User:Hannamaefox/sandbox

Please view my brainchild here

I'm considering working on the "Alcove (architecture)" page, the "Fluting (architecture)" page, or the "Monolithic architecture" page. All three are stub articles which I would improve by adding additional detail, sections, examples, and citations.

FLUTING:

Purpose
Fluting promotes a play of light on a column which helps the column appear more perfectly round than a smooth column. As a strong vertical element it also has the visual effect of minimizing any horizontal joints (JONES).

Greek architects viewed rhythm as an important design element. As such, fluting was often used on buildings and temples to increase the sense of rhythm. It may also be incorporated in columns to make them look thinner and more elegant (PROF CARR).

There is debate as to whether fluting was originally used in imitation of ancient woodworking practices, mimicking adze marks on wooden columns made from tree trunks, or whether it was designed to imitate plant forms (JONES). Either way, it was not invented by the Greeks who popularized it, but rather learned from the Mycenaeans or the Egyptians (JONES).

Applications
Fluted columns styled under the Doric order of architecture have 20 flutes. Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite columns traditionally have 24. Fluting is never used on Tuscan order columns (ENC BRIT).

Fluting is always applied exclusively to the shaft of the column, and may run either the entire shaft length from the base to the capital, or only on the upper two thirds of the column shaft. The latter application is used to compliment the entasis of the column, which begins one third of the way up from the bottom of the shaft. (INST TRAD ARCH)

Fluting might be applied to freestanding, structural columns, as well as engaged columns and decorative pilasters.

Classical Architecture
While Greek temples employed columns for load-bearing purposes, Roman architects used columns more often as decorative elements (RODGERS). Fluting was used in both Greek and Roman architecture.

Maison Carree (Roman, France)

Parthenon (Greek)

Pantheon-interior (Roman)

Persian Architecture
Persian style columns do not follow the Classical orders, but were developed during the Achaemenid Empire in ancient Persia. These columns are usually characterized as fluted columns with long capitals featuring two highly decorated animals. Examples can be most clearly seen in the ruins of Persepolis, Iran.

Gate of All Nations (Persepolis, Iran)

Nasir-ol-molk Mosque (Iran)

Egyptian Architecture
One of the earliest examples of fluting in columns can be seen at Djoser's necropolis in Saqqara, built by Imhotep in the 27th c. BC. These columns are made of limestone and used fluting with the intention of looking like bundles of plant stems.

Renaissance Architecture
Renaissance Architecture, built between the 14th-17th centuries in Europe, centered on a revival of classical architectural elements, including Classical order columns.

Raimondi Chapel Altarpiece (San Pietro in Montorio)

Sagrestia Vecchia interior (fluted pilasters)

Neoclassical Architecture
The Neoclassical is a Classical revival beginning in the 18th century and continuing today. This style is exemplified throughout many government buildings and monuments in the United States, as it was popular during the American Revolution.

DC War Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

US Supreme Court Building