Utilitas, firmitas… sumptus et significatio

The Vitruvian Virtues of Architecture: Utilitas, Firmitas, Venustas

No more famous slogan has been invented for the essential components of architectural values than Vitruvius’s famous three of utilitas (function? commodity? utility?), firmitas (solidity? materiality?), and venustas (beauty? delight? desire?). Despite the famous attempts to fix the meaning of the three terms, it is evident that their location within the Vitruvian ‘triad’ has cast a spell over a...

Vitruvius in Cyberspace

Nowadays, new forms of virtual architecture are appearing as virtual worlds based on the Metaverse concept are becoming increasingly more popular, holding all kind of virtual versions of human activities. This paper aims to make a reflection on the features of these new architectures compared with their equivalents in the real world by means of an analysis through the prism of the three fundame...

How Base Isolation benefits the Architectural Design of Hospital buildings

This paper reports on an investigation into how base isolation can produce benefits for the architectural design of hospitals. If a relatively new technology such as base isolation can be coupled with interdisciplinary collaboration from the birth of a project, it seems possible to achieve an improvement not only in their seismic, but also in their architectural design. The methodology adopted ...

Using Vitruvius as a Framework for Applied Game Design

The number of games designed for various applications in healthcare is growing rapidly. However, balancing the game can be a difficult task, especially without a guiding vision or design framework. Here, we propose a philosophical framework inspired by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, which can be used as an approach to designin...

Leptospirose Ovine et Caprine