The Pantheon (A.D.

118-128)
THE PANTHEON (A.D. 118-128)

 «Avevo ritoccato di persona i progetti troppo cauti dell'architetto Apollodoro.

Delle arti della Grecia volli servirmi per le decorazioni, come per un lusso
supplementare, ma per la struttura dell'edificio ero risalito ai tempi primitivi
e favolosi di Roma, ai templi rotondi dell'Etruria antica. Avevo voluto che
quel santuario di tutti gli dei riproducesse la forma della terra e della sfera
stellare, della Terra dove si racchiudono le sementi del fuoco eterno, della
sfera cava che tutto contiene.
 Era quella, inoltre, la forma di quelle capanne ancestrali nelle quali il fumo
dei più antichi focolari umani usciva da un orifizio aperto alla sommità. La
cupola, costruita d'una lava dura e leggera che pareva partecipe ancora del
movimento ascensionale delle fiamme, comunicava col cielo attraverso un
largo foro, alternativamente nero e azzurro. Quel tempio aperto e segreto
era concepito come un quadrante solare. Le ore avrebbero percorso in
circolo i suoi riquadri, accuratamente levigati da artigiani greci: il disco del
giorno vi sarebbe rimasto sospeso come uno scudo d'oro. la pioggia avrebbe
formato una pozzanghera pura sul pavimento; la preghiera sarebbe volata
simile al fumo verso quel vuoto nel quale collochiamo gli dei. Quella festa fu
per me una di quelle ore nelle quali tutto confluisce. In piedi, nel fondo di
quel pozzo di luce, avevo al mio fianco le gerarchie del mio principato, e la
sostanza di cui si materiava il mio destino, ormai edificato più che a metà.»
 Memorie di Adriano di Marguerite Yourcenar
 «Concrete vaulted construction represent one of the ancient
Romans most original and enduring contributions to the artistic and
architectural patrimony of the Mediterranean world.» (Lynne
Lancaster, 2005).
 Concrete and vaulted structures are among the main key words of
the course, whose goal is to highlight the history of building
techniques and materials, beginning from the ancient Romans to
trace the following developments until the invention of 19° century
reinforced concrete.
 The use of materials and technical innovations are placed into the
social, economic and political context, and studying these topics a
cross-cultural competence is required, embracing both scientific
and humanistic fields.
The Pantheon was originally built by
Agrippa in 27 B.C. , but it burned down
in the fire that destroyed much of the
Campus Martius in A.D. 80 and was
rebuilt by Domitian. It was damaged by
lightening under Trajan and then
rebuilt in its present form under
Hadrian from A.D. 118-128.
The main structure consists of a
large dome (43,30 m. diameter)
supported by a 6 m. cylindrical
wall into which are built niches
such that the weight of the dome
is concentrated onto the eight
piers between them.
The porch and its intermediate
block on the north side of the
building are bonded to the
rotunda wall in the lower wall at
all, but brick stamps show that is
roughly contemporary.
The governing order of the
Pantheon’s structural system
was based on a sixteen-part
geometry, which was very easy
to lay out for a circular form by
simply using a compass and a
straightedge to divide the
circle first into quarters, then
eights, and finally sixteenths.

The lay out of the Pantheon is

related to circles and squares,
from the floor covered by
marble till to the coffered
dome.
The design is modeled on a
sphere within a cylinder, which
was also the device that
Archimeds had carved on his tomb
representing one of his greatets
mathematical discoveries, as to
say the theorem determining the
2:3 relationship between the
volume of the sphere and the
cylinder.
https://youtu.be/99dOPdlLIw0.
link to Angels and Demons.
The use of concrete provided the
builders a means of controlling the
mass of a structure by using stones of
different weights as caementa in
different parts of
the building.
The section of the Pantheon shows
the distribution of the different types
of caementa used: from the heaviest
(travertine) at the bottom to the
lightest (volcanic scoria and yellow
tuff) at the top.
Notice, however, that the whole
dome is not made as light as
possible. Only the crown has the
lightweight scoria and yellow tuff.
Materials for the Pantheon’s structure:
 mortar,
 bricks,
 opus caementicium,
 pozzolana

