INTERIORS

DURING
ROMAN PERIOD
1

Ar. S.H.R.Jawahar Benazir ……. School of Architecture & Interior Design, SRM University
History of Interior Design - I
Reconstructed Rome

History of Interior Design - I

Reconstructed Rome

History of Interior Design - I

E AR L Y R OM AN HOUSE S
• The earliest of Roman homes were round or oval shaped huts with thatched roof.
Later Roman huts were oval in shape. In more advanced times came rectangular
shaped house.
• Early Roman houses revolved around the primitive farm life of early times, when all
members of the family lived in one large room together.
• Primitive Roman houses didn't have a chimney with the smoke escaping through a
plain old hole in the roof.
• There were no windows and so all natural light came via the aforesaid hole in the
ceiling.
• There was only one door and the space opposite the door was probably set aside
as much as possible for the father and mother.
• Here was the heart of the room/house, the hearth, where the mother prepared the
meals, and near it stood the implements employed for spinning and weaving; here 4

also was the safe or strong box (the arca) in which the master of the house kept
his valuables, and here the bed was spread.
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L AT E R R OM AN HOUSE S
• As greater space and privacy were needed, ancient houses were added on to with
small rooms opening out of the atrium at the sides.
• The arrangement and plans of the various rooms around the peristylium looks to
have varied with the ideas and designs of builder or owner;
• According to the means of the owner there were Roman bedrooms, the triclinium
( dining room ), Roman libraries, drawing rooms, kitchen, scullery, closets, private
baths, together with the simple rooms needed for housing slaves.
• But, whether there were a lot of rooms or few, they all faced the court, receiving
from it light and air, and so did the rooms along the sides of the atrium.
• There was often a garden behind the peristylium.
• Example - Diocletian's palace in Croatia.
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 Various rooms

PERISTYLUM

The central ATRIUM FOUNTAIN

PERISTYLUM

Various rooms
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Greco Roman House Plan.

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 7

The Interior view of a Roman House

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G R E E K INF L UE NC E
• From the influence of ancient Greek houses came the idea of a court at the back
of the tablinum, open to the sky, surrounded by various rooms, and planted with
flowers, trees, and shrubs.
• The open space in this type of house had columns around it and often a fountain
in the middle. This court was called the peristylum or peristylium.
• Access to the peristylium from the atrium was gained through the tablinum,
though this could be cut off from it by folding doors and by a narrow passage at
one side.
• The passage would probably have been used by slaves and by others when they
were not privileged to pass through the tablinum.
• Both passage and tablinum could be closed on the side of the atrium.

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 Atrium – Interior of a Villa

Roman Kitchen

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Roman Dining Room - Diorama Mosaic Flooring

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• Roman houses varied depending not only on the era in which they were built, but
also on their location.
AT R I U M
• The main room in the house was the Atrium – a multifunctional space which served
various activities of the household.
• Inside the atrium, meals were prepared, the table laid out, indoor work was done,
and sacrifices were offered to the gods ; by nightfall a space was cleared to spread
the hard beds or pallets.
• There were four types of atrium:
o Tuscan - in which the roof was supported by two pairs of beams that crossed
each other at right angles,
o Tetrastylon - in which four pillars supported the roof beams at the corners of
the compluvium. 11
o Displuviatum - in which the roof sloped to the out walls, and
o Testudinatum - Later the atrium was reduced to being a reception room.

