VITRUVIUS

DE ARCHITECTURA
TREATISE ON ARCHITECTURE
BOOKS 5-8
Book V – Civil Buildings
 CHAPTER I - The Forum and Basilica
 CHAPTER II - The treasury, prison & senate
 CHAPTER III - The theatre
 CHAPTER IV - Baths
 CHAPTER V - The Palaestra
 CHAPTER VI - Harbour and Shipyards
 Forum
 Outdoor public space
 Square plan
 Surrounded by colonades
 1st floor is a walking space
(stoa)
 Proportionate scale
 B = 2/3 L
 1st floor height will be ¼
times less than the ground
floor height
 Basilica
 Indoor meeting place
 Adjacent to forum (on the
warmest side)
 1/3 L < B < 1/2 L
 Height of basilica = breadth
of side aisle
 Breadth of aisle = 1/3 times
breadth of nave
 Treasury and Senate
 Must be proportionate to the forum
 Senate
 If L = B, then H = L
 If L ≠ B, then H = (L+B)/2
 Theatre
 Healthy site
 Less sun exposure
 Strong foundation
 Various entrances but
connected
 Acoustics of theatre
 Clear sound
l
 Baths
 Located at the warmest
position
 The warm room must share
the same furnace
 The floor of the room must
be sloping towards the
furnace
 Size of bath depends upon
the occupants
 Harbors and Shipyards

