Give the flight of steps before a temple an odd number, so that one who starts with the right foot will also set the right foot first on the top.
Rules · Façades · Use · Theory
The crowning colonnade level with the scene
Roof the colonnade at the top of the seats at the same height as the top of the scene building, so that the voice rises evenly to the highest rows and is not checked on its way.
Vitruvius thought of sound as a wave spreading in circles like ripples on water; much of his Book V is about acoustics, including bronze sounding vessels set in niches under the seats. A continuous enclosure, with cavea, colonnade and scene all reaching the same level, made the Roman theatre a single closed bowl, very different from the Greek theatre open to its landscape.
In practice many Roman theatres, such as Orange, achieved this unity, with a velarium (awning) stretched over the audience on masts. Built on vaulted substructures rather than into a hillside, the theatre became a free-standing building that could be placed anywhere in a city.
Related rules
Raise the central nave above the lean-to roofs of the aisles and pierce the upper walls with a row of windows, the clerestory, so that the middle of a wide hall is lit from high on both sides.
nave height ≈ 1½–2 × nave width; one window over each bay of the arcade
Every building must satisfy three demands at once: it must stand up (firmitas), serve its purpose (utilitas), and give pleasure to the eye (venustas).
architecture = firmitas + utilitas + venustas
Architecture depends on order (ordinatio), arrangement (dispositio), eurythmy, symmetry, propriety (decor) and economy (distributio).
When orders are placed one above another, put the stronger below and the more delicate above (Doric under Ionic under Corinthian), and make each upper column a quarter shorter than the one beneath.
upper column = ¾ lower column; order sequence: Tuscan → Doric → Ionic → Corinthian → Composite
Set arches on piers and frame each bay with an engaged column or pilaster carrying a continuous entablature, so that the arch does the work and the order gives the measure.
arch height ≈ 2 × arch width (Vignola); impost at ⅔ of the column
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The crowning colonnade level with the scene”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/theatre-colonnade-level. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.