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 C o m p l u vi u m – the atrium received its light from a
central opening in Roman roofs, the compluvium, which got
its name from the fact that rain, as well as air and light,
could enter through it.
 I m p l u vi u m – Just beneath the compluvium, is a basin,
called the impluvium, which was not only decorative but
also useful since it caught the rainwater coming through
the open roof and channeled it into underground water Compluvium in a
storage tanks. Tuscan Atrium
 T a b l i n u m - It is the master's office or study, was where the master kept his
arca (a heavy chest, sometimes chained to the floor, containing money and
valuables). The tablinum was meant originally for only temporary purposes, being
built of boards (tabulae), and with an outside door and no connection to the atrium.
 Ve s t i b u l u m - In larger houses, the open court in front of the door, with an 12
ornamental pavement from the door to the street is the vestibulum. In small
houses, it is the narrow space between the door and the inner edge of the
sidewalk.
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 Peristylum- It was an open court at the rear of the
tablinum, planted with flowers, trees, and shrubs. In
upper class houses, the peristyle was the center of
household life.
 Culina- The culina or kitchen was the most important of
the rooms around the peristyle.
 Alae- These were alcoves on either side of the atrium, in The roof of
which wax bust of ancestors were kept. Peristylum
 Tricilinum - The dining room (triclinium) was not always close to the kitchen
because slaves made carrying food fast and easy.
 Cubicula- small, scantily furnished sleeping rooms.
 Cubicula Diurna- used for rest in the daytime
 Cubicula Nocturna (or dormitoria). -nighttime bedrooms.
 Bibliotheca - In the houses of many educated Romans there was a library where 13
papyrus rolls were kept in cases or cabinets around the walls.
 Sacrarium - room with a shrine
 Oeci - rooms for the entertainment of large groups
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 Exedrae – rooms furnished with permanent seats, used for entertainments
 Solarium - a sun deck, and pantries, storerooms, and cellars etc., were also
found in some houses.
 Taberna - If the house faced a business street the owner could build rooms in
front of the atrium for commercial purposes without allowing the privacy of the
interior rooms to be affected. A passageway to his door was of course
maintained. If the house was situated on a corner, these additional rooms could
be added on the side as well as in the front, and, as they had no necessary
connection with the interior, they could be rented as living rooms, as separate
rooms often are in modern times. These rooms were known as taberna.
 Insulae – these were apartments/small houses stacked together like
apartements. These Apartments were build poorly and cheaply and were often in
danger of fire and collapse. The building was looked after by an insularius, a
slave of the the owner. These were sometimes six or seven stories high 14

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 A cubiculum in a villa at
boscoreale, near pompeii

A Tricilinum or Dining room

Part of a carved doorway from pompeii

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A mosaic threshold of pompeii

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 17

Reconstruction of a street in Pompeii

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R O M AN D O O R S & WI N D O W S

• There were numerous terms for the door in Roman times.

• Ostium included both the doorway and the door.
• Fores and janua are more precise words for the door itself.
• Doors opened inward; outer doors were provided with bolts and bars.
• Locks and keys were heavy and clumsy.
• In some houses a doorman or janitor was kept on duty.
• Inside houses, curtains were preferred to doors.
• Sometimes mosaics adorned the threshold, reading salve (good heath), nihil
intret mali (may no evil enter), or cave canem (beware of dog).
• Some windows were provided with shutters, which slid in a framework on the
outer wall.
• If these were in two parts, so that they moved in opposite directions, they 18

were said to be junctae (joined).

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R O M AN F L O O R S & R O O F S

• The term for Roman floors was pavimentum - a name which originally referred
to floors in small houses in which the ground in each room was smoothed,
covered thickly with small pieces of stone, brick, tile or pottery, and pounded
down solidly and smoothly with a heavy rammer.
• In better houses the floor was made of stone slabs fitted smoothly together.
• More elaborate houses had concrete floors, often with a mosaic surfaces.
• In the upper stories floors were made of wood, sometimes with a layer of
concrete on top.
• Roman roofs varied, with some flat and some sloped.
• The earliest roof was a thatch of straw, later replaced by shingles and finally
tiles.
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R O M AN WA L L I N G

Opus incertum was an

ancient Roman construction
technique, using irregular
shaped and random placed
uncut stones or fist-sized Opus Testaceum
tuff blocks inserted in a core Opus Testaceum (Latin
Opus Reticulatum of Opus caementicium.l for "brick work") is an
ancient Roman form of
Opus reticulatum (also known
construction in which
as reticulated work) is a form
coarse-laid brickwork is
of brickwork used in ancient
used to face a core of
Roman architecture. It consists
opus caementicium. This
of diamond-shaped bricks of
was the dominant form 20
tuff placed around a core of
of wall construction in
opus caementicium.
Opus Incertum the imperial era.

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H E AT I N G & WA T E R S U P P L Y

• Roman houses had various methods for heating.