 Building techniques: the arch and the vaulted structures

such as the domes.
The production of lime for
mortar is a two step process:
firing and slaking.
First the limestone or another
calcium rich stone, such as
marble or travertine, is fired
in a kiln to produce
quicklime, which comes out of
the kiln as a very lightweight
version of the original stone.
Before the quicklime can be
used for mortar, it has to be
put through a slaking process
in which the fired stones are
combined with water.
 The mortar used by the Romans employed pozzolana, a volcanic ash
that imparted added strength and hydraulic qualities that were
lacking in the simple lime mortar used by the Greeks. Recent studies
show that the resistance to compression of pozzolana- lime mortar is
five to eight times stronger than that of lime mortar.
 A simple lime mortar made of siliceous quartz sand (SiO₂), slaked
lime ( Ca(OH)₂) and water (H₂O) hardens and gain strength trough
the contact with carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the air as the water
evaporates. Unlike the quarts sand which is inert, the pozzolana
plays an active role in the chemical transformation of the mortar
during the hardening process.
 Pozzolana contains both silica (silicon dioxide, SiO₂) and alumina
(aluminum oxide Al₂O₂) which trough the eruptive process are
converted into soluble forms allowing a chemical reaction to take
place when mixed with water and slaked lime.
Pozzolana is a
modern generic
term for volcanic
ash used in the
building trade to
make mortar and it
applies to a type of
material produced
by volcanoes
throughout the
world. The ancient
writers called it
pulvis puteolanus or
dust from Pozzuoli.
Four types of
“pozzolana” showing
the difference in
colour among them.
The Campi Flegrei
pozzolana (pulvis
puteolanus) at upper
left is easily
distinguishable from
the other pozzolanas
quarried near Rome.
Cocciopesto is the name
applied to a mortar with
crushed terracotta, although
it often contains pozzolana as
well. The addition of crushed
brick or terracotta creates a
hydraulic mortar similar to
pozzolana-lime mortar. The
firing of the clay, which like
pozzolana, is rich in silica,
also produces a soluble
silica component.
Roman concrete is different from what we think of today as
a concrete.
The word caementa means rough, unhewn quarried stones
and refers to the rubble of fist-sized pieces of stone or
broken bricks that were used in the mortar as aggregate.
The way that ancient and modern concrete is put in place is also different.
Modern concrete is poured into place over a network of steel reinforcing
bars, whereas the caementa and mortar of Roman concrete were laid
separately, by hand and trowel. https://youtu.be/qL0BB2PRY7k .
In both ancient and
modern concrete
construction, some
type of structure or
centering, is
necessary to contain
and model the wet
mortar until it sets and
gains strength.
A Brick kiln
Brick became an
important material for
vaulting by the end of
the first century A.D.
and the development of
brick industry had a
great effect on the
vaulting techniques in
Rome. The bricks were
made in four basic
sizes: Bessalis (⅔ Roman
Foot), Pedalis (1 Roman
Foot) Sesquipedalis (1½
Roman Foot) and
Bipedalis (2 Roman
Feet).
Stamps on the
bricks provide
information both
on the general
locations of the
clay beds and on
people involved
in the industry.
“L’opera a sacco” or faced concrete
is made by two standing walls, either
stone or bricks, and the hollow space
between fullfilled with opus
caementicium.
Structural form was a
critical factor in the
success of Roman
buildings.
The interplay between
forms and material was
ultimately the key to
longevity.
The arch which was
originally developed for
stone construction became
the basis for the
development of concrete
vaulting.
Voussoirs are wedge-shaped stones that make up an arch.
The radiating joints between the voussoirs serve to direct the
weight of an arch and anything it supports towards the sides
and away from the opening under the arch.
. The result is that the
arch pushes out at its
springing, and this
outwdar thrust must
be countered or
controlled in some
way.

If the arch is built into

a wall, the
surrounding masonry
acts as a buttress to
contain the horizontal
thrust.
The strength of any
material is measured in
terms of stress, which
can occur as
compression
(compressive stress) or
tension (tensile stress).
The example of a man on a
beam shows both types of
stresses within the beam.
As the beam bends
downward under the man’s
weight, the upper half is in
compression because the
top surface is squeezed
together and becomes
shorter, and the lower half is
in tension because the lower
surface is stretched.
At a point in the middle of
the beam there is a neutral
axis that is not undergoing
tension or compression.
Because both
concrete and stone
are very strong in
compression and
weak in tension,
the arch provides a
means of spanning
a distance, so that
the stresses within
the material remain
in compression.
The structural behavior of
an arch or barrel vault is
dependent on four
variables: the arc of
embrasure, the thickness
of the arch, the free span
and the abutment
thickness.
https://youtu.be/CdNYTj
XJPKE (stone construction
and the arch)
The behavior of the cross
vault differs from that of
the barrel vault: it is a load
concentration system that
directs both vertical load
and the horizontal thrusts
to the corner supports.
.
One of the greatest
advantages provided by
cross vaults was the ability
to let more light into a
space than it was possible
with a barrel vault.
A dome of cut stone construction is
essentially like a series of self-
supporting horizontal rings stacked
one on top of the other. If the domes
were sliced vertically, the
converging joints of the voussoirs
would allow each slice to stand on
its own , and if were sliced
horizontally the converging joints
form horizontal rings in
compression, each of which could
support itself.
Hence, the cut stone dome is like a
three-dimensional arch where each
successive ring acts like a keystone
to lock the blocks into a place.
Roman domes of concrete, however,
are usually built in horizontal layers
of unshaped caementa laid in an
abundance of mortar, so there are no
converging voussoirs edges to
perform the same function as in the
cut stone dome.

