Townhouse Villa Exterior Walls

The exterior walls in the townhouse villa are now up. This will be the last work I will do on the villa until my return, The first attempt at a lawn around the rustic villa turned out fairly well, however there are a few bare spots which I will deal with, also when I return.

Townhouse Villa Exterior Walls

Today the four walls went up on the ground floor of the townhouse villa. This will be the lat of the construction on this project until I return from my trip. The first go around of establishing a lawn around the rustic vills went pretty well, There are just a few spots which are bare and I will get some people onto that also when I return

Masonry Twin Arch Bridge

 

Masonry Twin Arch Bridge, top view.

Villa Progress

Today the progress with the Rustic Villa has gone forward with the laying of the front approach walk, and a lawn all around the villa, In regard to the townhuse villa the ground floor is laid and the rooms and spaces are clearly marked for construction to begin.

"Townhouse" Villa

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Well, we are on our way with the basement finished.  The rectangular shape of the house is taken from a similar building in the suburbs of the city of Pompeii which has been completely excavated and explained in detail.  It was built on a rectangular lot between corners on a residential street.

As indicated on the previous floor plan provided, there are two hypocausts, one to heat the major living portion of the house, and one to heat the dining area.  The storerooms are provided essentially for both food and fuel storage as well as the inevitable brick-a-brac collected in a house being constructed.  The piping from the main cistern under the atrium would have been clay pipe buried in a trench cut into the ground under the house.  The piping for the toilet is not shown, but would have led into a common waste reservoir of some kind.  The well has been moved from the atrium, since in my view, it was simply too far to walk to the kitchen, and getting water from a well is not what I wanted to see in that part of the house.  I could have put it even closer but it gets the kitchen slaves out of the atrium, which was the primary reason for the design.  

Essentially the second or ground floor will be the living section of the house while the upstairs of the house will mostly be devoted to bedrooms.

Respectfully Submitted;

Marcus Audens

Townhouse Villa Basement Floor Model #2

 

This is a second view of the "townhouse" villa basement floor plan model.  See the previous model image for color explanation.

"Townhouse" Villa, Baement Floor Plan Model

 

Above is a view of the "townhouse" villa basement model.  The RED areas are hypocaust areas, the YELLOW areas are passageways and storerooms, the BLACK areas are the water cisterns and well.  The BROWN rectangle enclosing all indicates the ground level below which the basement area is constructed.  The white lines are walls in the basement area.

"Townhouse" Villa Floor Plans

Ladies and Gentlemen;

The three preceding drawings are the floor plans for the model "townhouse" villa that I will be constructing in the next few days.  My plans are to build each floor separately , and then put them together for a final picture.  In that way, everyone will get to see each room division.  The villa has a large cistern (water tank) just below the Atrium space, as well as a smaller cistern next to the bath.  Since the main hypocaust will not be used as much as the bath hypocaust it made sense to put the bath  separate from the main one, as well as to have a separate fuel supply.

This villa also has a well from which the water for the house could be taken.  As I have indicated previously this design is taken from a Roman style house that I visited when we lived in Spain.  The small city that we lived in (Puerto de Santa Maria) just across the bay from the large walled city of Cadiz, was in place and old when Columbus came to get prisoners from the prison there, so some of these stone villas have been there a very long time.

Respectfully;

Marcus Audens  

"Townhouse" Villa, Baement Floor Plan

 

This is the basement floor plan of the "townhouse" villa.

"Townhouse" Villa, Second Floor Plan

 

This is the second floor plan of the "townhouse" villa.

"Townhouse" Villa Ground Floor Plan

 

This is the ground floor plan of the "townhouse" villa on Palatine Hill. 

"Rustic" Villa, End View

 

This is the second villa end view.  Note the small room extending from the side of the villa.

"Rustic" Villa, End View

 

"Rutic" Villa, Rear View

 

This picture is the rear of the villa.

"Rustic" Villa Front view

 

In this picture note the shade screens over the front extending rooms and entrance way.

"Rustic" Villa structure completed!

Ladies and Gentlemen;

The "rustic" villa structure is now complete.  The roof has been put on a special shading screens over the extended rooms in the front.  The four new pictures of the villa will give an idea of the size of the structure.  Now that the structure has been completed the furniture will have to be selected, the interior walls completed, the interior decoration decided upon, and while that is being taken care of, the gardens must be laid out.  The landscaping and place where the villa rests also needs to be decided upon.

I see that there will be plenty of room beneath the roof for storerooms and so a floor plan for the storerooms, as well as the accommodations for the slaves that will be a part of the villa must be drawn out and planned.

The rough sketches for the "townhouse" villa floor plans have been completed and I am now beginning to draw them out in the architectural plans as well as figuring out the plans for the house model similar to that of the "rustic" villa.  As the drawings are completed I shall have pictures taken of them and post them on the blog.

