Pantheon, Rome.

2 i ) Where and when was the building built?

Where : Piazza Della Rotonda, 00186 Roma, Italy.Province : RomeOpened : 126DFunction : As roman temple, but converted to museum now.Architect : Apollodorus of Damascus

Pantheon in greek means : Honour all godsThe pantheon is turned into church in 609

Key Plan

Location Plan

ii) How the context, building period and evolution makes the building historically significant and meaningful?

3D Mass Context Study

Building Plan

Elevation plan

Section Plan

5.i) What were the materials and construction technology or method used? ii) how the materials and construction technology or method help making the building historically significant and meaningful?

Probably one of the most fascinating features of the Pantheon is the Architecture. The structure of the Pantheon is comprised of a series of intersecting arches. The arches rest on eight piers which support eight round-headed arches which run through the drum from its inner to its outer face. The arches correspond to the eight bays on the floor level that house statues.

The dome itself is supported by a series of arches that run horizontally round. Romans had perfected the use of arches which helped sustain the weight of their magnanimous buildings. The Romans were aware of the heavy nature of their building materials. So, they used lighter materials toward the top of the dome. On the lowest level travertine, the heaviest material was used, then a mixture of travertine and tufa, then tufa and brick, then all brick was used around the drum section of the dome, and finally pumice, the lightest and most porous of materials on the ceiling of the dome. This use of lighter materials on top alleviated the immense weight of the dome. The Roman Pantheon was probably constructed by using an elaborate setup of wooden scaffolding, which in itself would have been costly. The elegant coffers on the dome were likely struck with a device that was exacted from floor level.

The detail of this building is extraordinary. If the dome of the rotundra were flipped upside down it would fit perfectly inside the rotunda. When approaching the Pantheon from the outside it appears rectangular in shape. But it is only the first small room (cella) that has corners. The rotunda is completely round. The small entry room would have been entered by climbing a staircase that is now entirely under modern ground level.

Also, in antiquity there would have been a large colonnaded enclosure in front of the building making it almost impossible for one to glimpse the dome at the back. The statues of Augustus and Agrippa stood in the apse at the end of the colonnaded side aisles of the entrance. The interior design of the Roman Pantheon is a striking synthesis of tradition and innovation. The dimensions of the interior height and the diameter of the dome are the same (145 Roman feet., which is 141 feet. 8 inches;43.2m).

The architect, who is unknown, did this on purpose to show the harmony of the building. The marble veneer that we see today on the interior was for the most part added later

However, the Roman Pantheon in its present state allows us a glimpse into the marvelous and stunning world of Roman architecture. The dome would have been gilded to look like the heavenly sphere of all the gods that the name Pantheon evokes. The oculus was an engineering gem of the Roman world. No oculus had even dared come close in size to the one in the Pantheon. It is still lined with the original Roman bronze and is the main source of light for the whole building. As the earth turns the light flows in to circle the interior making the viewer aware of the magnificence of the cosmos. The oculus was never covered and rain falls into the interior and runs off the slightly convex floor to the still functioning Roman drainpipes underneath.

The oculus is important because it symbolic connotations aside, the oculus also has many historic bases, which are mainly architecture driven and therefore, making them useful and practical. The main historic base for an oculus is its use as a sundial. Although not a very conventional sundial, the hole in the roof does give varying shadows throughout the day, which can be calculated precisely to give human beings an idea of time. The oculus is also a source

of light and rain in ways that windows cannot offer. This is very practical in the case of vegetation growing directly underneath the oculus or to simply give a simple architecture a natural touch. However, perhaps the most useful historic base for an oculus is its use as a ventilation system.

The Pantheon has since antiquity been used to inspire artists during the Renaissance as well as become the tomb for important figures in Italian history. The Italian kings Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I as well as the famous Renaissance painter Raphael and his fiancée are buried in the Pantheon. It is a wonderful example of second century Roman architecture. It boasts mathematical genius and simple geometry that today still impresses architects and amazes the eyes of casual viewers.

EXTERIOR The whole building stands on a 1.3 m high base which originally extended a further 7 metres in front of the colonnade. Steps in Numidian yellow marble extended from the outer ends of this base. The building consists of two principal parts - the porch, which is very Classical Greek in presentation, and the circular main building which is much more Roman in style and reminiscent of the architecture of the large Roman baths. The circular building is built with brick and concrete but was originally faced with white marble stucco to match the porch in appearance. The dome is concrete with the external surface originally covered in sheets of bronze but these were removed by Constans II in 663 CE.

