Use this activity to prepare students for the “Form and Function in Ancient Architecture" activity that you will guide them through on your class visit to the Getty Villa.

Materials
Download the following items from the activity page on the Getty Web site: http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/trippack/villa_form_function.html

• Slideshow: Architecture and Gardens at the Getty Villa (focus on slides 1–23)
• Map of the Getty Villa
• Glossary of architectural terms (attached)
• Images of the following works of art, which students will see at the Getty Villa:
-	Wall Fragment with Nile Landscape, Roman, A.D. 70
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=8028
-	Lion’s-Head Waterspout, Greek, about 450 B.C.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=35537
-	Antefix, Etruscan, 510– 500 B.C.
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=12376
-	Mosaic Floor with a Boxing Scene, Gallo-Roman, about A.D. 175
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=7662

Activity Steps
Use slides 1–23 of the Architecture and Gardens at the Getty Villa slideshow to introduce students to basic concepts and elements of ancient architecture. They will also look at architectural elements—both originals in the Museum collection and replicas on the Museum building—that would have been found on ancient villas.

Step 1
Explain to your students that during their visit to the Getty Villa, they will be working on a self-guided lesson called “Form and Function in Ancient Architecture.” Today, they will learn about the ancient architectural ideals of Vitruvius and see some examples of ancient architectural elements. 

Step 2
Ask your students to discuss the features that make an object useful, beautiful, and durable. Create a list and discuss.
     
Step 3
Introduce students to the ancient architect Vitruvius. Tell them that Vitruvius left us the only ancient treatise on architecture, De architectura. In it, he explains aspects of ancient architecture and writes that harmony and proportion in architecture is achieved through three principles: beauty, functionality, and durability.

Step 4
Using slides 1-23 of the Architecture and Gardens at the Getty Villa slideshow, show students images of the Getty Villa Museum building, and of ancient architectural fragments in the galleries. Use the glossary, attached, to go over new vocabulary. 

The Villa was built in the style of an ancient Roman villa—it is a replica of ancient architecture. The examples on display in the galleries are the original elements from antiquity—counterparts to the Villa’s architectural elements. 

Encourage students to look at these objects and reflect upon whether they fulfill Vitruvius’s principles of beauty, functionality, and durability. How do they contribute to making the building beautiful, functional, and durable? Are these objects beautiful? Why? Are they useful? How? What makes them durable? Discuss. 

Step 5
Compare students’ observations above, with the list of features that make an object beautiful, functional, and durable that you created at the beginning of the activity. Discuss with your students.

Glossary of Architectural Terms

Alae: open rooms on each side of the atrium whose use is largely unknown

Atrium: central hall of a domus, usually having a single central opening in the roof to capture rainwater

Compluvium: opening in the roof of the atrium designed to direct rainwater

Cubiculum: bedroom in a Roman domus

Culina: kitchen

Domus: traditional atrium house, especially of the Roman Republican period

Exedra: open room at the back of the Roman home, which looked onto the peristyle and provided a social space for the home

Façade: front or face of a building, emphasized architecturally

Fauces: name given by Vitruvius to the narrow passages on either side of the tablinum, which allowed access to the more private quarters of the home. Derives from the Latin term for throat.

Hortus: garden

Impluvium: catch basin in the center of the atrium floor to receive water from the compluvium

Insula: city block; a multi-apartment building

Loggia: second-floor open gallery surrounding a courtyard or room

Ostium: entrance to a Roman home. If the home was on a city street, it often would have shop-fronts on the street that were rented out. In this case the ostium would have been a small, non-descript entranceway.

Peristyle: garden or courtyard surrounded by a colonnade

Piscina: pool at the center of the peristyle garden, in which fish were sometimes bred

Portal: door or entrance

Portico: roofed space, open or partly enclosed, forming the entrance of the façade of a temple, house, or church, often with detached or attached columns and a pediment

Posticum: back entrance to a Roman home, usually positioned at the side of the house, often close to the kitchens, and used as an entrance for slaves

Taberna: (plural, tabernae) shops along the street that were rented to vendors 

Tablinum: (plural, tablina) main reception room of the domus, focal point of the axis running from the fauces through the atrium. It was also the office of the pater familias or man of the house.

Triclinium: in the domus, this was the dining hall with three couches (klinai) arranged against the side and rear walls

Vestibulum: narrow hallway from the street entrance to a Roman home, leading into the atrium. 

Villa: large, luxurious country house owned by wealthy Romans. Many villas were centers of farming and other industries.