• In severe winter, portable stoves (braziers made of metal for holding hot coals)
were used.
• Wealthy people sometimes had furnaces with chimneys. The fire was under the
house, and warm air circulated in tile pipes or in hollow walls and floors without
coming directy into the rooms. This heating arrangement was called a hypocaust.
• Water was brought to houses by aqueducts from the mountains, sometimes for a
long distance.
• Often houses had a tank in the upper story. Not many rooms had plumbing - slaves
carried water as needed.
• The Cloaca Maxima, Rome's great sewer said to have been build in the time of the
kings, continued to serve Rome until early in the present century. 21

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B UIL D ING M AT E R IAL S
• Wood was commonly used for temporary structures.
• Permanent buildings were made of stone and unburned brick from early times.
• Walls of dressed stone were laid in regular courses.
• For ordinary houses, sun-dried bricks were largely used until the beginning of the
first century BC. These were also covered with stucco.
• In classical time, cement was invented.
• Walls built of this durable, inexpensive material were called opus caementicium.
• Cement was also combined with crushed terra cotta to make a waterproof lining
(opus Signinum) for cisterns.
• Although concerte walls were weatherproof, they were usually faced with stone or
burned bricks.
• Walls of this type were called opus incertum (irregular work) if they were faced
with stones with no regular size or shape, or opus reticulatum (network) if they 22

were faced with uniform tufa stones.

• Bricks used for facing were triangular - no walls were built of brick alone.
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INTERIOR DECORATION OF A

ROMAN HOUSE

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• Houses changed greatly while Rome was growing. Until the last century of the
Republic, houses were small and simple, with little decoration.
• Bright colours were used simply and appealingly to brighten interiors. Eventually,
however, things became much more ornate.
• Ceilings were vaulted and painted in brilliant colours, or they were divided into
panels by beams.
• These ceilings are sometimes imitated by modern architects.
• Doors were richly paneled and carved, or plated with bronze, or made of solid
bronze. Doorposts were sheathed with beautifully carved marble.
• Floors were covered with contrasting marble tiles or with mosaic pictures.
• The most famous of these is "Darius at the Battle of Isus," measuring 16 feet by 8
feet, with about a 150 separate pieces in each square inch.
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R O M AN F U R N I T U R E

• Furniture in Roman houses tended to be sparse, since the occupants liked space
and simplicity in their decor.
• Beauty was created by mosaics, frescos and water features and other features
of Roman interiors rather than by use of elaborate furnishings.
• However, the few items of Roman Empire furniture were elegant and costly,
using excellent materials and craftsmanship.
• Even wealthy homeowners had mostly essential articles: Beds or couches,
chairs,stools, tables and lamps.
• There was an occasional chest, wooden cabinet with doors, brazier for coals,
and a water clock (seldom).
• Pictures of ancient Roman furniture painted on frescos and other artworks,
together with the few pieces still in existence today, have made it possible to 25

reconstruct with accuracy the furniture in Roman times.

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 26

The Roman Furniture

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COUCHES
• The couch (lectus, lectulus) was found everywhere
in the Roman house, as a sofa by day, a bed by night.
• In its simplest form it consisted of a frame of wood
with straps across the top on which was laid a
mattress.
• At one end there was an arm, sometimes there was an arm at each end, and a back
besides. The back seems to have been a Roman addition to the ordinary form of the
ancient couch.
• The couch was always provided with pillows and rugs or coverlets. The mattress
was originally stuffed with straw, but this gave place to wool and even feathers.
• The couches used for beds seem to have been larger than those used as sofas, and
they were so high that stools or even steps were necessary accompaniments.
• As a sofa the lectus was used in the library for reading and writing. 27

• In the dining-room it had a permanent place.

• The legs and arms were carved or made of costly woods, or inlaid or plated with
tortoise-shell, ivory, or the precious metals.
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 • Sometimes frames are of solid
silver.
• The coverings were often made
of the finest fabrics, dyed in the
most brilliant colors, and
worked with figures of gold.
Romans Reclining on Couches and
Dining at a Table
S T O O L S & C H AI R S curule chair

