Editing Impluvium

{{Short description|Feature of a house to collect rain-water}}
{{distinguish|Impluvium (hydrology)}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}
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[[File:Domus romana Vector002.svg|thumb|300px|A ''[[domus]]'', with ''impluvium'' numbered 7]]

The '''''impluvium''''' ({{plural form}}: '''''impluvia''''') is a water-catchment pool system meant to capture rain-water flowing from the ''[[compluvium]]'', an area of roof.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gagarin |first1=Michael |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome |date=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |page=175}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Tang |first1=Birgit |title=Delos, Carthage, Ampurias The Housing of Three Mediterranean Trading Centres |date=2005 |publisher=L'Erma di Bretschneider |location=Coppenhagen |page=25}}</ref> Often placed in a courtyard, under an opening in the roof, and thus "inside", instead of "outside", a building, it is a notable feature in many architectural traditions.

== Greco-Roman ''impluvium'' ==

In Greco-Roman architectural studies, the ''impluvium'' refers to the sunken part of the [[Atrium (architecture)|atrium]] in a Greek or Roman house (''[[domus]]''), designed to carry away the rainwater falling from the ''compluvium'' of the roof. It is usually made of [[marble]] and placed about 30&nbsp;cm below the floor of the atrium, and emptied into a subfloor cistern.<ref>John J. Dobbins and Pedar W. Foss, The World of Pompeii, Routledge Press, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-415-47577-8}}</ref>

=== Construction and use ===
[[File:I08 159 Haus des Menander, Atrium.jpg|thumb|left|''Impluvium'' in the center of the atrium of the [[House of Menander]], Pompeii]]
Inspection (without excavation) of ''impluvia'' in Paestum, Pompeii and Rome indicated that the pavement surface in the ''impluvia'' was porous, or that the non-porous stone tiles were separated by gaps significant enough to allow a substantial quantity of water caught in the basin of the ''impluvium'' to filter through the cracks and, beyond, through layers of gravel and sand into a holding chamber below ground. A circular stone opening protected with a [[puteal]] allows easy access by bucket and rope to this private, filtered and naturally cooled water supply.

Similar water supplies were found elsewhere in the public spaces of the city, with their stone puteals showing the wear patterns of much use. In wet seasons, excess water that could not pass through the filter would overflow the basin and exit the building, and any sediment or debris remaining in the surface basin could be swept away. In hot weather, water could be drawn from the cistern chamber (or fetched by slaves from supplies outside the ''domus'') and cast into the shallow pool to evaporate and provide a cooling effect to the entire atrium: as the water evaporated, air drawn in through the ''compluvium'' was cooled and moved throughout the house to cool the surrounding living spaces, a form of [[passive cooling]]. The combination of ''compluvium'' and ''impluvium'' formed an ingenious, effective and attractive manner of collecting, filtering and cooling rainwater.

== West and Central African ''impluvium'' ==

Denyer, ''African Traditional Architecture'', defined an ''impluvial style'' of architecture in West Africa, wherein "four buildings usually faced one another across [a] courtyard".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|page=163}}</ref> Buildings of the "style" (really, a "[[clade]]-based" type), did not necessarily feature an ''impluvium'' to capture rain.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|page=163}}</ref> Further complicating matters, some texts have conflated Denyer's ''impluvial style'' with ''impluvium'' itself, and thereby take ''impluvium'' to refer not to the use of mechanisms to capture water, but instead to court yard-centered house plans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Asojo |first1=Abimbola |title=REESTABLISHING TRADITIONS: THE ARCHITECTURE OF SACRED SPACES |journal=NAAAS Conference Proceedings |date=1999 |pages=46–61}} "Impluvium style were houses with four buildings facing one another in a courtyard with gabled roofs," - this definition conflates impluvium with rectilinear, courtyard-centric planning.</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Asojo |first1=Abimbola Oluwatoni |last2=Asojo |first2=Theresa Taiwo |title=The Influence of Indigenous Forms, Art, and Symbols on Sacred Spaces: A Study of Two Catholic Churches in Nigeria |journal=Journal of Interior Design |date=2015 |volume=40 |issue=1 |page=8 |doi=10.1111/joid.12038|s2cid=109117029 }}</ref>

