How Vitruvius and the Romans Changed Architecture: A Survey of Classical Architecture, Part II

Architecture professor Richard Economakis continues his series about how classical architecture evolved through the ages. Part II of the series focuses on Ancient Rome and the Roman author Vitruvius.
About the Program:
A Survey of Classical Architecture is a new four-part lecture series charting the development of classical architecture, from its emergence in Ancient Greece and Rome, to its rebirth in the Italian Renaissance, elaboration in the 17th and 18th centuries, and reaffirmation in modern times. The lectures look closely at influential architectural works and the contributions of the treatise writers, from the Roman author Vitruvius to Renaissance architects Alberti, Serlio, Vignola and Palladio. They proceed to an overview of the later treatises by architects Perrault, Chambers and Gibbs, and continue with the works of contemporary theorists Porphyrios, Tzonis and Lefaivre, Westfall, and others. The series concludes with a survey of exemplary classical works from the 20th and 21st centuries.
This session introduces Roman architecture by comparing its forms and typologies with Greek examples, and continues with an analysis of its mural (as opposed to columnar) approach, and emphasis on the articulation of internalized space. The latter part of the session studies the oldest surviving treatise on architecture, Vitruvius' De Re Architectura (a.k.a Ten Books on Architecture), which deserves special consideration and analysis given its huge impact on Western architecture. In his analysis, Professor Economakis discusses the organization of the treatise into sections dedicated to theory and the forms and proportions of the elements of classical architecture. Viewers will also learn about Vitruvius' theory of numbers and anthropomorphism, followed by his description of the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders, and compositional aspects such as intercolumniation and temple typology.
00:24 Roman Antiquity
02:45 Comparison of Greek and Roman Architecture
09:33 Vitruvius' Ten Books on Architecture
12:26 Theory and design (Book I)
16:34 Assemblage and building materials (Book II)
19:19 Symmetry, temples, & the Ionic type (Book III)
27:57 Columnar types: Ionic, Doric, Corinthian, & Tuscan (Book IV)
38:56 Composite columnar type
39:50 Roman arches
43:05 Roman urbanism and its examples
48:06 Rise & fall of Constantinople
About the Speaker:
Richard Economakis is a Professor at the School of Architecture of the University of Notre Dame. He served as Director of Graduate Studies until 2022, when he was appointed Interim Associate Dean of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work. He is also a member of the ICAA's Board of Directors. He received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell University, and has worked in classical and traditional firms in New York, New Haven, Athens, and London. While in London, he worked as an editor at Academy Editions, where he produced monographs on the works of contemporary classical architects, and the books Building Classical and Acropolis Restoration. This last edited book was the first to fully document the restoration of the Acropolis monuments in Athens since work began in 1975. He is the author of another book, Acropolis, which surveys the history and architecture of the Periclean Monuments. His most recent edited book, Durability in Construction, was selected as the July 2015 ‘Book of the Month’ by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
In the Spring of 2021, Prof. Economakis co-edited the inaugural issue of Notre Dame’s journal ANTA, together with Michael Mesko. Prof. Economakis has led summer programs for Notre Dame in Greece and Britain, and a 2006 ICAA tour of Ancient and Neoclassical Greece. He is currently engaged in research on the origin of the forms of the Doric Order, the preliminary research for which was published in The Classicist No. 12, in 2015. The work builds on ten seasons of experience as site architect in archaeological excavations on the island of Crete, in Greece. As principal of Richard Economakis Architectural Design, he has produced projects in the US, Central America and Europe. Since 2007 he has realized a number of buildings for the award-winning new town of Cayalá in Guatemala, in collaboration with the firm Estudio Urbano of Guatemala City. His design for a Civic Hall at Cayalá received a 2013 Palladio Award. His recent proposal for the construction of Refugee Villages in Greece and the Mediterranean received the Award of Excellence from the International Making Cities Livable organization, in 2016.
Sponsor:
The ICAA would like to thank our Lead Sponsor for Continuing Education courses: Uberto Construction.

[@WelshRabbit]

Like all of your wonderful lectures, this one is superb. Alas, most of the graphics are of such low resolution as to be almost unviewable. Higher resolution images, would make this video so much more beneficial -- and enjoyable.

[@reenko]

Wonderful lecture thank you so much

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

There is something very pleasing about the diastyle intercolumniation, perhaps the 2:3 ratio.

[@neon-kitty]

Really enjoyed both this and part 1, thank you! My one minor note would be that you didn't mention the significant role that Hellenistic and especially Ptolemaic Alexandrian architecture played in the development of certain architectural forms which are often erroneously credited to the Romans. For example unfluted columns, half-columns, arched entablatures, broken pediments (and other baroque shapes) and the types of pilasters you described were definitely already a thing in Ptolemaic architecture, as was the combination of dentils and modillions in the same entablature. Podiums and pedestals can also be observed in Alexandrian scenes from Pompeian and Herculanean frescoes. The straight ionic capital shape was already in use in the early Hellenistic period and not a Roman invention (see, for example, the votive monument of Ptolemy II in Olympia). Axially arranged enclosures developed in Ptolemaic architecture probably inspired by local Egyptian examples but I don't know whether the Romans adapted this convention from Alexandria or developed it independently. The Alexandrian contribution to classical architecture is unfortunately often overlooked because so few remains of the Hellenistic city have survived to the modern day. And, of course, Vitruvius never visited Alexandria so its architectural conventions are absent from his work.

[@AMorgan57]

That last comment is new to me and intriguing--the overthrow of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453 dispersed Byzantine scholars and helped spark the Italian Renaissance.

[@nava.a_rts]

This is the best channel on TH-cam like for real

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

In the last lecture I watched on classical architecture, the instructor kept saying “periphteral”, which I couldn’t find in architectural dictionaries anywhere. Eventually, after two hours of researching it, I figured out that she meant “peripteral”, but when she spoke it, she was combining it with “peripheral”. It starts with the sounds periP, as the instructor here says properly, not periF. I lost some confidence in her lecture after that error, if she couldn’t say it, did she really understand it?

[@pedroaibeo7295]

The initial map of the extent of the roman empire has one region marked as Iberia (Spain). There is no reason to have spain stated there, ignoring the older sovereign country, Portugal.

[@kimberlyperrotis8962]

The image of the hypaethral building does show a roof, though.

[@neon-kitty]

The peristasis is roofed but the naos area is open to the sky.

[@Strohkopfs]

"units we still use today" haha no XD

[@GHeTtOLyF]

soy redditor