It has long been recognised that an appreciation of the role of structure is essential to the understanding of architecture. It was Vitruvius, writing at the time of the founding of the Roman Empire, who identified the three basic components of architecture as firmitas, utilitas and venustas and Sir Henry Wooton, in the seventeenth century1, who translated these as ‘firmness’, ‘commodity’ and ‘delight’. Subsequent theorists have proposed different systems by which buildings may be analysed, their qualities discussed and their meanings understood but the Vitruvian breakdown nevertheless still provides a valid basis for the examination and criticism of a building.
