Dr.

Irene Pasina Roman Domus

Prince Sultan University

Interior Design Department
College for Women
aa. 2018-2019
 Domestic places

1. Accedere / to enter;
2. Addentrarsi / to go into;
3. Accogliere / to receive;
4. Spostarsi / to move in;
5. Affacciarsi / to overlook;
6. Appartarsi / to set apart;
7. Raccogliersi / to retire
Casa del Fauno, Pompei
Le Corbusier, Casa del Noce, Pompei
Public Private
 To Enter

Vestibulum
Consecrated to the goddess Vesta, the protector of the
home, or more simply a place where to lay his garment,
or from Sanskrit vastu = dwells, inhabit.
It precedes the actual entry.
 To Go Into

Fauces
Entrance gate of the Roman Domus.
It is not "mouths" to destroy, but to hold, allowing the
choice to stop those who enter in an anonymous external
existence or to introduce them to the more personal and
enjoyable inner existence.
Casa del Poeta Tragico, Ercolano
Casa di Paquio Proculo, Pompei
 To Receive

The atrium or cavaedium

This is the foundation of the home: so important that it
can coincide, in the most elementary installations, with
the house itself, and become the most complex system
for organizing the entire distribution system.
Le Corbusier, Casa del Poeta Tragico a Pompei Casa del Menandro, Pompei
(ottobre 1911, in Voyage d’Orient. Carnets, Carnet IV)
Atrium o Cavaedium (cavum aedium = vuoto ambienti) Casa delle Nozze d’argento, Pompei
”Although one might think of calling it a courtyard or atrium, the most important part of the
building is the one that we call the heart of the house ... A chapel devoted to divine worship,
with an altar: strangers will be introduced to the worship of friendship ; the head of the family,
returning to his home, will stop to invoke the peace and serenity of the family from the gods;
there he will consult with his family and friends about decisions to be taken and other issues".
(G. B. Alberti)
 To move into
Impluvium
Fixed welcoming scenario

Sequences of spaces that "must

leave the guest in doubt whether to
stay where he is for the delight of
the view, or go into to other parts
that attract him for their pleasing
elegance”. (G. B. Alberti)
Casa di Marco Lucrezio Frontone, Pompei
 To Overlook

A double overlooking (exterior-interior): the life organization

of the Domus turns around the presence of the loggia with
columns above the atrium and the terrace facing the street.
The tablinium is also open to the atrium by a door and a
large window.
All of these elements allow to overlook inside and outside
the home and tell the way the homeowner lives: he can
take part in domestic events even if he is settled apart, or
to see and welcome the visitors.
Casa Sannitica, Ercolano
Casa Sannitica, Ercolano, ricostruzione
 To Set apart

Peristylium

It represents the setting apart from the domestic life

without losing the contact with it.
In this way, they give a particular value in those
environments in which the presence of domestic events is
perceived and enjoyed at a suitable distance, and in which,
however, you do not want to be involved.
1. Atrium. 2. Hallway. 3.External porch. 4. Garden. 5.
Summer triclinium. 6. Secondary entrance. 7. Secondary
atrium. 8. Biclinium. 9. Tablinium.
Thermal bath: 10. Entrance courtyard. 11. Praefurnium.
12. Apodyterium e frigidarium. 13. Tepidarium. 14.
Calidarium. 15. open swimming pool

Casa Giulia Felice, Pompei

Casa Giulia Felice, Pompei
Casa Giulia Felice, Pompei
 To retire

Everyday existence requires moments dedicated to the

most complete individual freedom, in which each one can
stay alone.
There are places in the house that for this purpose acquire
a special atmosphere, more “retired", where every
inhabitant can devote himself to rest, to physical
refreshment or to meditation.
Cubiculum, Casa di Apollo, Pompei
Ricostruzione di cubiculum
The distribution of the Roman house confirms that the most
important activities were almost exclusively collective: the
interior of the houses shows magnificence in the pubic spaces
- atrium, peristilium, tablinimu, oecus, garden - while the rooms
reserved for private life often lack the "useful" and always the
"comfortable".
Gustave Boulange, Il suonatore di flauto e la moglie di Diomede, Trianon de Versaille 1861
 Interior decoration

The wall paintings in Pompeii were executed using

the fresco technique, by which the basic outline of the composition
was prepared and the colors were then added to the fresh plaster so
that, by penetrating inwards, the overall painting would last longer.
This greater resistance to the effects of time and wear is due to the
protection of a transparent film of calcium carbonate that is formed by
the reaction between the slaked lime in the plaster and the air.
I style: decorative masonry consisting of stones
mortared into a wall

Casa Sannitica, Ercolano

II style: animated the wall with fictive

architecture, landscape scenes, or
both, into which were inserted many
different decorative elements such as
masks, vases and small pictures with
illusionistic shutters.

Villa di Poppea, Oplontis

 III style: large fields of a single color and a gradual
disappearance of perspective elements

Casa di Marco Lucrezio Frontone, Pompei

IV stile: the perspective articulation of the wall

obtained by paintings done in garish colors, though it
also displays traces of an earlier taste for fantastical
elements that stand in for real architectural
elements.

Casa dei Vettii, Pompei

 Floors decoration

Casa dell’atrio a mosaico, Ercolano

Casa del cinghiale, Pompei
Triclinio, Casa del Fauno, Pompei
 Textiles

The bed is covered with fabrics of

various color, often oriental, and
pillows, the throne or the chair also
draped, as in the Pompeian fresco
painting (Casa di Marco Lucrezio
Frontone) of the Love of Mars and
Venus, with the inevitable stool, and the
table, that seem to be the only recurring
furniture.
(Mario Praz)

Gli amori di Marte e Venere,

Casa di Marco Lucrezio
Frontone, Pompei
 The grammar Polluce (II sec. DC) has a
long series of epithets for fabrics:
delicate, well-worn, sparkling, beautiful,
floral, adorable, dark, light, green,
scarlet, purple, goldish, with animals,
shining with stars; flax and wool were
the fabrics of the Greeks before the
fourth century BC, when the silk was
introduced.
(Mario Praz)

Luigi Bazzani, Interno pompeiano, 1882

 Furnitures

Triclinio, Casa dell’arredo carbonizzato, Ercolano

Ricostruzione di triclinio, Casa di Giulio Polibio, Pompei
Armadi, Casa di Giulio Polibio, Pompei