Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Gazebos are freestanding or attached to a garden wall and open on all sides, they provide shade, ornamental features in a landscape, a place to rest. Some gazebos in public parks are large enough to serve as bandstands or rain shelters. Gazebos overlap with pavilions, alhambras, follies, gloriettes and rotundas; such structures feature in the literature of China and many other classical civilizations. Examples of such structures in England are the garden houses at Montacute House in Somerset; the gazebo at Elton on the Hill in Nottinghamshire, thought to date from the late 18th or early 19th century, is a square, crenelated and stone tower with an arched opening. It acted as a focus for an extensive system of red-brick walled gardens, which has survived with some more modern additions. There is a prominent gazebo at the Grounds for Sculpture site in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, used as a summer refreshment facility.
In contemporary England and North America, gazebos are built of wood and covered with standard roofing materials, such as shingles. Gazebos can be tent-style structures of poles covered by tensioned fabric. Gazebos may have screens to aid in the exclusion of flying insects. Temporary gazebos are set up in the campsites of music festivals in the United Kingdom and the United States accompanying tents around it. A structure resembling a gazebo, found in villages in the Maldives, is known as a holhuashi; the etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries is "Mid 18th century: humorously from gaze, in imitation of Latin future tenses ending in -ebo: compare with lavabo." L. L. Bacon put forward a derivation from a Muslim quarter around the citadel in Algiers. W. Sayers proposed Hispano-Arabic qushaybah, in a poem by Cordoban poet Ibn Quzman; the word gazebo was used by British architects John and William Halfpenny in their book Rural Architecture in the Chinese Taste. Plate 55 of the book, "Elevation of a Chinese Gazebo", shows "a Chinese Tower or Gazebo, situated on a Rock, raised to a considerable Height, a Gallery round it to render the Prospect more complete."
George Washington had a small eight-sided garden structure at Mount Vernon. Thomas Jefferson wrote about gazebos called summerhouses or pavilions. Eric and the Dread Gazebo Bandstand Spring House Gazebo Chickee Chinese pavilion "Gazebo". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11. 1911. P. 545
Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Sompting
The Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin known as St Mary the Virgin Church and St Mary's Church, is the Church of England parish church of Sompting in the Adur district of West Sussex. It stands on a rural lane north of the urban area that now surrounds the village, retains much 11th- and 12th-century structure, its most important architectural feature is the Saxon tower topped by a Rhenish helm, a four-sided pyramid-style gabled cap, uncommon in England. English Heritage lists the church at Grade I for its history. Settlement of the area now covered by Sompting began in the Bronze Age and continued through the Iron Age and into the Roman era. By the 11th century, two distinct villages had formed: Sompting, based on the main east-west trackway from the cathedral city of Chichester to Brighton, Cokeham to the south. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 they were separate manors, but were both held on behalf of William de Braose, 1st Lord of Bramber. There was a church on the site of the present building by the early 11th century, some structural elements remain from that era.
William de Braose held the advowson at the time of the Domesday survey, but in 1154 his grandson William de Braose, 3rd Lord of Bramber passed it to the Knights Templar, who made many structural changes. They widened the church by rebuilding the chancel to the same width as the Saxon-era tower. In about 1180, they erected a large chapel—effectively a separate church in its own right until the 19th century, when an arch linked it to the nave and made it a de facto south transept. At the same time, they added a north transept with two chapels, they paid for a vicar and his accommodation. After the Knights Templar were emasculated in 1307, Pope Clement V conveyed ownership of the church to the Knights Hospitaller, another religious order, in 1324, they extended the nave on the northwest side—forming a chapel which had openings into the nave and the tower— built a porch on the south side and carried out work on the nave walls. Although the advowson passed out of the Knights' control, it was restored to the order in 1963 by Major G. H. Tristram.
They had been dissolved in 1538 but were re-established in 1831 as the Venerable Order of Saint John and founded the St. John Ambulance organisation; the church fell into decay during the 18th century, when the living was poor and the villages of Sompting and Cokeham still supported only a small population. Repairs in the 1720s and 1760s were not enough, two bells had to be sold to pay for proper repairs in 1791. Richard Cromwell Carpenter undertook more restoration in 1853: this included re-roofing the church and replacing the shinglework on the spire, rebuilding the Knights Templars' chapel into a south transept, improving the aisle in the north transept and cleaning the stonework; the tower is the most important feature of the church and is known nationally and internationally as an exemplar of Saxon architecture—although recent analysis suggests that its upper stage may have been renewed in early Norman times to an identical design. The spire—a design known as the Rhenish helm because of its prevalence in the Rhineland area of Germany—is unique in England.
