{"id":6313,"date":"2011-08-08T10:27:58","date_gmt":"2011-08-08T14:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingottawa.ca\/?p=6313"},"modified":"2013-01-21T09:07:20","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T14:07:20","slug":"bottom-up-design-process-slaves-seats-still-comfortable-after-2000-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2011\/08\/08\/bottom-up-design-process-slaves-seats-still-comfortable-after-2000-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Bottom-up design stands test of time: slaves’ seats still comfortable after 2000 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s been about 1,500 years since the south of France was a Roman province but the remains of that civilization and its 500 years of settlement here are still present. Every Roman city of any importance had theatres, a race track or circus and of course the amphitheatre.\u00a0 It is the ruins of the amphitheatres and theatres which every tourist is most aware of because they are still major points of urban reference. \u00a0The amphitheatre in Nimes is still used and still the central focus of the city where all the major entertainment events take place.<\/p>\n

The race tracks were the largest Roman entertainment centre but there is little left of these but the name, not even in Rome or Istanbul where the chariot teams used to race before 250,000 people.\u00a0 Perge in Turkey has a small one still standing but that\u2019s the only one I\u2019ve been able to find.\u00a0 On the other hand a surprising number of the amphitheatres and theatres are not only still standing, they are still in use.<\/p>\n

The key to preservation is use.\u00a0 If a building is used it will persist.\u00a0 If it is not used, it quickly becomes a bone yard for current building projects.\u00a0 This is what happened to the race tracks.\u00a0 There were many houses, churches and mosques built from the stones of these once vast buildings. This is\u00a0 what happened to the largest of all amphitheatres, the Roman coliseum until the Pope of the day realized the building\u00a0 was disappearing and put a stop to its quiet demolition.<\/p>\n

The Nimes amphitheatre is the most intact in France.\u00a0 It has been a chateau fort, a village, and the rows of its seats have been used for terrace gardens, but it has always been used.\u00a0 Today, it is back to its original purpose – entertainment.\u00a0 I went to see a Sting concert there a few nights ago.\u00a0 Sting has been playing Roman amphitheatres for a long time.\u00a0 I can remember 25 years ago when I was living in France with the children, he played the Frejus arena.\u00a0 The tickets are always sold out and I\u2019ve never been successful in getting any, but this time luck was on my side, a neighbour had tickets and suddenly couldn\u2019t go.<\/p>\n

They were slave tickets at the very top of the arena, but I was very glad to get them because I had the feeling that being at an actual performance in a Roman theatre would be very different than visiting an empty monument during the day and I wasn\u2019t disappointed.\u00a0 It was entirely different.\u00a0 In some ways, nothing much has changed, the rich and the notables have reserved seating on the first two levels and they arrive just before the show starts and take their assigned seats.\u00a0 The highest level is for the poor and the slaves.\u00a0 At the top, the seats aren\u2019t reserved, but i\u2019s the cheapest.\u00a0 Our tickets were in the slave section.<\/p>\n

The extraordinary thing about the Roman construction is that there is not really a bad seat in the house.\u00a0 The sides are so steeply raked that everyone is quite close to the stage.\u00a0 The acoustics are phenomenal.\u00a0 It is a rare a modern theatre or amphitheatre that has anywhere close to the sound quality of these old stadiums and when you are able to watch it in use, you can appreciate just how brilliantly these buildings were constructed.\u00a0 For example, the size of the exit stairways and corridors increase in size as you descend so there\u2019s never any jamming of the crowd.\u00a0 In spite of the height and the crowd, the building felt safe.<\/p>\n

The other thing that was entirely enjoyable was the carnival atmosphere of the slave section.\u00a0 Without reservations, we arrived two hours in advance to make sure we would get decent seats and we did, but so did thousands of others.\u00a0 The two hour wait for the Sting show is filled with eating and drinking and talking and singing and watching the sun set on the edge of the theatre.\u00a0 \u00a0And to my surprise the old stones were comfortable.\u00a0 Perhaps because they are so old, but the stone soft was soft under the bum and warm from the days sun.<\/p>\n

Sting had a full orchestra with him and he is a graceful showman with a lot of hits to his credit so when he finally appeared it was good to hear him, but for me the star of the evening was the old building.\u00a0 How many of our buildings will be used 2,000 years from now?<\/p>\n

photo by Wolfgang Staudt<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been about 1,500 years since the south of France was a Roman province but the remains of that civilization and its 500 years of settlement here are still present. Every Roman city of any importance had theatres, a race track or circus and of course the amphitheatre.\u00a0 It is the ruins of the amphitheatresContinue reading “Bottom-up design stands test of time: slaves’ seats still comfortable after 2000 years”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7083,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5302],"tags":[485,865,3713,3403,3711,3712,3319,3516,3714],"class_list":["post-6313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-clive-doucet-on-cities","tag-france","tag-frejus-arena","tag-istanbul","tag-nimes-amphitheatre","tag-roman-coliseum","tag-rome","tag-turkey","tag-wolfgang-staudt"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBottom-up design stands test of time: slaves' seats still comfortable after 2000 years - Spacing Ottawa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/ottawa\/2011\/08\/08\/bottom-up-design-process-slaves-seats-still-comfortable-after-2000-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bottom-up design stands test of time: slaves' seats still comfortable after 2000 years - Spacing Ottawa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s been about 1,500 years since the south of France was a Roman province but the remains of that civilization and its 500 years of settlement here are still present. 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