Lessons from Pompei: Get the most out of your resources

In December last year I was lucky to visit Pompei and take a tour of the ruins, which have left us with an excellent record of the lives of the town’s residents up to the time of AD79, when Mt Vesuvius erupted. During the tour it became clear that those that were fortunate to have a large home made the very most of the space to maximise their comfort and enjoyment. There were two things I observed from these ancient lives that lead to great questions for us to consider. 

Most large houses, or villas, in Pompei had kitchens, bedrooms, and gardens, just as we do today. However, there were other features of the homes that aimed to squeeze the most value out of every inch of floor space. Firstly, at the front street-facing corners, on either side of the front entrance passage (see image below left) were small shops, leased to local folks to sell their wares. Many of these stores sold ‘fast food’ like baked cheese and cooked fish, bread, olives, or wine (like the photograph below on the right), but others sold pots and pans, textiles and pretty much anything else residents needed. Shopkeepers paid rent for their space to the home owners, providing a much more rewarding use for the space on either side of the entrance that had no other function.

Houses also had a rainwater basin as part of the atrium, which collected valuable water as rain fell. The water moved through various rooms in the house via internal pipes and guttering, through to a cistern where it could be easily accessed for the household. As an added benefit, water that flowed through the rooms kept the space cool. This further demonstrates the efficient use of the space to collect a valuable resource (water) and cool rooms.

So what:

• How well are you using your resources? 
• Do you have any unused space or other under-utilised resource (including people) that could be used for an alternative or an additional purpose?
• How well do you collect, store, access and use important resources, such as data?
• Are you getting the best value out of all your resources?