ARCBU31 / ARCBU31L

BUILDING UTILITIES 3: ACOUSTICS AND LIGHTING

AR. MARIROSE V. VOCAL, UAP, MAIT / SPECIAL SESSION
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uvius

Vitruvius The Ten Books on Architecture

(Translated by Morris Hicky Morgan, in 1914, edited by Tom Turner in 2000).

What were the main issues Vitruvius

wanted to tell architects about?
Vitruvius believed that an architect should
focus on three central themes when
preparing a design for a building:
FIRMITAS (strength), UTILITAS
(functionality), and VENUSTAS (beauty).
But the theory of Venustas (or beauty) is a
complicated one.
This is the first and most famous text in
the history of western landscape
architecture, architecture, engineering,
and town planning. In Roman times the
architect was, from the word’s Greek
etymology, a ‘chief technician’. The Ten
Books' Contents list reveals that most
aspects of engineering, including harbors,
site planning, clocks, aqueducts, pumps,
and siege engines, come with the author's
technical scope. Only a tiny proportion of
these subjects come within the twenty-
first century scope of ‘architecture’.
Vitruvius Pollio’s treatise De Architectura,
was written circa 27 BC and is the only book of its kind to survive from antiquity. These online
extracts from Vitruvius comprise the first Book and his comments on what we would now classify
as garden design.
Ian Thompson re-interpreted Vitruvius for modern landscape architecture in his book on Ecology,
Community and Delight: sources of value in landscape architecture (1999). He argued that Delight
is still a useful name for the aesthetic aspect of landscape design but that it makes sense to
interpret Firmness as Ecology and Commodity as Community.
The design methods appropriate to landscape architecture, Tom Turner has suggested a 'simple
approach', also deriving from Vitruvius, based on an understanding of Natural Patterns, Social
Patterns, Cultural Patterns and Aesthetic Patterns.

The Ten Books on Architecture

Book 1 The Preface is used by the author as an opportunity to fawn on his emperor.
Chapter 1 deals with education, which includes a broader range of subjects than the syllabus of
today’s design schools.
Chapter 2 with the five fundamental principles of design (Order, Eurythmy, Symmetry, Propriety,
and Economy).
Chapter 3 contains the most famous section in the book, making the case for Commodity,
Firmness and Delight.
Chapter 4 and Chapter 6, on for planning a site in relation to climate, lay down the basis for
landscape architecture.
Chapter 5 may seem obsolete but modern cities are being re-fortified in response to fears of
crime and terrorism.
Chapter 7 has fascinating commentary on the placing of important buildings.
Book 1 is followed by books on materials and on different types of building. Roman towns had
little space was available for what we would now call gardens. But some land was allocated to
outdoor rooms and Vitruvius comments on the treatment of this land are quoted, from his section on
Colonnades and walks (Book 5, Chapter 10) and on the Palaestra (Book 5, Chapter 11), which was a
gymnasium.

The subjects of Vitruvius Ten Books, using modern terminology, are:

Book 1 Landscape architecture
Book 2 Construction materials
Book 3 Temples (Part 1)
Book 4 Temples (Part 2)
Book 5 Public places: square, meeting hall, theatre, park, gymnasium, harbor
Book 6 Private dwellings
Book 7 Finishes and colors
Book 8 Water supply
 Book 9 Sundials and clocks
Book 10 Mechanical engineering

Book 1 Landscape Architecture

Preface
The education of the architect
The fundamental principles of architecture
The departments of architecture
The site of a city
The city walls
The directions of streets; with remarks on the winds
The sites for public buildings

Book 2 Materials
Introduction Top
The origin of the dwelling house
On the primordial substance according to the physicists
Brick
Sand
Lime
Pozzolana
Stone
Methods of building walls
Timber
Highland and lowland fir

Book 3 Temples (Part 1)

Introduction Top
On symmetry in temples and in the human body
Classification of temples
The proportions of intercolumniations and of columns
The foundations and substructures of temples
Proportions of the base, capitals, and entablature in the Ionic order

Book 4 Temples (Part 2)

Introduction Top
The origins of the three orders, and the proportions of the corinthian capital
The ornaments of the orders
Proportions of doric temples
The cella and pronaos
 How the temple should face
The doorways of temples
Tuscan temples
Circular temples and other varieties
Altars