Respectfully;

Marcus Audens   

"Rustic" Villa , side view

 

"Rustic" Villa, side view.  Note the small room extending from the side of the structure.  I believe this is the lavatory.

"Rustic" Villa, rear of villa

 

This is a picture of the rear of the villa, notice the back door room and the added window area.

"Rustic" Roman Villa - No roof

 

This is the villa front with all  vertical wall installed. 

"Townhouse" Villa #2

Ladies and Gentlemen;

The lower portion of the "rustic" villa are finished and ready to be photographed, as soon as my wife finishes her work.  Meanwhile the design of the "Townhouse" villa continues.  I am also making copies of the "rustic" villa plans in case anyone wants a hard copy.

In regard to the "townhouse" villa plans, I have rough sketches of the ground and first levels of the villa detailed.  I am following the ideas expressed in the following book which seems to me to be a very nice house indeed!!  

--Stephan Biesty, "Rome, In Spectacular Cross-Section," Scholastic Nonfiction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 2003, (0-439-45546-4).

While this is a juvenile book it illustrates in excellent detail all the information needed to design and build a model "townhouse" villa.  

There are two views of the villa  in the book.  One is a side view showing both upper and lower levels.  The second is a top view, about 30 to 45 degrees off top center, and showing rooms and passages below the tiled roof.  It is from these views that I will make my final design layout for the "townhouse" villa.

Respectfully;

Marcus Audens 

The Walls are up!!

Ladies and Gentlemen;

In my daily visit to the "rustic" villa today, I found the walls were mostly up and the work proceeding apace with my wishes.  The villa is beginning to look like a place that one might like to live!  My next project for this particular structure is to finalize the outline of the gardens, and the interior floor plan of the house.  I have taken three pictures of the villa  as it is now, and will place them in the blog as soon as they are set into the computer.

This villa is rather like a "get-away" cabin in the hills.  It will not have all of the elements of the "townhouse"  or "seaside" villas which are presently in the planning stages.  The walls of the villa will be made of clay brick and the roof of cedar beams and clay tiles.  The walls of the villa will be painted with a lime-wash which dries to a brilliant white and will then be trimmed in red.

Today I received word by messenger that a "corn ship" in which I have an interest has arrived at the seaport, and so tomorrow I will make my way down the Tiber once more to view the ship and her cargo, and to seek out any other opportunities which might be available with the arrival of such a vessel.  While I am there it will also be prudent I believe to look in on the warship  that is a-building once again.  The builder has indicated a problem with getting the lumber that he has on order, and I want to see if that problem has been taken care of 

This morning I met with some of my patrons and an agreement has been struck with a freedman of some length of acquaintance and his wife to stay with the "rustic" villa to keep a close eye on the construction from here on.  He has a complete list of what I wish to have done at the villa, and to what kinds of wood I want to strengthen the building as well as to decorate it.  I also will want a well and a cistern dug convienient to the house, A garden layout in accordance with my drawings, and stone work in the garden itself.  I have requested a sculptor to draw up some plans for some stone statues to place in the garden as well as a variety of designs for stone benches.  My patron will keep his eyes on all these things and notify me when I need to make some decisions.  This will give me more time to follow my other tsks in the city and at the docks.  I have indicated to him that if the villa turns out well then he is to have a position at the villa as the manager and his wife as one of the cooks.  I have also selected a patron to stay in the vicinity of the warship and to visit the shipyard daily.  He is an older man who has had a great deal of experience at sea, but who has fallen on hard times recently.  He will accompany me tomorrow on the trip to the seaport and we will make arrangements for him to stay in the vicinity, and also to send me a message as he feels the need.  I believe that he will be a great help to me in this effort and perhaps in similar efforts in the future.

Respectfully;

Marcus Audens             

"Rustic "Villa" second set of walls

The first set of four walls for the "rustic" villa have been reinforced with balsa wood in order to give them a stiffness in setting the four basic walls up on the house plan.  The walls have been glued up and will be dry in the morning.  Meanwhile, I have cut out the front wall of the villa and the wall sections for the two end rooms on either end of that wall which extend forward.  These three cutouts will form the front part of the villa.  I will back these walls with balsa stripping, when I collect the first four walls from my workbench tomorrow.

When I get the seven walls up and fastened down solidly on the plan, then I will take another picture of the villa as it looks at that point to give you somewhat of an idea about how the "construction" is coming along.

In the design of the "townhouse" villa, I will be making a third story sketch of the basement or sub-level area of the house.  This will consist of two sections separated from each other:--the hypocaust (furnace) and the basement storage area.  The hypocaust will heat only one or two rooms on the ground floor, probably the lady of the house bedroom, and the office.  These will be the most often used rooms in the house during inclement weather.

Respectfully;

Marcus Audens