Holiday Area: The Advantages of the Roman Arch

Although the Roman arch didn’t originate with the Romans, they’re the ones who pushed its limits and spread its popularity. They incorporated the use of arches into their infrastructure. The Roman arch consists of bricks or “voussoirs.” These voussoirs are built in such a way that they push outward and downward from the “keystone” or central voussoir. The keystone supports the other voussoirs. Even today, architects and builders make use of Roman arch design because of its clever design.

Large Areas

Roman arches stacked together side-by-side are able to cover long distances and large areas of roofing. Common examples of this are aqueducts and barrel vaults. Barrel vaults – used today in stadiums – were commonly used for entrances and exits for large buildings. These consist of a series of arches, or a continuous arch, to form the ceiling of a structure – often looking like the inside of a tunnel or barrel. Ancient sewers also made use of barrel vault technology. Later, medieval churches and cathedrals made use of modified barrel-vault ceilings.

Large Interior Spaces

Using arches in structures allows for a large spatial area in rooms. For example, the use of arches in barrel vaults, groin vaults, pointed arched vaults and roofs allows for a much stronger and larger space than what would be possible with a traditional flat roof lacking an arch. The prevalence of barrel vaults in public buildings allowed larger buildings that could accommodate more people.

Versatility

One of the many advantages of the Roman arch, or arch variations, is the capability to be formed into other architectural structures, such as vaults and domes. Domes consist of arches that meet at the center. Vaults are arched-masonry structures made to form ceilings or roofs. Examples of vaults are the barrel vault, groin vaults and cloister vaults.

City Growth

A huge advantage that the arch provided was enough stability to successfully build long aqueducts over large regions. Previously, cities needed to be built close to a river or other source of water; however, after the Roman arch made aqueducts possible, large cities connected to distant water sources could grow large due to water availability.