The design comprises a cap of four shingled gables rising steeply in a pyramid formation. The church is a flint building with dressings of a slate roof; the tower, at the west end, incorporates some reused Roman-era brickwork, was built in two parts. The "elegant" structure has stone pilasters at each corner, but lacks buttresses; the tower is offset. The base of the tower may have served as the original entrance porch; the nave and chancel form a single entity: they are not demarcated by a chancel arch. They were widened in the 12th century to the same width as the tower. Masonry from the walls of the original nave is believed to have been incorporated in the rebuilt walls; the north transept has an aisle of intricate rib vaulting and small bosses. The aisle has circular piers with delicate capitals; the south transept—formerly the separate chapel of the Knights Templar—is linked to the rest of the church by a 19th-century arch and doorway. The chapel, built at a lower level than the church, is rib-vaulted and has a series of foliated capitals in a style similar to the Corinthian.
Remnants of Saxon- and Norman-era sculpture can still be seen in the church. In the south transept, near the 12th-century font, is a carved abbot in good condition. A 13th-century Christ in Majesty incorporates older decorative stonework; some frieze-work is visible on the chancel wall. The Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin was listed at Grade I by English Heritage on 12 October 1954; such buildings are defined as being of greater than national importance. As of February 2001, it was one of seven Grade I listed buildings, 119 listed buildings of all grades, in Adur district; the Sompting headmistress, Harriet Finlay-Johnson, who became known for her innovative education was buried in the churchyard in 1956. The parish covers Sompting village and the surrounding urban area, as far as the boundaries with Lancing and Worthing; the eastern boundary is formed by Boundstone Lane and Upper Boundstone Lane in Lancing, while the western boundary is Charmandean Lane on the edge of the Worthing built-up area.
The parish covers 2,507 acres. St Peter the Apostle's Church, a modern brick building in the Lower Cokeham area of Sompting, is within
Roof
A roof is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights. A roof is part of the building envelope; the characteristics of a roof are dependent upon the purpose of the building that it covers, the available roofing materials and the local traditions of construction and wider concepts of architectural design and practice and may be governed by local or national legislation. In most countries a roof protects against rain. A verandah may be roofed with material that admits the other elements; the roof of a garden conservatory protects plants from cold and rain, but admits light. A roof may provide additional living space, for example a roof garden. Old English hrof "roof, top, summit. There are no apparent connections outside the Germanic family. "English alone has retained the word in a general sense, for which the other languages use forms corresponding to OE. þæc thatch". The elements in the design of a roof are: the material the construction the durabilityThe material of a roof may range from banana leaves, wheaten straw or seagrass to laminated glass, aluminium sheeting and pre-cast concrete.
In many parts of the world ceramic tiles have been the predominant roofing material for centuries, if not millennia. Other roofing materials include asphalt, coal tar pitch, EPDM rubber, polyurethane foam, PVC, Teflon fabric, TPO, wood shakes and shingles; the construction of a roof is determined by its method of support and how the underneath space is bridged and whether or not the roof is pitched. The pitch is the angle. Most US domestic architecture, except in dry regions, has roofs that are sloped, or pitched. Although modern construction elements such as drainpipes may remove the need for pitch, roofs are pitched for reasons of tradition and aesthetics. So the pitch is dependent upon stylistic factors, to do with practicalities; some types of roofing, for example thatch, require a steep pitch in order to be waterproof and durable. Other types of roofing, for example pantiles, are unstable on a steeply pitched roof but provide excellent weather protection at a low angle. In regions where there is little rain, an flat roof with a slight run-off provides adequate protection against an occasional downpour.
Drainpipes remove the need for a sloping roof. A person that specializes in roof construction is called a roofer; the durability of a roof is a matter of concern because the roof is the least accessible part of a building for purposes of repair and renewal, while its damage or destruction can have serious effects. The shape of roofs differs from region to region; the main factors which influence the shape of roofs are the climate and the materials available for roof structure and the outer covering. The basic shapes of roofs are flat, mono-pitched, hipped, butterfly and domed. There are many variations on these types. Roofs constructed of flat sections that are sloped are referred to as pitched roofs. Pitched roofs, including gabled and skillion roofs, make up the greatest number of domestic roofs; some roofs follow organic shapes, either by architectural design or because a flexible material such as thatch has been used in the construction. There are two parts to a roof, its supporting structure and its outer skin, or uppermost weatherproof layer.
