Prehistoric Rome

Rome took over and assimilated the Greek culture. The buildings were post and lintel and had extravagant ornamentation in their furniture. The discovery of concrete was one of the most important discoveries of their time. It allowed for the building of vault and dome which was very impressive considering the limited amount of supplies they had to build.

One of the proudest buildings the Romans created was the Colosseum; it was made of concrete and stone and has the prototype of a sports arena.

This is an example of a Roman bedroom in Pompeii that has frescoes on the wall. Frescoes are paintings done with watercolor on a wall or ceiling.

This is a sela, a seat of honor and symbol of legal authority. The ornamentation and creative design that went into it is amazing.

I looked at Dana's blog and I liked how she applied the Roman style to the world today. She talked about the residential life and how it is generally the same minus the quality of the design. They didn't have any plumbing, the heat came from the stove and living was generally very dangerous. I liked how Emily talked about the architecture and the Greek orders and how they were made. The main materials they used back then were concrete and stone. She also applied it to design today and had great examples of interior spaces.

How to make mud bricks

I was fascinated at the fact that Egyptians used mud to build their homes and other recreational buildings. I searched for videos that showed the process they went through to do so and thought this was a good example!

Ancient Civilization- Egypt

Running right through the center of Egypt is the Nile river. The Nile was the main source of trade, communication and transportation of building materials to and from Egypt. The prime building materials that were used were mud and brick. They used post and beam structures for building. There was minimum rainfall and intense sunlight so based on that they had a lot of outdoor spaces, flat roofs and roof ventilators. In residential spaces it was typical to have a reception vestibule, a columned central living hall and a few bedrooms. Because of the weather conditions it was common to have a loggia. A loggia is a room, hall or porch open to the air on at least one side kind of like a screened in porch we see in houses today. The furniture was inspired by religion and there are a lot of similarities in the furniture we see today.

Here is an example of a more modern day loggia in a home. One side opens up to the air and the other connects to the home.

Mud walls with art carved into them.

As you can see the main structure of the bed has generally stayed the same with some minor details added.

Classical Civilization-Greece

After learning about Prehistoric Greece, I was mostly impressed with all of the details that went into designing the furniture and architecture, and how much of it we still use in design today. The Parthenon is an ancient temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece and considered the height of the Doric order, the most simplistic compared to the other orders. Even though the columns aren't equally spaced out it appears as though they are. The entablature is bowed in the center and the columns incline inward to heighten the look. Much of what I saw in the furniture I see in today's world as well. The beds were very simple, didn't have much detail to them and didn't look too comfortable, but for the most part we still use the same style today. The Klismos chair was crafted completely out of wood and was designed specifically for women. It has a very graceful look to it and you can see it has inspired some of the modern styles we have now. The hot summers and bitter winters that took place during this time definitely didn't get in the way of the amazing designs that were created. All of these advances in architecture helped in changing the way we look at design forever.