Greek and Roman Pleasure Buildings : 1 Colosseum

Greek and Roman Pleasure Buildings : 1 Colosseum

 

When I was at College, I did a series of little pen and ink sketches as part of my architectural history studies. I thought it might be a change from the Scotland Diary to look at these for a time. So I am starting with probably one of the most famous buildings of the ancient world - the Colosseum in Rome. This was started by Vespasian in 70 A.D. and completed by Domitian in 82 A.D. Externally it is a vast ellipse 620 feet by 515 feet, while the arena is 287 feet by 180 feet. The construction is interesting, lava is used for the foundations with brick for the supporting walls, while pumice is used for the vaulting to reduce the weight. The facade was of travertine blocks and was 158 feet high, while the seats, columns and ornaments wre of marble. My original drawings are now in China. I sent them to my friend Chenjie in Wuhan when he was doing an architectural history project as a module in his degree course.