Anderson, Eike F.

Liarokapis, F.

Noghani, J.

English

Bournemouth University Research Online

Towards a Vitruvian Shape Grammar for ProcedurallyGenerating Classical Roman ArchitectureJeremy Noghani1, Eike Falk Anderson2, Fotis Liarokapis11Interactive Worlds Applied Research Group (iWARG), Coventry University, United Kingdom2The National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA), Bournemouth University, United KingdomAbstractThe ability to automatically generate urban virtual environments using procedural methods is important for any-one who needs to create plausible virtual representations of human settlements, and these techniques are usedin simulation and reconstruction of archeaological sites as well as in education and the entertainment industry.In this paper we present an attempt at providing a shape grammar based on the writings of the ancient Romanarchitect Virtuvius, encoding rules for procedurally defining the make-up of Roman settlements. Our initial resultsallow the procedural generation of classical Roman Temples, which include many of the architectural elementsfound in Roman civic buildings.1. IntroductionVirtual recreations of cultural heritage sites are increas-ingly common, being found not just in archeaological re-construction [Baw10], but also in educational serious games[AML∗10], as well as entertainment products. Due to thehigh costs that are associated with the manual creation ofcontent for rich virtual worlds, automation of the contentgeneration using procedural modelling techniques [NLA10]are becoming increasingly attractive. This is especially truein the case of cultural heritage visualization, where budgetsare usually far smaller than those encountered in the enter-tainment industry. Procedural modelling enables the fast cre-ation of large environments, including both urban and ruralenvironments, based on a set of predefined rules, and overthe past few years, virtual heritage has started utilizing thesetechniques in order to create heritage content in a fast butalso accurate manner [HMVG09]. The reconstruction of an-cient buildings, which often only exist as ruins or founda-tions, often relies on interpretation, making it impossible todefine an accurate set of procedural generation rules. How-ever, sometimes there are additional sources, such as archi-tectural texts [HMVG09, DG11], which can be used to de-sign procedural rules that can provide a ‘best guess’ attemptat reconstruction of lost buildings.With his ten books on architecture [VPBC], the Roman ar-Figure 1: Roman Settlement generated by our initial proto-type.chitect Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Pollio) provides us witha “textual coding of the practice of building” [Pat97] fromwhich one can extrapolate the rules for the construction ofRoman settlements, which in turn can be used for the pro-cedural generation of 3D Roman settlements using modernCGA (Computer Generated Architecture) techniques. Theserules can be used to create plausible visual representationsof typical Roman settlements following classical Roman ar-chitecture, as built in the late republican or early imperial era(Figure 1).In this paper we present our attempt at developing a shapesubmitted to The 13th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cul-tural Heritage VAST (2012)Published in Short & Project Papers Proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2012), D. Arnold, J. Kaminski, F. Niccolucci, and A. Stork (Editors); The definitive version is available at http://diglib.eg.org/; DOI: 10.2312/PE/VAST/VAST12S/041-044PREPRINT2 Noghani et al. / Towards a Vitruvian Shape Grammargrammar [WWSR03] inspired by ‘CGA Shape’ [MWH∗06]for describing Roman settlements derived from the writ-ings of Vitruvius, initially with a focus on the descriptionof classical Roman temples (meaning the main building ofa religious site, excluding its courtyard). The constructionof Roman temples included a large number of common el-ements found in Roman architecture, e.g. palaces sharedmany of these and often also incorporated temples them-selves [Bar96]. Structures generated from these Vitruvianrules can provide an exemplar for archetypal Roman archi-tecture in a similar manner as the “Virtual Egyptian Temple”by Jacobson and Holden [JH05] depicts architecture in an-cient Egypt.2. Ancient Rome in Virtual HeritageIn recent years, there have been a number of virtual her-itage projects, depicting Roman urban environments (Fig-ure 2). In many cases these projects use hand-crafted build-ing models that are placed into the urban environment[MFPC07, WJD10], while other projects have employedrange imaging techniques to capture virtual representationsfrom models [GFD∗05] or real archaeological sites.There are a few examples of the use of procedurally gener-ated Roman architecture such as Müller et al. [MVUVG05],and some projects employed some procedural rules basedon the writings of Vitruvius. De Paoli and Bogdan [DPB99]for instance translated the Vitruvian description of Romantheatres into a modelling language, and similarly, Vitruvianrules regarding proportions of temples were used for proce-durally generating buildings about which little was knownfrom the archaeological record in the “Rome Reborn 2.0”project [DFM∗10].Figure 2: ‘Roma Nova’ serious game.For any virtual heritage project depicting Roman urbanenvironments, a method of generating the virtual world – in-cluding the archaeological sites and artefacts that will be de-picted in it – must be chosen. Depending on the extent of thevirtual environment, manual creation of sites and artefactsmay be too costly or time consuming, which is where proce-dural content generation can provide solutions. The architec-tural rules and guidelines provided by Vitruvius, translatedinto rules for procedural generation, can therefore be usedto efficiently generate Roman buildings and settlements. Forthe procedural generation of architecture and urban environ-ments, the use of shape grammars has proven very successful[MWH∗06, LWW08], and the availability of a shape gram-mar incorporating all of the writings of Vitruvius would behighly desirable.2.1. Identifying Architectural Rules for Roman Templesaccording to VitruviusIn his descriptions of Roman architecture, Vitruvius explainsthe makeup of buildings both in terms of proportions, as wellas actual measurements, the latter usually expressed in termsof the pes, i.e. the Roman foot, which was a unit of lengthof approximately 29.6cm [DJ80, Ada94]. Two of Vitruvius’books are devoted to the construction of temples (De Archi-tectura III and IV), with rules that can be used to procedu-rally generate temples (Figure 3). There are several exam-ples of classical ‘Vitruvian’ temples that can be found in thearchaeological record, such as the Maison Carrée in Nîmes[Jon00], which is still standing, or the harbour temple