What are two roman contributions to archiecture?

Answer 1

The two main Roman contributions to architecture were the arch (both the simple, barrel, arch and the vaulted arch, or vault) and concrete.

The Romans were first to fully appreciate the advantages of the arch, the vault and the dome. The arch has a strong load-bearing capacity and provides stability. it is thought that the Etruscans invented the simple barrel arch and Pergamon invented the vault (adjacent arches which are assembled side by side) which has an even greater load bearing capacity and whose structure is also suited to support large roofs. The arches and the vaults came to be used extensively for the first time. They became essential for the construction of large scale buildings, to support large roofs and to build basements. The Romans also used the arch to build gates, aqueducts, bridges which were much longer than before and could cross much wider rivers and valleys. They even managed to build a bridge across the lower Danube, which is a very wide river. If a deep valley had to be crossed, two or three piers of arches were built on top of each other to reach the desired height.

The Romans invented the segmental arch, which were flatter, as they realised that an arch did not have to be a semicircle.

The Romans were not the first to use concrete. However, they developed a new and much stronger type of concrete and they were the first to make extensive used if it. Itch was as resistant as modern concrete and also set underwater (this enabled them to build much bigger docks for ports). However, it was not as fluid as modern concrete and had to be layered by hand. The arch, the vault and concrete were what made the construction of such a massive structure as the Colosseum possible. Concrete was also used to build domes, public buildings, military facilities (forts and fortifications) warehouses, amphitheatres, circuses (racing tracks) temples and baths. Often the Romans used a mixture of stone, brick and concrete (for the Colosseum stone and concrete were used).

The Romans perfected the dome. The Pantheon (a temple which has been turned into a church) in Rome is still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world.