In a minority of buildings, the outer layer is a self-supporting structure. The roof structure is supported upon walls, although some building styles, for example, geodesic and A-frame, blur the distinction between wall and roof; the supporting structure of a roof comprises beams that are long and of strong rigid material such as timber, since the mid-19th century, cast iron or steel. In countries that use bamboo extensively, the flexibility of the material causes a distinctive curving line to the roof, characteristic of Oriental architecture. Timber lends itself to a great variety of roof shapes; the timber structure can fulfil an aesthetic as well as practical function, when left exposed to view. Stone lintels have been used to support roofs since prehistoric times, but cannot bridge large distances; the stone arch came into extensive use in the ancient Roman period and in variant forms could be used to span spaces up to 140 feet across. The stone arch or vault, with or without ribs, dominated the roof structures of major architectural works for about 2,000 years, only giving way to iron beams with the Industrial Revolution and the designing of such buildings as Paxton's Crystal Palace, completed 1851.
With continual improvements in steel girders, these became the major structural support for large roofs, for ordinary houses as well. Another form of girder is the reinforced concrete beam, in which metal rods are encased in concrete, giving it greater strength under tension; this part of the roof shows great variation dependent upon availability of material. In vernacular architecture, roofing material is vegetation, such as thatches, the most durable being sea grass with a life of 40 years. In many Asian countries bamboo is used both for the supporting structure and the outer layer where split bamboo stems are laid turned alternately and overlapped. In areas with an abundance of timber, woo
Tented roof
A tented roof is a type of polygonal hipped roof with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak. Tented roofs, a hallmark of medieval religious architecture, were used to cover churches with steep, conical roof structures. In the Queen Anne Victorian style, it took the form of a wooden turret with an octagonal base with steeply pitched slopes rising to a peak topped with a finial. A distinctive local adaptation of this roof style was used in 16th- and 17th-century Russian architecture for churches, although there are examples of this style in other parts of Europe, it took the form of a polygonal spire but differed in purpose in that it was used to roof the main internal space of a church, rather than as an auxiliary structure. The same architectural form is applied to bell towers; the term "tent roof" may be applied in modern architecture to membrane and thin shell structures comprising roofs of modern materials and actual tents. The "tent-like church" is a national type of church, developed in late medieval Russia.
It marks a sharp departure from the traditions of Byzantine architecture which never put emphasis on verticality. Sergey Zagraevsky has argued; this architectural development has been described as a Russian parallel to the Gothic architecture of Western Europe. In this local adaptation of the tent roof it took the form of either: a polygonal roof made of wood, where wood logs are laid both parallel to the sides of the roof, across the corners to form squinches, which makes the roof high and rather pointed. A roof of similar shape, made of stone; the lower sections of such a roof are constructed of a series of roofed small dormers with gables of semi-circular or onion shape. Tented roofs are thought to have originated in the Russian North, as they prevented snow from piling up on wooden buildings during long winters. In wooden churches this type of roof is still popular; the earliest specimen of such a church was transported to an abbey in Vologda. Another notable example is an 18th-century church in Karelia.
The Ascension church of Kolomenskoye, built in 1532 to commemorate the birth of the first Russian Tsar Ivan IV is considered the first tented roof church built in stone. However, Zagraevsky has argued that the earliest use of the stone tented roof was in the Trinity Church in Alexandrov, built in 1510s. Tented roof design has been prone to most unusual interpretations; some scholars, for example, view hipped roofs of this variety as phallic symbols. It's more however, that this type of design symbolised high ambitions of the nascent Russian state and liberation of the Russian art from Byzantine canons after Constantinople's fall to the Turks. Tented churches were exceedingly popular during the reign of Ivan the Terrible. Two prime examples dating from his reign employ several tents of exotic shapes and colours arranged in a complicated design; these are the Church of St. John the Baptist in Kolomenskoye and Saint Basil's Cathedral on the Red Square; the latter church unites nine hipped roofs in a striking circular composition.
