{"id":30844,"date":"2023-11-20T09:30:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-20T08:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=251886"},"modified":"2023-11-20T10:11:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T09:11:37","slug":"life-hacks-from-history-build-a-dream-home","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/life-hacks-from-history-build-a-dream-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Life hacks from history: build a dream home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fancy upgrading your three-bedroom semi to an 8,707-room palace complex? Justin Pollard reveals his top tips for constructing a luxury dwelling that your ancestors would be proud of <\/p>

By Justin Pollard\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 20 November 2023 at 08:30 AM<\/p>

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We humans have always wanted a home, from the rock shelters of the palaeolithic period to the mansions of modern oligarchs \u2013 the main difference being that rock shelters were often more tastefully decorated. But there\u2019s a difference between a house and a dream home.<\/p>\n

If we want something really special, we could take a leaf out of the Roman emperor Nero<\/a>\u2019s book. Following the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, he took the opportunity to level part of the city and build the Domus Aurea \u2013 the \u2018Golden House\u2019. Taking a personal interest in every aspect of the design, Nero turned a 300-acre site in the middle of the city into a private pleasure ground, with sheep pastures, an artificial lake, a 300-room pavilion for entertainment and, of course, a 30-metre colossal statue of himself. That\u2019s all before we get to the actual palace with its revolving dining room. According to the Roman historian Suetonius, when it was finished Nero proudly announced \u201cthat he had at last begun to live like a human being\u201d.<\/p>\n

Just a fa\u00e7ade<\/h3>\n
Poorer Romans also got in on the dream home act. While in Britain the wealthy built their own, drafty palaces in true Roman style \u2013 like the one at Fishbourne, West Sussex \u2013 more modest dreamers simply put a Roman-style square frontage on their roundhouse.<\/p>\n
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Read more | What were houses like in ancient Rome?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This form of dream-home cheating re-emerged in the Georgian period<\/a> when owners unable to afford a fancy villa simply stuck a classical fa\u00e7ade on their medieval building. This made them instantly fashionable \u2013 as long as no one went indoors. For our medieval predecessors, even the rich found that security was often more important than comfort, so most castles could hardly be considered dream homes \u2013 unless your dream was conquering a nation, in which case Edward I could claim to have had a lovely series of dream homes in north Wales.<\/p>\n
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