By Erin and Jamie (yr13)

The hypocaust was a feat of domestic engineering by the inhabitants of Rome. For a society who believed that the sun was driven across the sky by a chariot, they had a surprisingly great grip on physics. (Much better than a group of year 12’s anyway!) Our group was tasked with building a miniature version; and I think you can probably work out how well that went. In our defence, Rome wasn’t built in a day, let alone half an hour.

A hypocaust is a hollow space under the floor of a building, into which hot air was directed. The hot air is spread around due to various flues and tunnels. This meant that the whole place was warm. This was used to heat many buildings in the Roman Empire, including the warmer rooms of Roman baths.

Building a Hypocaust is much harder than it looks. Whilst an actual hypocaust is created by using conventional building materials such as bricks, we were left with the slightly more accessible materials of plywood and duct tape. We painstakingly slotted together pre-cut parts, desperately trying to make something resembling a Roman villa and the heating system underneath. However, much to the disappointment of Mr Dobson, it was not a success as we underestimated just how much effort went into making these things structurally sound. In all furnace, whilst the masonry was shoddy, the recreation of a post-eruption villa in Pompeii was probably quite accurate.

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