks, and wood and stone, used for posts and beams.

The climate in this area had minimal rainfall, intense sunlight, and little variation in temperature. these impacted design in that flat roofs, outdoor spaces, window placement, and roof ventilators were all very well thought out.

Religion played a huge role in this area. They believed in life after death so they would bury their dead with important objects because they believed they could take it with them into the afterlife. Their important monuments were tombs and temples. Also, each specific town or region had their own gods. They payed respect to their gods though interior paintings, furniture design, decorative arts, and relief art.

Past Examples:

Current Examples:

Extra Credit:
This is a video exploring ancient Egypt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm8945K4dH0
This is a longer documentary talking about the 10 greatest discoveries of ancient Egypt
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izXto8cm5vs

Peer Review:
Becca: I really like how you incorporated your pictures of past examples into your writing so the reader knew what was happening in each picture. I also really like the picture you provided that shows the reader what the interior construction of the pyramids look like.
Claire: I like that you spoke exclusively about the design of the period and what patterns and colors were used during this time. I also think you found really nice examples of past Egyptian design and furniture.

Prehistoric Period

When looking at Prehistoric interior design we can see the most examples in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Primitive homes were influenced by their geographic location and the available materials. The igloo style home was used in arctic regions, while Matmata underground homes were used throughout the Sahara desert. In regards to materials, prehistoric homes would only survive if they were constructed out of durable substances, like stone.
Furniture was rarely used during the prehistoric era, however patterns and design can be found through woven objects like blankets, baskets, clothing, and rugs. However, these patterns and designs were rarely purely ornamental. The people of these times used pattern and design purposefully to show society, tribal loyalties, and religions.
Prehistoric artifacts that have survived until this day are made of stone and wood. They were found in caves and were typically human, animal, and plant forms. One example of a prehistoric artifact is the Venus of Willendorf, found in 1908 in Austria. It dates to 30,000 BC during the paleolithic era, and the sculpture represents the goddess of fertility. Some of the first cave drawings from the paleolithic era can be found in Altamira, Spain and Laxcaux, France. These drawings date back to 33,000 BC, and the drawings were made from charcoal and ochre pigments. The Laxcaux cave in France is believed to be the very first shelter for humans and is the earliest example of creating meaning in a space through decoration. The cave, discovered in 1940, dates back to 17,000 BC and houses 2,000 figures of animals, humans, and abstract signs.
The earliest examples of "homes" are located in Skara Brae. This Neolithic village in Scotland dates from 2,000-1,500 BC and has built-in furniture including beehive cupboards, large shelves, hearths, and sleeping platforms.
The earliest example of post and lintel construction can be seen at Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, England. This monument dates to 3,200-1,600 BC during the Neolithic era. It is believed that Stonehenge was a place for religious ritual/burial ground/monument.

Past Examples:

Current Examples:

Extra Credit:

This video is of Rick Steves giving a brief tour of Laxcaux Cave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnSq0c7jM-A

This video is an hour long documentary on the "Secrets of Stonehenge"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl6PaGi270Q

Peer Review:

Amanda: I thought you gave a very nice and brief summary of prehistoric interior design, and I liked the current examples of these designs you chose.

Angie: I really liked your summary of prehistoric design. I liked how you talked about use of colors and patterns and that you gave information on igloo design.