Colosseum Part 4 - Drawings

To write about how Lou Kahn's experience in Rome impacted his designs in terms of geometry, organization, column spacing, and structure,  (i.e., Salk Institute), I've dived into drawing the Colosseum. Online, there is surprisingly scant information about the famous amphitheater. Complicating matters is that the plans, and sections that are available conflict. The contradictory nature of drawings is probably due to the fact that the structure lies in ruins... it is up to the architects and artists to hypothesize and fill in the blanks to what was once there.

sangallo sketch

I found 2 clues to start my drawing: first, the Colosseum has 80 arches on the exterior ground floor. the clear opening between the arches is 13'-9", second, the outer ellipse is 617' by 513', and the interior ellipse is  283' by 178'. Within each of the 80 sections of the Colosseum there are 5 bay types: (1) horizontal passage (2) stairs up to 2nd level (3) switchback stairs up to 2nd level (4) switchback stairs down from 2nd level (5) stairs up to ring side seats. (marked in yellow below) That is the beauty of Roman architecture, within a 'simple' geometric order is variation that provides spatial complexity and function. It's said, the Colosseum could be cleared out in 12 minutes due to its vertical circulation design.

ground floor plan

top floor plan in progress

Surprisingly, my efforts in understanding and drawing the upper mezzanine levels of the Colosseum (which no one has done before) is riding on Vicenzo Lunardi, the man who pioneered hydrogen balloon flight.  He drew crowds of 200,000 to watch him take flight in London in 1786.

In 1788, Carlo Lucangeli, architect and cabinet maker from Rome (1747-1812) took part in the test flights of Lunardi near the Mausoleum of Augustus, Rome. After several unsuccessful attempts to take off, the balloon took of with Lucangeli unintentionally aboard. He became the first person to fly over the city of Rome, including the Colosseum. The aerial perspective of the Colosseum inspired Lucangeli to devote the next 22 years of his life 1790 to 1812 to study the Colosseum. He carried out excavations of the hypogea (underground gladiator chambers) and paintstakingly made a wood model of the Colosseum at 1:60 scale is 8' by 10' by 3' high and is comprised of 70' annular pieces which fit can be disassembled to show interior circulation and sculptural details. It shows the Colosseum in it's ideal completed form, with 22 years of surveys and knowledge of the site embedded in its proposed configuration. Lucangeli's brother-in-law finished the model, Mussolini painted it over in white paint... today the model sits in the Colosseum museum. Currently, teams of Italian researchers have been photographing it, digitizing it in 3 dimensions, and writing about it for the past 10 years to gain an understanding of the Colosseum structure.