What is a Vomitorium? 25 Modern Examples of Efficient Traffic Management in Public Buildings and Venues

Written by James Wormald
Published on November 22, 2023

The vomitorium and its purpose is one of historical architecture’s most common misconceptions. It’s said that the vomitorium was a room that neighbored Roman feasts, where guests could socially eject the contents of their stomach before returning to the feast with renewed capacity. Although this theory was not entirely based on fiction – as Romans are known to have indeed taken up habitual regurgitation, possibly as a sign of excess wealth – there’s no reason to believe there was a specific room dedicated to the practice.

The original usage of the term ‘vomitorium’ – taken from the same Latin root ‘vomere’ – in fact refers to a room that allows a large building to disgorge itself of its contents. A vomitorium, therefore, is nothing more than a corridor. Specifically, a wide, arterial corridor leading to or from a high-capacity public space such as a theatre, arena, or stadium, designed with the intention to get as many people in or out of the venue as quickly as possible. A well-designed vomitorium, for example, is essential for efficient emergency evacuation procedures, but even during day-to-day activity, the ability to move large numbers of people quickly helps with a venue’s turnover and creates a more pleasant crowd experience.

+ 30

One of the most famous early examples of the use of vomitoria in architecture is in the Roman Colosseum. Although built over 2,000 years ago, the Colosseum had a capacity of 50,000, easily putting it amongst the top 500 stadiums in the world for capacity even by today’s standards. With the inclusion of 80 vomitoria, however, every spectator was said to be able to get in or out of the venue in 15 minutes. As well as the largest-scale sporting and entertainment venues, the modern vomitorium is essential for other public buildings needing to move people or objects in a tidy and efficient manner.

Powerful Crowd Simulation Software for Human-Centered Design

Vomitoria Used to Get Spectators In and Out As Quickly As Possible

With the highest density of any enclosed public space, sports and entertainment stadiums offer the biggest challenge to the efficient movement of people. But while a sports stadium might open its gates a couple of hours before the start of an event, giving spectators plenty of time to take in any additional experiential features the stadium provides such as restaurants, bars, gift shops, and even club museums before leisurely taking their seats, entertainment venues with high crowd turnover rates are able to run multiple performances back-to-back.

In an emergency situation, any public venue is limited to maximum evacuation times and emergency egress is a major factor in their design from the very beginning. At the Beijing Fengtai Station, China, for example, along with wide, obstacle-free commuter concourses, the outer platforms are also served with wide vomitoria, exiting onto the street.

Entertainment venues with high crowd turnover rates can run multiple performances back-to-back

Due to heightened security threats, buildings used for public transport are often subject to even more stringent emergency procedure protocols. The new underground Elizabeth Line station at London Paddington, UK, allows plenty of natural light down onto its underground concourse with the installation of a glass ceiling, and street-level exits above point emerging passengers alongside the direction of traffic, directing them safely away without the indecision of a turn or road crossing.

The Enclosed Atmosphere of Circling Spectator Venues Enabled by Vomitoria

With so many spectators observing a handful of people at large sporting events, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the action. At multi-sport venues such as those with athletics tracks, for example, multiple events can take place at the same time. By positioning numerous vomitoria around an amphitheater, organizers are able to introduce athletes to the field of play exactly where they need to be. Whereas, by using a single, central vomitorium when there is just one event to focus on, every seat in the crowd is afforded a good view of athletes and performers emerging from the tunnel side by side.

Vomitoria are used by actors to enter the stage directly from the midst of the crowd

Offering a different, but no less dramatic, type of spectacle, theaters often keep their seating, stage, and backstage areas separate, giving space in the wings to hide actors or scenery. By curving the seating section around, however, with Shakespeare’s Globe Theater one of the most famous examples, audiences are brought into the center of the action themselves. Vomitoria – or ‘vom’ as they are known in common stage parlance – are used by actors to enter and exit the stage directly from or into the midst of the crowd, making audiences feel like part of the cast.

Just as theaters help audiences to lose themselves in a scene by placing them in the center of the action, large sporting venues – both indoor and outdoor – build atmosphere by stacking unbroken rings of majority home support around the field of play. The encircling ribbon of noise is only minimally broken by slim vomitoria which quickly open out onto wider concourses once away from the seating.

What is a Vomitorium? 25 Modern Examples of Efficient Traffic Management in Public Buildings and Venues - Image 32 of 35 — The route from a courthouse’s holding cells to the courtroom must be kept secure. Image © HG Esch

Vomitoria Gives the Safety of Segregation in High-Security Situations

Forcing two teams to exit the same tunnel side-by-side can encourage mutual professional respect and give the audience a central point to focus on, but in other – mostly indoor – arenas, the use of vomitoria at opposing ends or corners of the auditorium can provide a greater spectacle. With separate entrances and exits for each team or competition, meanwhile, it’s also possible to ensure the pathways of both don’t cross. Either before or after the event.

Courthouses must have many entrances and exits to the courtroom

The function of the vomitorium is at its most imperative, perhaps, when it’s used in buildings with nothing to do with sporting competition or entertainment of any kind. With the legal responsibility to separate not two but as many as three or four parties from each other at all times, courthouses must have many entrances and exits to the courtroom through which members of opposing legal teams, those in the juries and the judiciary, and especially the accused themselves – who often need an entirely separate and secure route to the courtroom from a nearby holding cell – can enter and exit without communication.

As a word, ‘vomitorium’ may be little used and even less understood today than in Roman times, but its indispensability to public architecture is greater than ever.

The following are examples of contemporary architecture projects with vomitoria