Windows & Roofs.

[Gaius Octavius]

I keep going back to this great model:

 

http://www.unrv.com/forum/index.php?automo...si&img=1679

 

Why are two of the roofs slanted inwards and the others outwards?

I have it in mind that Roman villas did not have windows facing outwards. Please put me straight on this.

[caldrail]

Villas would tend not to have outward windows for peace, privacy, and security. Upper floors are a different matter.

[Publius Nonius Severus]

The roof that is slanted inward with the smaller opening (most likely above the atrium) is designed to funnel rain water into the impluvium.

 

The large inward-slanting roof over the peristyle probably does the same but instead of the water falling into the impluvium it may direct the water to gutters/pipes that also supply water for somewhere in the house (especially if there is another pool in the peristyle).

[Northern Neil]

The roof that is slanted inward with the smaller opening (most likely above the atrium) is designed to funnel rain water into the impluvium.

 

The large inward-slanting roof over the peristyle probably does the same but instead of the water falling into the impluvium it may direct the water to gutters/pipes that also supply water for somewhere in the house (especially if there is another pool in the peristyle).

This is correct. When the model is complete I will upload some more photographs - the peristyle does indeed have a pool (out of view) partly filled by run-off from the roofs, and partly from overflow from the impluvium. Exterior windows at ground level were indeed rare; but quite common above head height. At Pompeii exterior windows tended to be about seven to ten feet off the ground. The windows on this model are depicted accordingly, thus affording the privacy required for my tiny citizens. Smaller windows did exist at ground level which appeared to give illumination to staircases and store rooms.

 

Although the groundplan of this house is from Timgad, the overall appearance of the model is derived from my visits to Pompeii. I would be very grateful to receive ideas about drainpipes and gutters; none of my reconstruction material seems to show them, and I can only find a few scattered sources.

[M. Porcius Cato]

I would be very grateful to receive ideas about drainpipes and gutters; none of my reconstruction material seems to show them, and I can only find a few scattered sources.

Presumably gutters could be made from the same imbrices as used for the roof? See here for a suggestion along these lines.

[Publius Nonius Severus]

I would be very grateful to receive ideas about drainpipes and gutters; none of my reconstruction material seems to show them, and I can only find a few scattered sources.

 

In addition to Cato's reference, this may also proof helpful if you haven't seen it already:

 

Tegula from William Smith at Lacus Curtius

 

If I'm not mistaken, it sounds like the water may have exit from the lion's heads and down into the pool (the smaller exit point would have increased pressure I think and projected it rather than just dripping down, kinda neat)

Edited April 20, 2007 by Publius Nonius Severus

[Northern Neil]

Many thanks MPC and PNS for those excellent references. I found this on a British 'Channel 4' forum: I've tried to find an easy reference for you but can't come up with anything that deals specifically with roof drainage. Anyone else got any ideas?

 

The short answer to your question, though, is that it depends on the building. The wealthier the owner, the more likely it would be that a building's roof would be equipped with gutters and and that there would have been ground drains on the site. Guttering and downpipes were rare, however. Where used they were made of both ceramic (most commonly) and wood. There were special tiles often with gargoyle-like heads to direct water away from the building. More usually, in the absence of gutters, roofs probably overlapped walls by quite a distance.

[The Augusta]

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what would happen at a time of torrential rain? Most of the impluvia I have seen at Pompeii and in reconstructions seem quite shallow. For instance in the reference that Cato cited above (one that I was only looking at myself a few days ago for another project!) a link to impluvia says that the water gathered there was drained off into cisterns. Northern Neil also mentioned that the pool in the peristylium was filled 'by overflow' from the impluvium. How did such cisterns work and where were they situated? And if there was a downpour, could the impluvium cope? Or did water overflow into the atrium? I guess it didn't, but how did everything work?

 

Pardon my ignorance of such mechanical things, gents, but this really does interest me.

 

As for roofs - I was re-reading in Appian recently the events surrounding Caesar's funeral and the riots that ensued, when Appian states that people 'went up onto their roofs', all the better to see the chaos outside - which suggests to me, as Neil says, that exterior windows in that period were either non-existent or were very high, purely to let in light through the lattice, rather than afford a view out.

