In architecture, a semicircular arch is an arch with an intrados (inner surface) shaped like a semicircle. [1] [2] This type of arch was adopted and very widely used by the Romans, thus becoming permanently associated with Roman architecture. [3]
In architecture, a semicircular arch is an arch with an intrados (inner surface) shaped like a semicircle. [1] [2] This type of arch was adopted and very widely used by the Romans, thus becoming permanently associated with Roman architecture. [3]
When the arch construction involves the Roman techniques (either wedge-like stone voussoirs or thin Roman bricks), it is known as a Roman arch. [4] The semicircular arch is also known as a round arch. [5] [6]
The rise (height) of a round arch is limited to 1⁄2 of its span, [7] so it looks more "grounded" than a parabolic arch [3] or a pointed arch. [7] Whenever a higher semicircular arch was required (for example, for a narrow arch to match the height of a nearby broad one), either stilting or horseshoe shape were used, thus creating a stilted arch (also surmounted [8] ) and horseshoe arch respectively. [9] These "shifts and dodges" were immediately dropped once the pointed arch with its malleable proportions was adopted. [7] Still, "the Romanesque arch is beautiful as an abstract line. Its type is always before us in that of the apparent vault of heaven, and horizon of the earth" (John Ruskin, "The Seven Lamps of Architecture"). [10]
A round arch that sits atop the corbels, with corbels rounded to create a bell-like shape of intrados, is called a bell arch. [11]
When the architecture of the building dictates the rise of he arch to be less than 1⁄2 of its span (for example, in Roman residential construction), a segmental arch with a rounded shape that is less than a semicircle can be used. [12]
The popularity of the semicircular arch is based on simplicity of its layout and construction, [13] not superior structural properties. The sides of this arch swing wider than the perfect funicular curve and therefore experience a bending moment with the force directed outwards. [14] To prevent buckling, heavy surcharge (fill), so called spandrel, needs to be applied outside of the haunches. [13]
In addition to the Imperial Roman construction, round arches are also associated with Byzantine, Romanesque (and Neo-Romanesque), Renaissance [15] and Rundbogenstil styles. While the semicircular arch was known in the Greek architecture, it mostly played there a decorative, not structural, role. [16]
An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but structural load-bearing arches became popular only after their adoption by the Ancient Romans in the 4th century BC.
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Romanesque is characterized by semicircular arches, while the Gothic is marked by the pointed arches. The Romanesque emerged nearly simultaneously in multiple countries ; its examples can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. Similarly to Gothic, the name of the style was transferred onto the contemporary Romanesque art.
Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. The style at the time was sometimes known as opus Francigenum ; the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity.
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name to the basilica architectural form.
A dome is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a matter of controversy and there are a wide variety of forms and specialized terms to describe them.
In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the structure. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger" in England.
A rib vault or ribbed vault is an architectural feature for covering a wide space, such as a church nave, composed of a framework of crossed or diagonal arched ribs. Variations were used in Roman architecture, Byzantine architecture, Islamic architecture, Romanesque architecture, and especially Gothic architecture. Thin stone panels fill the space between the ribs. This greatly reduced the weight and thus the outward thrust of the vault. The ribs transmit the load downward and outward to specific points, usually rows of columns or piers. This feature allowed architects of Gothic cathedrals to make higher and thinner walls and much larger windows.
In architecture, a squinch is a structural element used to support the base of a circular or octagonal dome that surmounts a square-plan chamber. Squinches are placed to diagonally span each upper corner where the walls meet. Constructed from masonry, they have several forms, including: a graduated series of stepped arches; a hollow, open half-cone laid horizontally; or a small half-dome niche. They are designed to spread the load of a dome to the intersecting walls on which they are built. By bridging corners, they also visually transition an angular space to a round or near-circular zone.
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to feature more simplified arches and windows than their historic counterparts.