In the 17th century tented roofs were placed in a row, sometimes producing astonishing decorative effects. The first instance of this type is the Marvellous Church in Uglich, whose three graceful tents remind one of three burning candles, they became a typical architectural solution for church bell towers. In the Nativity church at Putinki this trend was pushed to its limit, as there are five major and three minor tents used in the construction, it is said that Patriarch Nikon, who passed near Putinki church on his way to the Trinity, considered the monument to be in violation of canonical rules of Byzantine architecture and proscribed building tented churches altogether. During his time at office, many beautiful tented churches were demolished, notably the ones in Staritsa and the Moscow Kremlin. Only in the late 19th century was the ban lifted, the tented roof design was revived in such remarkable monuments as the Church of the Savior on Blood in Saint Petersburg and St. Peter and Paul's Cathedral in Peterhof
Austria
Austria the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km2, a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion, it is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north and Slovakia to the east and Italy to the south, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps; the majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, Slovene. Austria played a central role in European History from the late 18th to the early 20th century, it emerged as a margraviate around 976 and developed into a duchy and archduchy. In the 16th century, Austria started serving as the heart of the Habsburg Monarchy and the junior branch of the House of Habsburg – one of the most influential royal houses in history.
As archduchy, it was a major component and administrative centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Following the Holy Roman Empire's dissolution, Austria founded its own empire in the 19th century, which became a great power and the leading force of the German Confederation. Subsequent to the Austro-Prussian War and the establishment of a union with Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was created. Austria was involved in both world wars. Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy with a President as head of state and a Chancellor as head of government. Major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz and Innsbruck. Austria is ranked as one of the richest countries in the world by per capita GDP terms; the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2018 was ranked 20th in the world for its Human Development Index. The republic declared its perpetual neutrality in foreign political affairs in 1955. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and joined the European Union in 1995.
It is a founding member of the OECD and Interpol. Austria signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, adopted the euro currency in 1999; the German name for Austria, Österreich, derives from the Old High German Ostarrîchi, which meant "eastern realm" and which first appeared in the "Ostarrîchi document" of 996. This word is a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Another theory says that this name comes from the local name of the mountain whose original Slovenian name is "Ostravica" - because it is steep on both sides. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976; the word "Austria" was first recorded in the 12th century. At the time, the Danube basin of Austria was the easternmost extent of Bavaria; the Central European land, now Austria was settled in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes. The Celtic kingdom of Noricum was claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province. Present-day Petronell-Carnuntum in eastern Austria was an important army camp turned capital city in what became known as the Upper Pannonia province.
Carnuntum was home for 50,000 people for nearly 400 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was invaded by Bavarians and Avars. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, conquered the area in AD 788, encouraged colonization, introduced Christianity; as part of Eastern Francia, the core areas that now encompass Austria were bequeathed to the house of Babenberg. The area was known as the marchia Orientalis and was given to Leopold of Babenberg in 976; the first record showing the name Austria is from 996, where it is written as Ostarrîchi, referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In 1156, the Privilegium Minus elevated Austria to the status of a duchy. In 1192, the Babenbergs acquired the Duchy of Styria. With the death of Frederick II in 1246, the line of the Babenbergs was extinguished; as a result, Ottokar II of Bohemia assumed control of the duchies of Austria and Carinthia. His reign came to an end with his defeat at Dürnkrut at the hands of Rudolph I of Germany in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was that of its ruling dynasty, the Habsburgs.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in the vicinity of the Duchy of Austria. In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year, henceforth every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception; the Habsburgs began to accumulate territory far from the hereditary lands. In 1477, Archduke Maximilian, only son of Emperor Frederick III, married the heiress Maria of Burgundy, thus acquiring most of the Netherlands for the family. In 1496, his son Philip the Fair married Joanna the Mad, the heiress of Castile and Aragon, thus acquiring Spain and its Italian and New World appendages for the Habsburgs. In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács, Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans came under Austrian rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between the two empires evident in the Long War of 1593 to 1606.
The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly 20 times, of which some are c
Wealden hall house
The Wealden hall house is a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed hall house traditional in the south east of England. Built for a yeoman, it is most common in Kent and the east of Sussex but has been built elsewhere. Kent has one of the highest concentrations of such surviving medieval timber framed buildings in Europe; the original plan had four bays with the two central ones forming the main hall open to the roof with the hearth in the middle and two doors to the outside at one end forming a cross passage. The open hearth was moved towards the cross passage and became a fireplace with chimney, sometimes the chimney pile blocking the cross passage, which had soon been screened off the main hall. Beyond the cross passage the outer bay at the "screens end" or "lower end" of the hall contained two rooms called buttery and pantry, while the rooms in the bay at the other end, the "upper end", were called parlours; the end bays each had an upper floor containing solars, which did not communicate with each other, as the hall rose to the rafters between them.