 

Any help on these questions would be gratefully received.

[Northern Neil]

In Pompeii and Herculaneum the external windows were almost at ceiling height, which would support your suggestion that they were placed simply to let light in. As to the cisterns and Impluvia and how they worked, I am in the dark. I can only make the assumption that some kind of overflow directed surplus water into the sewers.

[Pertinax]

Just referring to The Augusta's post above , the impression one gets in Pompeii (in particular) is of inward looking dwellings that exclude any hint of the life of the street. I suggest this is for those dwellings belonging to persons of sufficient status to be able to exercise any choice in the matter.

[Gaius Octavius]

With regard to private homes in the cities and in the countryside:

 

Were the 'windows' for light or air flow or both?

Was there a heating system? A cooling system?

Did they have cellars?

 

The above in re the tenements in the cities?

Edited April 21, 2007 by Gaius Octavius

[Faustus]

I would be very grateful to receive ideas about drainpipes and gutters; none of my reconstruction material seems to show them, and I can only find a few scattered sources.

 

Salve NN

 

This from: CITY (A story of Roman Planning and Construction - David Macaulay) The below situation was described in his book for an imaginary new town named "Verbonia". (I summarize - )

 

All buildings in the city were required to have covered arcades or roof features of some kind (awning types for instance) which dropped storm-water onto the street. Pedestrians were for the most part covered against rain and sunlight, except when they crossed streets. The sidewalks under the "awnings" or arcades were raised above the street level about one and a half foot, and once the storm water was in the street it flowed into the cloaca at various horizontal inlets. The streets were the gutters. There were raised stepping stones on which to cross the streets, which were spaced so as to allow carts to pass through at a cautious speed. There were no doubt "unimproved sections", or places where there were some commercial buildings that weren't so well protected, but in all new construction this was mandated.

 

Faustus

Edited February 11, 2008 by Faustus

[M. Demetrius]

With regard to private homes in the cities and in the countryside:

 

Were the 'windows' for light or air flow or both?

Was there a heating system? A cooling system?

Did they have cellars?

 

The above in re the tenements in the cities?

As always, it depends on the wealth of the family. Windows (since not generally filled in with glass, but sometimes with wooden shutters) would automatically let heat out of the room, and light indirectly in. In winter, the shutters could be closed to hold heat in, at a sacrifice of light input. In cities, often the house was not directly on the street, but down a hallway, and the more accessible streetside area was rented to shop keepers, so their merchandise could be bought more easily. Sometimes this shop was owned by the craft-makers who lived in the house, other times it would be a food vendor, pottery, jewelry, whatevery shop.

 

I don't think they had cooling systems, other than opening a door and allowing low air to replace the high, warmer air. For heating, yes, many houses had a firebox of sorts below ground level that heated the water for the bath (now we're talking "Villa") and allowed warmed air to flow under the floors, to heat the floor tiles in bedrooms and other similarly occupied places like the kitchen and triclinium. Offhand, I don't remember the name of that heat system: someone else may...please fill in the blank.

 

Some houses had cellars along with that net of underground air passages. The cellars would be used for food and other storage, just like today. That had a lot to do with the climate where the house was located, and the depth of the soil.

Edited February 11, 2008 by M. Demetrius

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Here's a couple of pictures I came across from Herculaneum.

 

The FIRST is of the compluvium in the atrium, it clearly shows the downspouts from the roof, which are in the form of a dogs head.

 

The SECOND is of the mosiac floor in the atrium which has drainage holes to drain away the excess rainwater.

Edited February 11, 2008 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

I don't think they had cooling systems, other than opening a door and allowing low air to replace the high, warmer air. For heating, yes, many houses had a firebox of sorts below ground level that heated the water for the bath (now we're talking "Villa") and allowed warmed air to flow under the floors, to heat the floor tiles in bedrooms and other similarly occupied places like the kitchen and triclinium. Offhand, I don't remember the name of that heat system: someone else may...please fill in the blank.

 

This was known as a Hypocaust, it was an ancient form of central heating which roughly translated means " heat from below "