Galleting, sometimes known as garreting or garneting, is an architectural technique in which spalls are pushed into wet mortar joints during the construction of a masonry building. The term comes from the French word galet, which means "pebble." In general, the word "galleting" refers to the practice while the word "gallet" refers to the spall. Galleting was mostly used in England, where it was common in South East England and the county of Norfolk.
A multifoil arch, also known as a cusped arch, polylobed arch, or scalloped arch, is an arch characterized by multiple circular arcs or leaf shapes that are cut into its interior profile or intrados. The term foil comes from the old French word for "leaf." A specific number of foils is indicated by a prefix: trefoil (three), quatrefoil (four), cinquefoil (five), sexfoil (six), octofoil (eight). The term multifoil or scalloped is specifically used for arches with more than five foils. The multifoil arch is characteristic of Islamic art and architecture; particularly in the Moorish architecture of al-Andalus and North Africa and in Mughal architecture of the Indian subcontinent. Variants of the multifoil arch, such as the trefoil arch, are also common in other architectural traditions such as Gothic architecture.
Church windows are windows within cathedrals, basilicas and other church edifices. They have been a central element in church architecture since Early Christianity.
Historically, the term counter-arch was used in architecture to describe multiple types of arches that provide opposing action:
Rundbogenstil is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular stylistic motifs. It forms a German branch of Romanesque Revival architecture sometimes used in other countries.
The Roman architectural revolution, also known as the concrete revolution, is the name sometimes given to the widespread use in Roman architecture of the previously little-used architectural forms of the arch, vault, and dome. For the first time in Europe, possibly in the world, the potential of these elements was fully appreciated and exploited in the construction of a wide range of civil engineering structures, public buildings, and military facilities. Throughout the Roman empire, from Syria to Scotland, engineers erected structures using semicircular arches. The first use of arches was for civic structures, like drains and city gates. Later the arches were utilized for major civic buildings bridges and aqueducts, with the outstanding 1st century AD examples provided by the Colosseum, Pont Du Gard, and the aqueduct of Segovia. The introduction of the ceremonial triumphal arch dates back to Roman republic, although the best examples are from the imperial times.
In architecture, the term frontispiece is used to describe the principal face of the building, usually referring to a combination of elements that frame and decorate the main or front entrance of a building. The earliest and most notable variation of frontispieces can be seen in Ancient Greek Architecture which features a large triangular gable, known as a pediment, usually supported by a collection of columns. However, some architectural authors have often used the term "frontispiece" and "pediment" interchangeably in reference to both large frontispieces decorating the main entrances, as well as smaller frontispieces framing windows which is traditionally known as a pediment.
In architecture, a perron generally refers to an external stairway to a building. Curl notes three more-specific usages: the platform-landing reached by symmetrical flights of steps leading to the piano nobile of a building; the steps themselves; or the platform base of edifices like a market cross. Perron also refers to a type of Belgian civic monument, which usually sits on a perron.
A segmental arch is a type of arch with a circular arc of less than 180 degrees. It is sometimes also called a scheme arch.
Perpendicular Gothic architecture was the third and final style of English Gothic architecture developed in the Kingdom of England during the Late Middle Ages, typified by large windows, four-centred arches, straight vertical and horizontal lines in the tracery, and regular arch-topped rectangular panelling. Perpendicular was the prevailing style of Late Gothic architecture in England from the 14th century to the 17th century. Perpendicular was unique to the country: no equivalent arose in Continental Europe or elsewhere in the British-Irish Isles. Of all the Gothic architectural styles, Perpendicular was the first to experience a second wave of popularity from the 18th century on in Gothic Revival architecture.
In architecture, a triangular arch typically defines an arch where the intrados consists of two straight segments formed by two stone slabs leaning against each other. In this roof-like arrangement, mitre joint is usually used at the crown, thus the arch was in the past also called a mitre arch. Brick builders would call triangular any arch with straight inclined sides. Mayan corbel arches are also sometimes called triangular due to their shape.