of theRoman city Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten) [HRG09].Figure 3: Low-resolution Vitruvian Temple generated by oursystem prototype.The dominant feature of a temple is its main building,which in most Roman settlements would be built withincourtyard and enclosure wall. While the overall makeup ofthis usually followed the same pattern – the ‘cella’ (the tem-ple building’s enclosed room), fronted or surrounded by aportico and raised on top of a podium – there is considerablearchitectural variation possible in Roman temple construc-tion. Temple buildings can be built on a podium with stepsonly at the front (usually facing eastwards) or with steps onall four sides, with the number of steps in both cases beingan odd number. The temples proportions would be such thatthe length of the main temple buildings would be twice thewidth of the temple with the length of the temple’s cella be-ing 25 percent larger than the overall width of the temple.submitted to The 13th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2012)PREPRINTNoghani et al. / Towards a Vitruvian Shape Grammar 3Figure 4: Proportions of Vitruvian Temple Pedestals.2.1.1. Temple BaseThe temple base consists of a simple podium that acts as aplatform for its cella and portico, and 2 additional podiumstructures that act as banisters to the stairs. These structurescan be seen geometrically as a set of 3 cuboid shapes, with 3thinner, slightly wider cuboids resting on top. As per Vitru-vius’ rules, the length of the whole base is equal to twice itswidth (Figure 4).2.1.2. CellaFigure 5: Proportions of the Cella front in Vitruvian Tem-ples.The temple’s cella can be generated from a solid cuboidshape that rests between the temple base and its roof. It typ-ically has a single doorway that faces towards the templesteps. The layout and shape of the doorway varies betweentemples, but Vitruvius specifies that if we assume that theheight of the cella is 3.5 units, the height of the doorwayought to be 2.5 of these units. Additionally, if the doorwayheight is divided into 12 equal parts, its width ought to be5.5 of parts. Therefore, we can state that the ratio of thedoor width to door height to cella height is approximately2.29:5:7 (Figure 5).2.1.3. Temple StepsVitruvius notes that all temple steps would have to be con-sistent in size, with the step height being between 5/6 and3/4 of a foot and the depth of steps being between 1.5 and 2feet. These measurements indicate that the ratio of the step’sdepth to height is equal to approximately 2:1, which we usedas the ratio for the generation of the model steps. Duringprocedural generation, the stairway can be represented as arepeated set of 2-poygon steps (Figure 6). In addition to this,an altar is frequently positioned at the base of the stairs orelse in front of them. The size, shape, and detail of the al-tar varies between temples, but the overall structure can berepresented as a small cuboid upon a larger one.Figure 6: Proportions of Vitruvian Temple Steps.2.1.4. ColumnsIn his third and fourth book, Vitruvius discusses at length thedifferent styles of columns and how they are used in differenttemples. In general, the columns of a temple’s portico haveprecisely calculated proportions; the diameter at the base isequal to 1/7 of the column height, and the diameter at the topof the column is equal to 3/4 of the diameter at the bottom.Additionally, the column base height is equal to half the di-ameter at the bottom of the column, and the whole columnheight should equal 1/3 of the temple width. The specificnature of these rules makes them simple to implement intoa procedurally generated environment. However, the com-plex nature of the intricate details especially of Corinthiancolumns requires a much more detailed shape grammar thanimplemented in our initial prototype.submitted to The 13th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage VAST (2012)PREPRINT4 Noghani et al. / Towards a Vitruvian Shape Grammar2.1.5. The Siting of Roman TemplesVitruvius provides instructions on siting and orienting tem-ples within a settlement. He “importantly defined the struc-tural separation of the buildings in the city by indicatingwhere each element falls” [Lei08], i.e. a differentiation ofdistricts for domestic or public use. This separation was ide-ally governed by two major roadways of the city, intersectingat ninety degrees, with the ‘forum’ adjacent to this intersec-tion (De Architectura I, 7). In Roman cities the forum playeda central role in the location of communal facilities, withpublic buildings, including civic, religious and recreationalbuildings located in close proximity to the forum (De Ar-chitectura I, 7; De Architectura V), or along the major axesof the town. Vitruvius states that the main sacred site of acity with temples for the highest deities and the protectors ofthe settlement should be at its highest point of elevation (ifthere is a hill), easily reachable from the forum or the mainroadways, and in most settlements, the location of this tem-ple district would be adjacent to the forum. Vitruvius makessuggestions as to where the temples dedicated to differentdeities should be located. The temple orientation should besuch that unless it is constricted by surrounding buildings, itsfront should face eastwards. If the makeup of the site makesthis impossible then the doorway of the cella should facepassing roads (the entrance being perpendicular to the road)or if possible allow as much of the extent of the city walls aspossible to be seen from the cella entrance.3. ConclusionIn this paper we have presented some of the rules of classicalRoman architecture described in the writings of Vitruvius onthe construction of temples, which provide guidelines for ashape grammar to allow the procedural generation of Ro-man buildings (Figure 3). This forms the core of a muchlarger grammar encoding rules for the procedural generationof Roman settlements (Figure 1), which we hope to refinein the future to allow the generation of much more intricatearchitectural features.References[Ada94] ADAM J.-P. F.: Roman Building: Materials and Tech-niques. Indiana University Press, 1994. 2[AML∗10] ANDERSON E. F., MCLOUGHLIN L., LIAROKAPISF., PETERS C., PETRIDIS P., DE FREITAS S.: Developing seri-ous games for cultural heritage: A state-of-the-art review. VirtualReality 14, 4 (2010), 255–275. 1[Bar96] BARTON I. M.: Palaces. In Roman Domestic Buildings.University of Exeter Press, 1996, pp. 91–120. 2[Baw10] BAWAYA M.: Virtual archaeologists recreate parts ofancient worlds. Science 327 (2010), 140–141. 1[DFM∗10] DYLLA K., FRISCHER B., MUELLER P., ULMER A.,HAEGLER S.: Rome reborn 2.0: A case study of virtual cityreconstruction using procedural modeling techniques. In CAA2009. 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Automatic reconstruction of roman housing architecture.