=== Examples ===
[[File:Enampor-Impluvium1.JPG|thumb|''Impluvium'' in a house in [[Casamance]], [[Senegal]]]]
''Impluvia'' have been observed in many West/Central-African architectural traditions, including those of the [[Igbo people|Igbo]], [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], [[Edo people|Edo]], [[Jola people|Jola]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peter |first1=Mark |title=Constructing Identity: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Architecture in the Gambia-Geba Region and the Articulation of Luso-African Ethnicity |journal=History in Africa |date=1995 |volume=22 |pages=307–327 |doi=10.2307/3171919|jstor=3171919 |s2cid=159479623 }}</ref> and [[Bamum people|Bamum]]. These ranged in complexity: Yoruba ''impluvia'', referred to as ''akodi'',<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Falade |first1=J. B. |title=Yoruba Palace Gardens |journal=Garden History |date=1990 |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=47–56|doi=10.2307/1586979 |jstor=1586979 }}</ref> sometimes only amounted to pots placed at the corners of vast rectilinear courtyards,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|page=86}}</ref> while some in Ketu, Benin Republic, were drained into underground tanks.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|page=86}}</ref> Commoners in the Benin kingdom usually had houses with multiple ''impluvia'' in their one or two court spaces, sometimes drained out of the house by pipes. As Nevadomsky et al. note, these ''impluvia'' were meant to remove rain water so that the open roof could be used as a light source and source of fresh air.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nevadomsky |first1=Joseph |last2=Lawson |first2=Natalie |last3=Hazlett |first3=Ken |title=An Ethnographic and Space Syntax Analysis of Benin Kingdom Nobility Architecture |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=2014 |volume=31 |pages=59–85|doi=10.1007/s10437-014-9151-x |s2cid=254187721 }}</ref> While many previous examples have been rectilinear, the ''impluvia'' of Senegal could also be designed around round floor plans;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peter |first1=Mark |title=Constructing Identity: Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Architecture in the Gambia-Geba Region and the Articulation of Luso-African Ethnicity |journal=History in Africa |date=1995 |volume=22 |pages=307–327 |doi=10.2307/3171919|jstor=3171919 |s2cid=159479623 }}</ref> this has become the basis for the 'Case à Impluvium" in Ziguinchor, Senegal, a centre of the arts run by the ''Alliance Franco-Sénégalaise''.

=== Origins ===
[[File:Benin House Plan.jpg|thumb|left|Plan of a house from Southern [[Nigeria]], Benin country]]
19th and 20th century European travelers were often surprised to find parallels to classical culture in those architectural traditions that had clear ones:
"In the Bamum area there is an interesting type of hut. In referring to it Ankermann says: "The men's houses (Herrenhäuser) in Bamum, in contrast to those of the women, show a most complicated structure. I was very much astonished when I entered for the first time to find myself in an actual Roman atrium with an ''impluvium'' in the middle, with the roof sloping towards the middle, and supported by columns."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Malcolm |first1=L. W. G. |title=Huts and Villages in the Cameroon, West Africa |journal=Scottish Geographical Magazine |date=1923 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=21–27 |doi=10.1080/00369222308734352}}</ref> This resulted in a number of theories attempting to tie West and Central African ''impluvium'' to Greco-Roman, [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]], and [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] influences.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kalaous |first1=Milan |title=Leo Frobenius' Atlantic Theory: A Reconsideration |journal=Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde |date=1970 |page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|pages=163–165}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambe |first1=Njoh |title=Tradition, Culture and Development in Africa: Historical Lessons for Modern Development Planning |date=2016 |location=New York |pages=168–170}}</ref> While Kalaous rejects the possibility of Portuguese influence, he writes that "The Old Mediterranean influence seems to be more plausible but did not necessarily come via Egypt... Of course, this does not prove that there were contacts between the Etruscans and the peoples of what is now Southern Nigeria, but the existence of ''impluvium'' there (and elsewhere in West Africa) is certainly not easy to explain in terms of a quite independent origin."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kalaous |first1=Milan |title=Leo Frobenius' Atlantic Theory: A Reconsideration |journal=Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde |date=1970 |page=16}}</ref> Denyer, on the other hand, notes that "No really large settlement could have taken place in this area [Southern Nigeria] before a means of collecting water had been found", to save for the dry season and to manage erosion.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Denyer |first1=Susan |title=African Traditional Architecture |date=1978 |publisher=Africana Publishing Company |location=New York|page=164}}</ref> Most bluntly, Nevadomsky et al. write that "One need not postulate an external source for what was in all probability an independent evolution of space and form. The ''impluvium'' house could easily have arisen in a climate of hot sunshine and heavy seasonal rainfall."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nevadomsky |first1=Joseph |last2=Lawson |first2=Natalie |last3=Hazlett |first3=Ken |title=An Ethnographic and Space Syntax Analysis of Benin Kingdom Nobility Architecture |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=2014 |volume=31 |pages=59–85|doi=10.1007/s10437-014-9151-x |s2cid=254187721 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ambe |first1=Njoh |title=Tradition, Culture and Development in Africa: Historical Lessons for Modern Development Planning |date=2016 |location=New York |pages=168–170}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Commons category|Impluvia}}
* [[Ancient Roman architecture]]
* [[Ancient Greek architecture]]
* [[Igbo Architecture]]
* [[Yoruba architecture]]
* [[Kingdom of Benin#Architecture|Benin Kingdom]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek architecture]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman architectural elements]]
[[Category:Passive ventilation]]
[[Category:Passive cooling]]
[[Category:Architecture of Africa]]
[[Category:Arts in Senegal]]
[[Category:Architecture in Nigeria]]
[[Category:Architecture in Cameroon]]
[[Category:Architecture in Benin]]
[[Category:Architecture in Senegal]]