The porch measures 33.1 x 13.6 m and presents a front colonnade of eight Corinthian columns 11.8 m high. The monolithic column shafts are in Mons Claudianus and Aswan grey granite with the bases and capitals in white Pentelic marble. The pediment above the columns is now empty but drill holes suggest there was originally an emblem of some sort, possibly an eagle or wreath which would have been in gilded bronze and symbolised Jupiter. The porch was faced with white Pentelic marble and is decorated with reliefs showing objects used in religious sacrifices (such as dishes, boxes and axes), garlands and candelabras. The interior of the porch measures 34 x 20 m and has four rose-pink columns creating three aisles. The pavement is restored but reflects the original design with grey granite rectangles and circles in white marble. The interior of the porch was also panelled with marble but this has since been lost, revealing the brickwork.

INTERIORThe Pantheon may well be the first building from Classical architecture where the interior is deliberately made to outshine the exterior. The circular part of the building or rotunda was entranced via two bronze doors measuring 12 x 7.5 m (those of today are ancient but not original). The rotunda measures 43.2 m in diameter which is exactly the maximum height of the dome, itself a perfect hemisphere. At the very top of the dome is an opening to the sky (oculus) which is 8.8 m in diameter and has a decorative bronze sheet frieze. The dome is made from a light tufa and scoria (a type of pumice) mix of concrete (caementa) and its interior is further lightened by five rings of 28 coffers which reduce in size as they rise towards the centre of the dome. These may have been originally covered in bronze sheets.The wall of the rotunda is 6 metres thick and has seven alcoves which are alternatively semi-circular (3) and rectangular (4). The alcove opposite the door is the most impressive and reaches the ceiling. It has a decorative red porphyry frieze and cornice and is flanked by two Corinthian marble columns of Phrygian purple. Each of the other alcoves has two marble columns in Phrygian purple (semi-circular) or Numidian yellow (rectangular). Each alcove also had three niches for statues and a small window with another seven windows placed around the rotunda walls. The pavement is the original and consists of a square pattern using grey granite, red porphyry, Numidian yellow and Phrygian purple marble.

Pantheon Formwork The massive size of the Pantheon has fueled discussion regarding the centering system used to construct it. Did it use a ground supported centering system or a completely self supporting system with all radial trusses framing into a central compression ring at the top? In order for the dome to be constructed without many column supports upholding individual formwork pieces, radial trusses would have to span a distance from the base of the dome curvature to the edge of the oculus. This angular distance is approximately 26 meters as seen in Figure 1 below and coincides with the centering span required to build

the Basilica Ulpia, which was constructed at roughly the same time as the Pantheon (Lancaster, 2005). The Romans likely designed both buildings so that the same centering could be used which would save time and materials (Lancaster, 2005). The wood construction knowledge at the time would have allowed radial trusses of this dimension to be built so it would have been unnecessary to have many columns supporting the centering from the ground (Lancaster, 2005). The next question is whether or not the centering had a large central tower or not. According to Vitruvius, towers reaching 53 meters high and having a base of 10.4 meters had been designed and built by Diades, an engineer for Alexander the Great, so the technology to build a column supported centering system was available to the Romans at the time of the Pantheon's construction (Lancaster, 2005). The alternative method of a completely self supporting centering system would also have already been developed. Of the centering systems proposed for the Pantheon, it is likely that the Romans used the easier and less complicated method, which would suggest the large central tower system. The use of a self supporting system would have been overly complex and required extra supports or cranes to hold the system in place until all the radial frames were positioned and equilibrium was achieved.

Analysis

Influence of the Pantheon:As one of the best surviving structures from ancient Rome, the influence of the Pantheon on modern architecture almost cannot be underestimated. Architects from all over Europe and America from the Renaissance through the 19th century studied it and incorporated what they learned into their own work. Echoes of the Pantheon can be found in numerous public structures: libraries, universities, Thomas Jeffersons Rotunda, and more.Its also possible that the Pantheon has had an impact on Western religion: the Pantheon appears to be the first temple built with general public access in mind. Temples of the ancient world were generally limited only to specific priests; the public may have taken part in religious rituals in some fashion, but mostly as observers and outside the temple. The Pantheon, however, existed for all the people a feature which is now standard for houses of worship in all religions of the West.Hadrian wrote about the Pantheon: My intentions had been that this sanctuary of All Gods should reproduce the likeness of the terrestrial globe and of the stellar sphere...The cupola...revealed the sky through a great hole at the center, showing alternately dark and blue. This temple, both open and mysteriously enclosed, was conceived as a solar quadrant. The hours would make their round on that caissoned ceiling so carefully polished by Greek artisans; the disk of daylight would rest suspended there like a shield of gold; rain would form its clear pool on the pavement below, prayers would rise like smoke toward that void where we place the gods.

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