Building: Materials and Techniques.

CADI-YAZLI N.: Real time animation and illumination in ancient roman sites.

Colonia Ulpia Traiana

Developing serious games for cultural heritage: A state-of-the-art review.

Digital reconstruction of pavilions described in an ancient indian architectural treatise.

GOOL L.: Procedural modeling of buildings.

HAEGLER S.: Rome reborn 2.0: A case study of virtual city reconstruction using procedural modeling techniques.

Interactive visual editing of grammars for procedural architecture.

Investigating urban centers in the ancient roman empire: City design based on the writings of vitruvius. Undergraduate thesis,

Length-units in roman town planning: The pes monetalis and the pes drusianus.

Palaces. In Roman Domestic Buildings.

Principles of Roman Architecture.

Procedural modeling for digital cultural heritage. J. Image Video Process.

Randomly generated 3d environments for serious games.

RIBARSKY W.: Instant architecture.

The front of the stage of vitruvius’ roman theatre – a new approach of computer aided design that transforms geometric operators to semantic operators.

The virtual egyptian temple.

The virtual theater district of pompeii.

Virtual archaeologists recreate parts of ancient worlds.

Virtualizing ancient rome: 3d acquisition and modeling of a large plaster-of-paris model of imperial rome.

What vitruvius said.

Towards a Vitruvian Shape Grammar for Procedurally Generating Classical Roman Architecture

Towards a Vitruvian Shape Grammar for Procedurally Generating Classical Roman Architecture

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