A column, or pillar, is a structural element that carries the weight of the structure above it down to the supports below through compression, making it a compression member in structural engineering terms. The word applies especially to a large round support comprising a shaft, a capital and usually a base, though a small wooden or metal support of the same kind is usually called a post, and a support with a rectangular or other non round section is usually called a pier. A long sequence of columns joined by a continuous entablature is a colonnade. Classical architecture developed a set of named column orders, among them the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite, and columns have been central to building design from antiquity through the Renaissance. Iron Age civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean all made some structural use of columns; in Egypt the architect Imhotep, working around 2600 BC, carved stone columns to resemble bundled papyrus, lotus and palm reeds, one of the earliest deliberate uses of the form.
Facts
Element Kind First Used EraAncient; the Egyptian architect Imhotep used stone columns carved to resemble bundled reeds, papyrus, lotus and palm as early as 2600 BC, and the form was later codified into the classical orders by Greece. 1 Era
Era (category) Column
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A pilaster is a column flattened onto a wall surface, following the same proportional systems as a freestanding column but usually without entasis.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Seen In
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
The Doric order, with Ionic elements inside.
Source Encyclopedia Britannica
Source Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of ArchitectureBanister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition)
In the Other Atlases
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1. Column (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationWikipedia: Column, History, Egyptian section
In ancient Egyptian architecture as early as 2600 BC, the architect Imhotep made use of stone columns whose surface was carved to reflect the organic form of bundled reeds, like papyrus, lotus and palm.
Lead section and Antiquity, Egyptian subsection
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below.
View the Source 2. Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.Britannica: Column, lead paragraph
column, in architecture, a vertical element, usually a rounded shaft with a capital and a base, which in most cases serves as a support.
- Seen In: Parthenon
- Associated With: The Classical Orders
View the Source The Ten Books on Architecture
Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, translated by Morris Hicky Morgan, Harvard University Press, 1914Book IV, Chapter I ("The Origins of the Three Orders, and the Proportions of the Corinthian Capital"), section 1, Morgan translation, Gutenberg edition
Corinthian columns are, excepting in their capitals, of the same proportions in all respects as Ionic; but the height of their capitals gives them proportionately a taller and more slender effect.
Book III, Chapter 3 ("The Proportions of Intercolumniations and of Columns"), section 1, Morgan translation, Gutenberg edition
There are five classes of temples, designated as follows: pycnostyle, with the columns close together; systyle, with the intercolumniations a little wider; diastyle, more open still; araeostyle, farther apart than they ought to be; eustyle, with the intervals apportioned just right.
Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture
Banister Fletcher, edited by Dan Cruickshank (20th edition), Architectural Press, 1996- Seen In: Palace of Versailles
- Seen In: St. Peter's Basilica
- Seen In: Alhambra
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