Talk:List of octagonal buildings and structures

List creation
I have created this list from the contents of Category:Octagon-Shaped Buildings as a result of the discussion at Categories for discussion/Log/2007 May 25. There is an emerging consensus to delete the category, but there also appears to be an argument that octagonal buildings have a particular significance in architectural history. I have no view on the merits of that claim, and have created this list purely to ensure that the list remains available to an editor who wants to expand it into a longer list or into a substantive article. That information will be lost if the category is deleted (which seems likely), and since the deletion criteria for lists are different to those for categories, I thought that the list might be appropriate where a category would not.

I have no view about whether this list should be deleted. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 11:00, 29 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I created the list, and spoke against it's deletion. However, I have found an problem. There is a page for octagon house that explains the 19th American octagon style. The problem is that octagon as a style was not limited to houses; in fact, barns are as integral a part of the style as houses were. And there are other structural types (towers, churches, etc.) Any ideas on how to reconcile these terms?--Baxterguy 16:25, 29 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Why not move octagon house to octagon building and structures? After the move, octagon house will become a redirect.  Dr. Submillimeter 08:56, 30 May 2007 (UTC)


 * The German language wikipedia has a corresponding article entitled Oktogon (Architektur) http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktogon_%28Architektur%29 specifically devoted to octagonal buildings. I agree with Dr. Submillimeter that the article could be moved and expanded to cover octagonal buildings. Group29 (talk) 20:30, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd advise against extending this article to octagonal buildings generally - there is a completely different rationale for say an octagonal church, octagonal defensive structure etc. The octagon house is a particular and separate phenomenon, quite separate from the use of the octagon in public buildings. Although there are European examples, the style was only widely adopted in America, so it is specific to both time and place. The octagon is not the natural or logical plan form for a house: because of the relatively small plan size all the rooms are likely to have one wall at 45 degrees to the rest. Not easy to furnish, but this was a popular style exhibiting a fascinating range of architectural variations, well worth considering for their own merits. ProfDEH (talk) 21:48, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Following lack of response either way and good arguments against a merge, the proposal banner is now deleted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by ProfDEH (talk • contribs) 21:32, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Windmills
An editor just added windmills to the items excluded from this list. I can find no listing of Octagonal windmills. If there is no such list, then this exclusion should be deleted. clariosophic (talk) 18:16, 1 November 2008 (UTC)

There is no reason for any exclusions, with the single exception of octagon houses, as they are sufficiently numerous to be covered in detail elsewhere i.e. List of octagon houses. The structures listed really ought to be notable though. I could add 20 minor strucutres in and around London, more if i really searched (e.g. a little brick tower housing a pump at my local waterworks) but they are in no sense notable. I think that applies to recently added that church in Canada and probably several others. ProfDEH (talk) 09:27, 23 February 2009 (UTC)

Centrally-planned architecture
Not sure how this should work but in European religious architecture, the important thing is not so much whether a building is 8-sided, 10-sided, etc or even circular but the fact that it is centrally planned. As Richard Krautheimer pointed out a while ago in an essay on the Iconology of Architecture (sorry - I forget the exact reference), for medieval Christian audiences this had special significance because it was seen as a reference to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (hence the Easter Sepulchres at Magdeburg etc) and various English Templar churches. There were also deliberate associations with Imperial authority, courtesy of Ravenna and Aachen. Finally, a lot of baptisteries were centrally planned, as were English chapter houses. In just about every one of these cases, it isn't the number of sides that matters - just the presence of rotational symmetry.

So... I was wondering whether there should perhaps be a main page on centrally-planned architecture in general (with content on non-western uses of the form as well), linking to pages on octagonal, dodecahedral, round etc buildings types as appropriate?

Open to ideas... StuartLondon (talk) 16:31, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Radcliffe Camera
I wonder if the Radcliffe Camera should be mentioned? It has octagonal symmetry. Maproom (talk) 10:37, 3 January 2023 (UTC)