Monday, May 12, 2008

Examples of Architecture

Europe is full of amazing examples of architecture. Here are some of them...


  • POST & LINTEL: It is a simple construction technique, also called “post and beam”, where a horizontal member (the lintel) is supported by two vertical posts at either end. This very simple form is commonly used to support windows and doors.
St. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, LONDON



· COFFERS: It is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.


PANTHEON, ROME



· ARCH: An arch is a structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight.


EIFFEL TOWER


· PEDIMENT: It is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure (entablature), typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice mouolding. The tympanum, or triangular area within the pediment, was often decorated with sculptures and reliefs demonstrating scenes of Greek and Roman ,mythology or allegorical figures it also consisted of many bright colours suitable to the nature of the building being adorned.


PANTHEON, ROME



· BAROQUE ARCHITECTURE: Starting in the early 17th century in Italy, it took the humanist Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical, theatrical, sculptural fashion, expressing the triumph of absolutist church and state. New architectural concerns for color, light and shade, sculptural values and intensity characterize the Baroque.


LES INVALIDES, PARIS



· DOME: A dome is a common structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere.


DUOMO, FLORENCE


· OCULUS: (plural oculi) It is the Latin word for eye and the word remains in use in certain contexts, as the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome and in reference to other round windows and openings.


PANTHEON, ROME


· BARREL VAULT: It is also known as a tunnel vault or a wagon vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance.


St. PETER’S BASILICA



· STAINED GLASS WINDOWS: the term stained glass refers either to the material of coloured glass or to the art and craft of working with it. Throughout its thousand-year history the term "stained glass" was applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches, cathedrals and other significant buildings.


NOTRE DAME, PARIS



· STEEL CONSTRUCTION: It is a generally hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon.


PYRAMID DU LOUVRE



· THREE ORDERS OF COLUMNS:

COLISEUM, ROME (all 3 orders)



1- DORIC COLUMNS: They stand directly on the flat pavement (the stylobate) of a temple without a base; their vertical shafts are fluted with 20 parallel concave grooves; and they are topped by a smooth capital that flares from the column to meet a square abacus at the intersection with the horizontal beam that they carry.

COLISEUM, ROME (Bottom)


2- IONIC COLUMNS: They normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform. The capital of the Ionic column has characteristic paired scrolling volutes that are laid on the molded cap ("echinus") of the column, or spring from within it.

COLISEUM, ROME (Middle)


3- CORINTHIAN ORDER: It is one of the Classical orders of Greek and Roman architecture, characterized by a slender fluted column and an ornate capital decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls.

COLISEUM, ROME (Top)

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