The upper stories on both ends extended beyond the lower outer wall being jettied on at least one side of the building. As the main hall had no upper floor the outer wall ran straight up without jettying, thus the central bays appeared recessed; the early buildings had thatched roofs and walls of wattle and daub whitewashed. Buildings would have a brick infilling between timbers, sometimes leading to a complete replacement of the outer walls of the basement with solid stone walls. Examples are the "Bayleaf farmhouse" from Chiddingstone, relocated in 1968–69 to the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum; the Yeoman's House in Bignor, the Anne of Cleves House in Lewes, the Alfriston Clergy House, the Plough at Stalisfield Green, the Old Punch Bowl and the Ancient Priors at Crawley, the Pattyndenne Manor in Kent and the Monks' Barn in Newport and The Old Bakery, in Hamstreet, Kent. Geograph online article about Wealden Hall Houses
Mansard roof
A mansard or mansard roof is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterized by two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The steep roof with windows creates an additional floor of habitable space, reduces the overall height of the roof for a given number of habitable stories; the upper slope of the roof may not be visible from street level when viewed from close proximity to the building. The earliest known example of a mansard roof is credited to Pierre Lescot on part of the Louvre built around 1550; this roof design was popularized in the early 17th century by François Mansart, an accomplished architect of the French Baroque period. It became fashionable during the Second French Empire of Napoléon III. Mansard in Europe means the attic space itself, not just the roof shape and is used in Europe to mean a gambrel roof. Two distinct traits of the mansard roof – steep sides and a double pitch – sometimes lead to it being confused with other roof types.
Since the upper slope of a mansard roof is visible from the ground, a conventional single-plane roof with steep sides may be misidentified as a mansard roof. The gambrel roof style seen in barns in North America, is a close cousin of the mansard. Both mansard and gambrel roofs fall under the general classification of "curb roofs". However, the mansard is a curb hip roof, with slopes on all sides of the building, the gambrel is a curb gable roof, with slopes on only two sides. French roof is used as a synonym for a mansard but is defined as an American variation of a mansard with the lower pitches nearly vertical and larger in proportion to the upper pitches. A significant difference between the two, for snow loading and water drainage, is that, when seen from above, Gambrel roofs culminate in a long, sharp point at the main roof beam, whereas mansard roofs always form a low-pitched roof. In France and Germany, no distinction is made between gambrels and mansards – they are both called "mansards".
In the French language, mansarde can be a term for the style of roof, or for the garret living space, or attic, directly within it. The mansard style makes maximum use of the interior space of the attic and offers a simple way to add one or more storeys to an existing building without requiring any masonry; the decorative potential of the Mansard is exploited through the use of convex or concave curvature and with elaborate dormer window surrounds. One seen explanation for the popularity of the mansard style is that it served to shelter its owners against taxes as well as rain. One such example of this claim, from the 1914 book, How to Make a Country Place, reads, "Monsieur Mansard is said to have circumvented that senseless window tax of France by adapting the windowed roof that bears his name." This is improbable in many respects: Mansart was a profligate spender of his clients' money, while a French window tax did exist, it was enacted in 1798, 132 years after Mansart's death, did not exempt mansard windows.
Examples suggest that either French or American buildings were taxed by their height to the base of the roof, or that mansards were used to bypass zoning restrictions. This last explanation is the nearest to the truth: a Parisian law had been in place since 1783, restricting the heights of buildings to 20 metres; the height was only measured up to the cornice line, making any living space contained in a mansard roof exempt. A 1902 revision of the law permitted building three or four stories within such a roof; the style was popularized in France by architect François Mansart. Although he was not the inventor of the style, his extensive and prominent use of it in his designs gave rise to the term "mansard roof", an adulteration of his name; the design tradition was continued by numerous architects, including Jules Hardouin-Mansart, his great nephew, responsible for Château de Dampierre in Dampierre-en-Yvelines. The mansard roof became popular once again during Haussmann's renovation of Paris beginning in the 1850s, in an architectural movement known as "Second Empire style".
Second Empire influence spread throughout the world adopted for large civic structures such as government administration buildings and city halls, as well as hotels and railway stations. In the United States and Canada, in New England, the Second Empire influence spread to family residences and mansions corrupted with Italianate and Gothic Revival elements. A mansard-topped tower became a popular element incorporated into many designs, such as Main Building, New York, which shows a large mansard-roofed structure with two towers; the 1916 Zoning Resolution adopted by New York City promoted the use of mansard roofs. In the late-1960s and 1970s, commercial builders became interested in postmodern stylistic elements and adapted the mansard for new residential housing and apartment buildings in many areas of the United States; the outward appearance of a mansard roof has been adapted as a façade on numerous small commercial buildings. These are not true mansard roofs in most cases. One of the most famous and commonplace uses of the mansard roof de