Book 5 Public places: forum, basilica, theatres, walks, palaestra, harbors

Introduction Top
The forum and basilica
The treasury, prison, and senate house
The theatre: its site, foundations, and acoustics
Harmonics
Sounding vessels in the theatre
Plan of the theatre
Greek theatres
Acoustics of the site of a theatre
Colonnades and walks
Baths
The Palaestra
Harbours, breakwaters, and shipyards

Book 6 Private houses

Introduction Top
On climate as determining the style of the house
Symmetry, and modifications in it to suit the site
Proportions of the principal rooms
The proper exposures of the different rooms
How the rooms should be suited to the station of the
Owner
The farmhouse
The Greek house
On foundations and substructures

Book 7 Finishes and Colors

Introduction Top
Floors
The slaking of lime for stuccco
Vaultings and stucco work
On stucco work in damp places, and on the decoration of dining rooms
The decadence of fresco painting
Marble for use in stucco
Natural colors
 Cinnebar and quicksilver
Artificial colors Black, Blue, Burnt ochre
White lead, verdigris, and artificial sandarach
Purple
Substitutes for purple, yellow ochre, malachite green, and indigo

Book 8 Water
Introduction Top
How to find water
Rainwater
Various properties of different waters
Tests of good water
Levelling and levelling instruments
Aqueducts, wells, and cisterns

Book 9 Sundials and clocks

Introduction Top
The zodiac and the planets
The phases of the moon
The course of the sun through the twelve signs
Tee northern constellations
The southern constellations
Astrology and weather prognostics
The analemma and its applications
Sundials and water clocks

Book 10 Mechanical engineering

Introduction Top
Machines and implements
Hoisting machines
The elements of motion
Engines for raising water
Water wheels and water mills
The water-screw
The pump of Ctesibius
The water organ
The hodometer
Catapults or scorpiones
Ballistae
The stringing and tuning of catapults
 Siege machines
The tortoise
Hegetor's tortoise
Measures of defense
Note on scamilli impares

AR. VITRUVIUS’ INSTRUCTIONS ON ACOUSTICS

CHAPTER I
THE EDUCATION OF THE ARCHITECT
1. In theatres, likewise, there are the bronze vessels which are placed in niches under the seats in
accordance with the musical intervals on mathematical principles. These vessels are arranged with a view
to musical concords or harmony, and apportioned in the compass of the fourth, the fifth, and the octave,
and so on up to the double octave, in such a way that when the voice of an actor falls in unison with any
of them its power is increased, and it reaches the ears of the audience with greater clearness and
sweetness. Water organs, too, and the other instruments which resemble them cannot be made by one
who is without the principles of music.

CHAPTER VIII: ACOUSTICS OF THE SITE OF A THEATRE

1. This having been settled with the greatest pains and skill, we must see to it, with still greater care, that
a site has been selected where the voice has a gentle fall, and is not driven back with a recoil so as to
convey an indistinct meaning to the ear. There are some places which from their very nature interfere
with the course of the voice, as for instance the dissonant, which are termed in Greek κατηχοῦντες; the
circumsonant, which with them are named περιηχοῦντες; again the resonant, which are termed
ἀντηχοῦντες; and the consonant, which they call συνηχοῦντες. The dissonant are those places in which
the first sound uttered that is carried up high, strikes against solid bodies above, and, being driven back,
checks as it sinks to the bottom the rise of the succeeding sound.

2. The circumsonants are those in which the voice spreads all round, and then is forced into the middle,
where it dissolves, the case-endings are not heard, and it dies away there in sounds of indistinct meaning.
The resonant are those in which it comes into contact with some solid substance and recoils, thus
producing an echo, and making the terminations of cases sound double. The consonants are those in
which it is supported from below, increases as it goes up, and reaches the ears in words which are distinct
and clear in tone. Hence, if there has been careful attention in the selection of the site, the effect of the
voice will, through this precaution, be perfectly suited to the purposes of a theatre. The drawings of the
plans may be distinguished from each other by this difference, that theatres designed from squares are
meant to be used by Greeks, while Roman theatres are designed equilateral triangles. Whoever is willing
to follow these directions will be able to construct perfectly correct theatres.