Roman Housing Structures

538 Words3 Pages

Roman Housing structures are said to be derived from a concept of a single communal room that encompassed a fire for to keep the inhabitants warm. There were different types of structures built for different classes of citizens or geographic locations of the Rome.

Roman houses were usually located in the city of Rome. Usually the fortunate patricians inhabited Roman houses. Most of the Roman houses were constructed around an atrium in the center of a rectangular area. The atrium was built with a hole in the center of the roof. This hole was design to allow light to come in the structure. More importantly the hole in the roof was used to collect rain water for everyday use. The roof on these homes usually consisted of a roof that was slightly inkling towards the center to act as a funnel for the rainwater since the houses …show more content…

Town houses were normally one story buildings in the located in the city.

Additionally, apartments were another type of structure. According to Kamm (Accessed 2015), Apartments were called “insulae”. They usually measure ten meters long and twenty meters high. In poor areas of Rome the apartment building were made out of materials, like clay and straw, which was unhealthy for the people that lived in them. Some of the high end apartments had features like private entrances and private terraces. Another type of apartment that was popular in small towns was above shop apartments. These apartments were located above little town shops. They were accessed through outdoor staircases.
One additional topic to mention was the public sewer. Wealthy one story dwellings may have been hooked up to the public sewer. However, upper floor housing units either used a chamber pot. Then they emptied the pot by emptying it out a window or at the foot of the stair s of the structure. Some residents made special arrangements with the residents of the lower floors to use the public sewer to empty the chamber