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CHAPTER ONE WHY DESIGN MATTERS
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this day – there’s something magical about seeing what is little more than a pile
of stone, arranged in a certain way, have this a ect on grown adults.
What Design Really Is
Steve Jobs once said, “In most people’s vocabularies, design is a veneer. It’s
interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me,
nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the
fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in
successive outer layers of the product.” It’s this layering, the interconnectedness
of these di erent factors, that manifests itself in the impact of the Pantheon.
 e emotional reactions that I witnessed over and over in the Pantheon are
exactly as intended.  e Pantheon, the current design of which was
commissioned by Emperor Hadrian in  , was built to be the temple of all
the gods of Ancient Rome. So, it’s  tting that walking into the building would
be an awe-inspiring experience. If it’s good enough for Venus, the goddess of
love and beauty, it’s bound to be pretty amazing to you and me.  is intention
behind the design of the building – the impact it was meant to have – is
de nitely one of the “layers” that Steve Jobs was referring to.
 e way that the interior of the Pantheon achieves this reaction is through
conceptually representing the heavens. Emperor Hadrian wanted those who
entered the Pantheon to be awe-struck.  is is the house of the gods, after all.
 e interior does this by being in the form of a perfect sphere – it is as tall as it
is wide, taking the form of a semicircular dome on top of a cylinder. At  feet,
it remains the tallest unreinforced concrete dome in the world – nearly two
millennia after its creation. At the very top of this dome, a -foot wide oculus
(hole) projects a beam of sunlight into the building, lighting the interior.  is
is how the Pantheon has such an impact. Upon entering, you’re enveloped by
another world, complete with its very own “sun” (see Figure -).
Part of the impact of the Pantheon comes from the relationship between this
incredible spatial experience and the materials used to create it. To achieve this
form, the Pantheon pushes the limits of the materials from which it is built,
which helps explain why a dome of this height hasn’t been created with the
same technology since. So much reinforcement is needed to keep this dome
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