A Summary Of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio's De Architectura

Introduction

The idea of Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio’s treatise De architectura, known today as The Ten Books on Architecture defined the development of Western architecture as we know today. According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas and venustas. (Vitruvius Pollio, 2006).

In translation, firmitas relates to the ability of a structure to stand up robustly and remain in good condition, utilitas that it should be useful and fulfil its purpose, and venustas, that is should delight people and raise their spirits. A simple but more concise translation of the three principles is strength, commodity and beauty.

The first two principles, durability and utility are straightforward

Traditionally it was associated with religion, religious experience and the Holy Spirit.

However, the modern‐day, secular and broader meaning of the word refers to a sense of otherworldliness. It has become a word that is also commonly used as way to describe intangible things that lack a straightforward explanation. It is generally accepted that spirituality can be found in music, nature, art, poetry, in many other areas of life and of specific relevance to this thesis in that it can be found in architecture.

Perhaps spirituality can be found in anything and everything, but is it how we perceive spirituality that makes it exist or is it absolute? Moreover, what constitutes a spiritual experience? Is it the ability of something in our life‐world to move or evoke emotion in us? Perhaps it is the ability of something to alter our mood or affect us psychologically.

Norberg‐Schulz referred to ‘intangible phenomena’ in our life‐world such as ‘feelings’. (Norberg‐Schulz, 1980). Like feelings, a spiritual experience is perhaps also an intangible phenomenon. It is an experience that we know can take place but is also an occurrence that is hard to define, describe or label in concrete

In recent years the phenomenologist Pallasmaa captured the essence of a spiritual space when he stated, “An impressive architectural experience sensitises our whole physical and mental receptivity. It is difficult to grasp the structure of the feeling because of its vastness and diversity.” (Pallasmaa, 1999). And although as accredited by Norberg‐Schulz as an ‘intangible phenomenon’, for my purposes it can be argued that a spiritual architecture is something that simply moves us by affecting our seven senses in some way to evoke our inner emotions on a deeper