 Located where natural advantages are maximum

Book VI – Domestic Buildings
 CHAPTER I - climate and style of the house
 CHAPTER II - Modification to suit the site
 CHAPTER III - Proportions of principal rooms
 CHAPTER IV - Proper exposures of rooms
 CHAPTER V - Rooms suiting station of owner
 CHAPTER VI - Farmhouse
 CHAPTER VII - The Greek house
 CHAPTER VIII – Foundations and sub-structures
On CLIMATE
 one part of the world is under the sun's course, another is distant
from it, and another, between the two, is temperate. Therefore the
earth varies in temperature in different parts, so the form of buildings
must be varied according to the temperature of the place, and the
various aspects of the heavens.
 Houses in North should be heavily sheltered, having warm
exposures
 In southern countries which suffer form heat houses must be built
more open with northern exposures
Proper Exposure of room in Farmhouse
 Dining rooms and bathrooms should
have south western exposure
 Bedrooms and Libraries ought to have
an eastern exposure
 Kitchen at the warmest side of
courtyard adjoined by the stable facing
east
 Wine room with windows to the north to
save it from direct heat
 Oil room to the south to keep warm
 Leave places for windows on all sides
on which a clear view of the sky can be
had, to make our building light.In dining
rooms, passages, stairs etc
Greek House
 No atriums, but passageways.
 One between two peristyles called
`
‘mesauloe’ (situated midway) aka
‘andrones’ by Romans.
 Peristyle with colonnades on 3 sides
 A recess called ‘prostas’ of distance 1/3
less than the space between the antae.
 To the right and left are chambers
called ‘thalamos’ and ‘Amphithalamos’
 Large rooms for mistress of house
 This part of house is called
‘gynaeconitis’
 On either side of peristyle are dining
rooms
 On other side of mesauloe is a Rhodian
peristyle.
 Colonnades that face north have dining
rooms and galleries; to east, libraries;
exadrae to the west and to the south large
rooms.
 There are Men’s apartments.Where men
can enjoy without the interruption of
women
 Sometimes small sets of apartments are
built as guest chambers with separate
entrances.
 Stables and doorkeepers rooms are on
the either side of the thirorpion.
Book VII –Floors & Decorative plaster works
Chapter 1 : Floors
 For concrete flooring utmost precaution must be taken for its durability thus the
soil is tested, leveled and stone bedding is laid
 Wooden flooring, winter oak is used the most. It must be taken care that there is
no wall under the floor or it will cause fissures on the left and the right of the
flooring.
Chapter 2 : Slaking of lime
Precautions :
Lime must be burnt long time before it is wanted for use.
 If not properly slaked, it will throw out blisters on application which in
execution, break and destroy the smoothness of the stucco.
Chapter 3 : Vaulting and stucco work
 For arched ceilings, parallel ribs must not be 2 feet apart and are fixed to the ties
of the floor or the roof with iron nails
 Fixation and bounding of the ribs
 Application of sand on the arches and polish by chalk or marble
 Coating of cornices
 Coating of marble dust
Chapter 4 : Stucco work in damp places
 Cavities in the walls and pavements must be left with opening.
Chapter 5 : Decadence of Fresco Paintings
 From stucco, to inlaid marbles to cornices and then red and yellow frames of panels
and later wards came fresco’s.
 Walls were decorated with sceneries, landscapes, animals, nature, tragic and satiric
comics, figures representing Gods and stories of battles.
 Fresco’s were also used for hiding the defective plaster and the cracks of stucco.
Chapter 6 : Marble for use in stucco
 Marble is laid in three coats.
 First coat consist of larger particles of marble combined with sand and limestone
Next coat is of limestone and sand with chips of marbles called assulæ
Final coat has fine particles of marbles with limestone and sand in a smaller proportion
Chapter 7 : Natural Colors
 Some are found in natural state by digging while some are composed by mixing
 Colors like red ochre, red lead, green chalk were the first to be used.
Chapter 8 and 9 : Cinnabar and Quicksilver
 Cinnabar is a powdered mineral from which vermilion (brilliant red or scarlet pigment)
is made
 Cinnabar is also used for extracting quicksilver (mercury). It is done by roasting
crushed cinnabar ore in rotary furnace.
 Quicksilver is used in silver and brass plating. Also for collecting gold from ashes of
clothes containing gold embroidery.
Chapter 10 : Artificial colors, Black
 Black color is made by drying and burning lees of wine in a furnace, and grinding the
result with size.
Chapter 11 : Blue burnt ochre
 Blue pigment is made from the mixture of sand, sulfur and Cyprian copper in a
furnace.
 Heating yellow earth and quenching with vinegar a similar blue pigment but with a
purplish shade.
 Chapter 12: White lead, Verdigris and Artificial Sandarac
 Layer of twigs with vinegar and layer of lead placed in vessels are covered for
preventing evaporation and after some time these masses turn into white lead.
Book VIII – Water Supplies & Aqueducts
 Water is the Principle element in all things. No moisture means no blood, the
vessels would dry. As priests, philosophers and physicist declare, all the
things depend upon water power.
 Water sources: springs of running water, underground reserves, clay (less
amount and bad taste), fine gravel (more but bad taste), veins of pebbles(
moderate quantity but sweet taste), at mountain foot, lava and rain.
 Valleys in the mountains receive most rain water which eventually turns to
snow. The gushing springs then emerge at the foot of the mountains as the
snow melts slowly filtering and hence purifying through the fissures in the
ground.
 The hot air collects the moisture from its surroundings, makes it rise and
converts the moisture into clouds. Hence the winds from the south are
mostly damp and always bring rain while those from the north come in blasts
as they are cooler as well as dry.
 When the alum or asphalt or sulphur are set on fire on ground, they make
the springs in earth to rise in temperature making the water move in the
upper layer known as the hot spring and the lower strata called the cold
spring
 The hot spring is generally sweet as water is emitted out in pure form in
boiling state but the cold one is bad in taste as well as color and odour as it
passes through a large distance to seep out.
 Most hot springs have healings properties as it is boiled with foreign salts
such as asphalt (cure internal maladies), sulphur (cures pain) etc. Some
acidic springs are said to be able to dissolve stones in bladder.
 The water generally have different flavors due to the difference in the
properties of soil.
 If an open spring is to be tested, frames and health of people living around it
should be taken in account. Also the boiling rate of vegetable, the amount of
solid impurities can serve the purpose.
 water leveling can be done with an instrument called chorobate which is
straightedge joined together with legs through cross pieces having vertical
lines upon it
 If the water is to be conducted through lead pipes into the city then a
reservoir should be made at the source, connected to another reservoir
through lead pipes inside the city’s walls and the water then distributed
through more pipes from there.
 Levels should be considered (can be natural or artificially
 introduced) from source to destination while using lead pipes because any
water blockage can cause the joints to burst.
 Clay pipes are a cheaper alternative to lead ones but their thickness is
generally in 2 digits. These pipes are joined together by tongue and groove
joint.
 These pipes later on can be joined with the aqueducts to form another water
supply system. An aqueduct can receive water from a well if not a spring.
 Clay pipes have certain advantages over the lead one as the labor for clay
pipe construction is local and cheap and also it is safer health wise.
 if the ground in the locality is too hard then water can be collected from the
roofs or higher ground through the cisterns that can collect rain water and
provide a clean supply.
 It is obvious that a man can survive without food stuff for some days and can
even find an alternative but survival is impossible without water, even the
production of food is not possible without it hence one should keep looking
for clean water resources.