Unlike a simple barrel vault, a dome

also has stresses occurring in both
direction of curvature: meridional
stresses (along the longitudinal lines)
and circumferential hoop stresses
(along the latitude lines).
Structural analyses of the
domes show that both the
meridional and hoop stresses
are in compression at the
crown but that tensile hoop
stresses develop in the
haunches.

In a hemispherical dome the

point of change from
compression to tension is
about 52⁰ from the crown of
the vault with the tension
increasing towards the base.
Roman concrete vaults have
sometimes been attributed
monolithic properties
because of the use of
pozzolanic mortar, but most
large Roman domes and
semidomes, including the
Pantheon, have vertical
cracks in their lower zones,
indicating that the concrete
was not able to resist the
tensile stresses that
developed in the haunches.
The key to the structural integrity
of the rotunda is the series of
vaulting ribs into the rotunda
wall. The wall of the rotunda
contains series of relieving
arches at three levels.
The rotunda wall is 6 m. thick, but
it’s pierced with voids so that
structurally it acts more like eight
large piers than a solid wall as it
appears from the exterior.
The key to the structural integrity of
the rotunda is the series of vaulting
ribs into the rotunda wall. The
relieving arches visible in the wall
are actually the ends of vaults built
of radially laid bipedales that
extend all the way through the wall
in most cases.
The wall of the rotunda
contains series of
relieving
arches at three levels. The
lowest arches consist
of only a single ring of
bipedales whereas the
upper ones are more
substantial and consist of
two or three rings of brick
(either bipedales or
sequipedales). These
arches were intended to
direct the loads from the
massive dome to the sides
of the eight
piers between the large
interior niches.
There are two system
of arches at work in
the rotunda wall:
the major arches (11,8
m. span) which span
between the eight
piers and cover the
niches visible on the
interior, and the minor
arches (5,35 m. span)
which are contained
within the hollow piers
themselves.
On the interior walls
there are some series
of smaller relieving
arches supported on
travertine impost
blocks that are
intended to transfer the
load away from the
architraves and onto
the columns of the
niches.
Pantheon, interior elevation of the rotunda projected flat. The only
instances in which there is concordance between different levels of
the composition are indicated by dotted lines.
Some repairs of the cracks in the Pantheon
dome can be dated to brick stamps and
reveal that the cracks occurred soon after
construction, so the builders clearly would
have been aware of the phenomenon and
by this period would not have assumed
monolithic properties for their large
spanned domes.
Once a dome develops cracks, it results in
a series of wedge-shaped arches
propped up against each other at the
crown.
As long as the abutments do not give way,
the dome with radial cracks will remain
stable.
A method for regulating the
outward thrusts both in domes
and semidomes was the use of a
series of step-rings built above
the haunches of the extrados.
The most famous example is on
the exterior of the Pantheon
dome. Two main explanation
have been proposed for their
purpose. One is that they were
intended to act structurally by
increasing the load on the
haunch in order to reduce the
horizontal thrust of the vault by
countering it with additional
vertical load.
The other was that they
were added to make
the construction of the
dome easier to build,
so that the exterior
could be built in steps,
thus avoiding forming
the curved extrados in
the lower parts of the
dome.
Another is that they were intended to
act as devices to facilitate the
construction by allowing the workers
to build in vertical increments rather
than to have to shape the steep lower
portions of the dome.

An examination of the development of

domes and semidomes suggests that
the first explanation (structural) was
the original intention and that the
second explanation (constructional)
was an advantage only exploited
later..

The cross section drawing was designed by

Andrea Palladio.
The unusual number of 28 coffers in each of the five concentric rows
present an added difficulty in order to the geometry of the Rotunda,
infact it’s impossible to divide a circle into twenty-eight spaced parts
with compass and straightedge.
Twenty-eight is a special number in the antiquity , being one of only
four numbers known for which the sum of the factors equals the
numbers.
Francesco Lucchini, Pantheon, La Nuova Italia Scientifica (NIS) Roma, 1996.;
Lynne Lancaster, Concrete Vaulted Construction in Imperial Rome,
Innovations in Context, Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005;
Lynne Lancaster, Materials and Construction of the Pantheon, in Relation to the
Developments of Vaulting in Antiquity, in Graßhof, Gerd - Heinzelmann,
Michael - Wäfler, Markus (eds.): The Pantheon in Rome: Contributions to the
Conference Bern, November 9-12, 2006. - Bern: Bern Studies in the History
and Philosophy of Science, 2009 (Bern Studies in the History and Philosophy
of Science: Pantheon I): 117-125.