• The primitive form of Roman seat was a four-

legged stool or bench with no bench.
• Some could be folded. The famous curule chair,
to which only high magistrates were entitled, 28

was a folding stool with curved legs of ivory

and a purple cushion.
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• The first improvement on the stool, was the solium, a stiff,
straight, high-backed chair with solid arms, so high that a
footstool was necessary.
• This was the chair in which a patron sat when he received
clients in the atrium.
• Poets represented it as a seat for
gods and kings.
• After the solium came the cathedra, The Solium
and armless chair with a curved
back.
• A cathedra supina was a cathedra
that had been fixed at an easy angle.
At first used only by women, it
eventually came into general use. 29

• Chairs were not upholstered, but

cushions were used. Roman State chair The Sella
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T AB L E S
• The tables were done with elaborate worksmanship.
• Their supports and tops were made of fine materials -
stone or wood, solid or veneered, or even covered with
thin sheets of precious metal.
• The most expensive were round tables made from cross
sections of citrus wood, the African cedar.
• A monopodium was a table or stand with one supports, The Monopodium
used to hold a lamp or toilet articles.
• The abacus was a rectangular table with a raised rim,
used as a sideboard to hold dishes.
• A mensa delphica - of bronze or marble - had three legs.
• Tables were often made with adjustable legs, so that
they could be raised or lowered. 30

• A table of solid masonry, with a top of polished stone or

Mensa Delphica
mosaic, was built in the dining room or peristyle.
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CHE STS
• Chests were found in every house.
• They were usually made of wood and often bound with
iron.
• Small chests, used as jewel cases, were sometimes
made of silver or gold.
• Cabinets were made of the same materials as chests Wooden Chest
and were often beautifully decorated.
• They were frequently divided into compartments, but
they had no sliding drawers and their wooden doors
were without hinges or locks.
• The cabinets in the library held books, while those in
the alae held wax masks of ancestors.
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• A Cinerarium is the cremation chest .
Marble Cremation Chest
(cinerarium)
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L AM P S
• Romans had very simple & very ornate lamps: containers for olive
oil or melted fat, with loosely twisted threads for the wick(s),
drawn out through one or more holes in the cover or the top.
• There was also usually a hole through which the lamp was
filled. As there was no chimney, the flame must have been
uncertain and dim.
• Some lamps had handles. Some were suspended from
ceilings with chains. Others were kept on stands.
• For lighting public rooms there were tall stands
like those of our floor lamps, from which
numerous lamps could be hung. This was called a
candelabrum. It must have originally been 32
intended for candles, but they were rarely used
Base of a lamp
as the Romans were not skilled candlemakers.

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OTHE R FURNISHINGS

• The Romans produced heat with their charcoal stoves, or braziers.

These were metal boxes which held hot coals. They were raised on legs
and provided with handles.
• The clock, did not exist in Roman times. In the peristylum or garden
there was sometimes a sundial, which measured the hours of the day
by the shadow of a stick or pin. A sundial gives the correct time twice a Sun-dial
year if it is calculated for the spot where it stands.
• A clepsydra was a water clock (a container
filled with water, which escaped from it at
a fixed rate, the changing level marking the
hours on a scale). This was also borrowed
from the Greeks. 33

Early water clock

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Ancient Roman Bakery

34
Wealthy Family’s Home

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S YM B O L S & M O T I F S

• Some motifs found in Roman art and

architecture are the human figure,
• acanthus, rosette, rinceau, swan,
eagle, monopodium, lion, oxen,
sphinx, griffin, grotesque, wave
pattern, festoon, anthemion, fret,
Acanthus Leaves
and laurel wreath.

Garland Motif
Laurel wreath
on the head 35

Wall painting of a garden scene with

fountain and birds, from Oplontis,
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R O M AN AR T & S C U L P T U R E

 Portraiture - Portraiture is a dominant genre of Roman

sculpture, growing perhaps from the traditional Roman
emphasis on family and ancestors; the entrance hall (atrium)
of a Roman elite house displayed ancestral portrait busts.
 Religious and funerary art - Religious art was also a major
form of Roman sculpture. Roman sarcophagus, offer examples
of intricate reliefs that depict scenes often based on Greek Roman portraiture
and Roman mythology or mystery religions that offered
personal salvation, and allegorical representations.
 Funerary art - Roman funerary art also
offers a variety of scenes from everyday
life, such as game-playing, hunting, and 36
military endeavors.
Sarcophagus with battle scene between
Romans and Germans. – in Marble.
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