Reconstructing the Octagonal Dining Room of Nero's Golden House

Abstract

‘As has so often happened in the history of architecture, it was the advent of new materials and new methods that stimulated and shaped the new theoretical approach.’ J. B. Ward-Perkins, 1970 ‘We aim to create a clear, organic architecture whose inner logic will be radiant and naked, unencumbered by lying faces and trickery.’ W. Gropius, 1923 Few discoveries have made more impact on the history of Roman architecture than that of the octagonal hall of Nero’s Golden House (begun c. A.D. 64), which was found early this century buried within the sub-structures of the Baths of Trajan on the slopes of Rome’s Oppian Hill (Figs 1 and 2). The hall, a large-scale domed rotunda fashioned from brick and concrete, has swiftly assumed the privileged position as the embodiment of a fundamental breakthrough in design and aesthetics. For many it represents an abandonment of rectilinear planning and post-and-lintel construction in favour of a much less inhibited handling of interior space, which was made possible by recent advances in brick and moulded concrete construction. So unexpected is the design that it has been declared a ‘revolution’ in architecture. Indeed, the supposedly advanced planning of the octagon and the chambers around it has been contrasted with the more conventional layout of other parts of the surviving wing of Nero’s Golden House in an attempt to show just how sudden the pace of change may have been.

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