Roman architecture was responsible for the development of many different building styles and techniques and the creation of various new ones. Ancient Rome grew rapidly from a small city (founded in 753 BC) on the Tiber River to an empire controlling a fifth of the world's population. This showed the strength they possessed and mastery of many different cultures led to the acquisition of a range of typologies. The result of architectural influence from other nations (primarily the Greeks and Etruscans) led to many great masterpieces of art and architectural design. The Romans took many pre-existing ideals and developed them into new technologies and ways of life; architecture is just one of these developments. These newly developed technologies, like concrete, enabled new construction approaches and methods. The arch, dome, vaults and columns, which will be explored in more detail, were also heavily exploited in order to reach their full potential in construction. This greatly improved the way construction techniques were used and the abilities of the architects of the time. I will argue that Roman architecture brought a new way of designing and constructing buildings that previous civilizations had not exploited to their full potential. Through my conclusion, it must be seen that Rome used and improved many pre-existing technologies, which enabled many new techniques. This allowed them to construct buildings such as the Colosseum, with increased complexity and size. The Romans are widely believed to have been the founders of the arch due to the intricate and world-famous buildings they created using it. However, the first signs of the arches were in the form of a triangle...... middle of paper ...... Vitruvius described 5 types of Roman atrium houses: Tuscan, Corinthian, Tetrastyle, Displuviate and testudinate (Sear, F. 1982 p.32). As such, even the layout of towns, public buildings and houses also used pre-existing ideas from other cultures to create their own specific styles. Overall, ancient Rome was responsible for evolving new building styles by taking pre-existing styles (primarily Greek and Etruscan) and developing them into larger, bolder building approaches. This was achieved through the discovery of the full potential of the arch, the combination of different orders of columns and the creation of a new and extensive use of concrete. As such, this allowed Rome to show its strength in many more ways than just conquering other civilizations. It also shows how Rome improved architecture and gave it a good foundation to move forward into the future..