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DOMUS

ROMAN
HOUSING
POTTERY REPLICA OF
AN EARLY THATCHED ROOF HUT

Single room, called the atrium, in


which the entire household lived
TYPES OF HOUSING

• INSULA
• DOMUS
• VILLA
INSULAE
• Term originally applied to the city blocks
• Later to the apartment houses themselves
• Poorer people usually lived in the “insulae”
• “Insula” means “island”
• Apartment blocks seemed to jut out amid a
sea of streets and smaller houses
• Small, dark, damp rooms used for any
purpose and any number of people
MODEL OF INSULA
DOMUS
• Separate houses of the rich
• Spacious and well lit
• Carefully planned, with each room serving
a particular purpose
• Built around an inner garden, or courtyard
• Tended to look inwards for light and space,
whereas houses today look outward
DOMUS FLOORPLAN
TYPICAL DOMUS FEATURES
• Ala – side room
• Atrium – entrance hall
• Cubiculum - bedroom
• Culina - kitchen
• Fauces – entry passage
• Impluvium/Compluvium – rain-collecting pool
• Peristylium – inner garden
• Taberna - shop
• Tablinum – master’s study
• Triclinium – dining room
TABERNA
• Shops could be found both in domus and
insulae, carrying foods, wine, pottery and
other goods
• The open fronts of the small shops gave
color and variety during the day
• At night, the shops were shuttered and
blank
WINESHOP
BAKERY
THERMOPOLIUM (BAR)
VESTIBULUM

Open court in front of door, sometimes with an


ornamental pavement, extending from door to
inner edge of the sidewalk
CAVE CANEM

Many entranceways had pavements of mosaics


ATRIUM
• Situated at the front of the hose, the
atrium had been the heart of the early
Roman household
• Later, the atrium became used primarily as
an entrance hall or formal reception room
when domestic activities were carried on at
the back of the house
• The impluvium and the compluvium were its
most conspicuous features
IMPLUVIUM

To collect rainwater coming through an opening in the roof from


which it ran into a cistern and was used for household purposes
COMPLUVIUM

This opening allowed light into


atrium and adjoining rooms
ATRIUM/TABLINUM with wooden doors
TABLINUM
• Master’s office or study
• It may have been so named because his account
books (tabulae) and his business and private
papers were kept in it
• By its position it commanded the whole house
• Folding doors or draw curtains for privacy
• Corridor at side made free passage through the
house when the tablinum was closed
TABLINUM
TABLINUM
CAPSA
WAX TABLET
CUBICULUM
• Bedroom
• Small and dark
• Often contained fine wall-paintings/frescoes
• Bed was a simple wooden frame with
interwoven straps upon which a mattress was
placed
• Bed often used as a sofa during the day
CUBICULUM
CUBICULUM
CULINA
• Kitchen
• Contained the hearth for heating, cooking,
and baking
• Usually located in rear of the house
• Sometimes had a separate rear entrance for
convenience
• Utensils (ladles, spoons, knives, pots and
pans) were made of bronze, iron, and clay
CULINA
CULINA
TRICLINIUM
• Dining Room
• Many had built-in couches for reclining
• Three couches surrounding a removable table
• Marble steps in wall contained a fountain for water to
cascade over feet of diners and into a drain
• Fine paintings/frescoes decorated the walls
• Glass used for glassware, but rarely for windows
• Silverware and utensils generally used only by wealthy
Romans
TRICLINIUM
Triclinium – Villa of the Mysteries
LUCERNAE – OIL LAMPS
ALA
• Sideroom
• Lararium – Shrine to Household Gods
LARARIUM
OUTSIDE LARARIUM
LARES & PENATES
PERISTYLIUM
What Roman Toilets Were Like
Roman toilets were a row of seats with a channel
of water in front.  Instead of toilet paper, the
Romans used a wooden stick with a sponge on the
end.  After use, they would dip the sponge stick
in the channel of water.  The same sponge stick
would then be used again and again for different
people.  Rich Roman ladies disliked the idea of a
sponge stick and used an ostrich feather
instead.  The rich Roman's homes had their own
private toilets.  At the other end of the scale
there were the poor, who would share one toilet
between many families.  To help with drainage,
their houses were built over rivers or sewers.
LATRINA
balneum

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