Aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of seats on both sides or with rows of seats on one side and a wall on the other. Aisles can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, synagogues, meeting halls and legislatures, theatres, in certain types of passenger vehicles, their floors, as in theatres, stepped upwards from a stage. Aisles can be seen in shops and factories, where rather than seats, they have shelving to either side. In warehouses and factories, aisles may consist of storage pallets, in factories, aisles may separate work areas. In health clubs, exercise equipment is arranged in aisles. Aisles are distinguished from corridors, walkways, footpaths/pavements, paths and "open areas". Aisles have certain general physical characteristics: They are always straight, not curved, they are fairly long. An open space that had three rows of chairs to the right of it and three to the left would not be considered an "aisle". Theatres, meeting halls, etc. have aisles wide enough for 2-3 strangers to walk past each other without feeling uncomfortably close.
In such facilities, anything that could comfortably accommodate more than 4 people side-by-side would be considered an "open area", rather than an "aisle". Factory work area aisles are wide enough for workers to comfortably sit or stand at their work area, while allowing safe and efficient movement of persons, equipment and/or materials. Passage aisles are quite narrow—wide enough for a large person to carry a suitcase in each hand but not wide enough for two people to pass side-by-side without touching. Without luggage one person must turn sideways in order for the other one to pass. Warehouse aisles are at least 8–10 feet wide, to allow use of mechanical loading equipment. Wedding aisles are wide enough to allow two people to walk comfortably beside each other and still have space; the width of these aisles is up to those who design the layout of the wedding. Vehicle aisles are wide enough to allow a designated type of vehicle to pass two way. Width varies for vehicle type and other variables like no of parking accessibility etc.
Note that spaces between buildings, e. g. rows of storage sheds, would not be considered "aisles" if the same amount of separation would be considered an aisle in a warehouse. Aisles are common in weddings when a bride walk down it. In architecture, an aisle is more the wing of a house, or a lateral division of a large building; the earliest examples of aisles date back to the Roman times and can be found in the Basilica Ulpia, which had double aisles on either side of its central area. The church of St. Peter's in Rome has the same number. In church architecture, an aisle is more a passageway to either side of the nave, separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns. Aisles stop at the transepts, but aisles can be continued around the apse. Aisles are thus categorized as transept-aisles or choir-aisles. A semi-circular choir with aisles continued around it, providing access to a series of chapels, is a chevet. In Gothic architecture, the aisles' roofs are lower than that of the nave, allowing light to enter through clerestory windows.
In Romanesque architecture, the roofs are at equal heights, with those of the aisle being only lower than that of the nave. In Germany, churches where the roofs of the aisles and nave are the same height, such as St. Stephen's, the Wiesenkirche at Soest, St. Martin's, the Frauenkirche in Munich are known as Hallenkirchen; when discussing overall design, architectural historians include the centrally-positioned nave in the number of aisles. Thus the original St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Milan Cathedral, Amiens Cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris and Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia are all described as having five aisles, meaning they have two side aisles either side of the nave. Antwerp Cathedral has seven aisles. In the United Kingdom, cathedrals only have one aisle on each side, with Chichester Cathedral, Elgin Cathedral and St Mary Magdalene, Taunton being the only three exceptions. In supermarkets there are two types of aisles, food aisles and checkout aisles. Food aisles are. At the end of food aisles may be found crown end displays, where high-margin goods are displayed for impulse purchase.
In retail stores that do not sell food, aisles containing products would be referred to either generically as merchandise aisles, or by the particular products contained in the aisle, e.g. "the gardening aisle", "the sports equipment aisle". Checkout aisles contain. Regardless of the type of merchandise the establishment sells, it is common to display a range of "impulse buy" items along the checkout aisle, such as cold beverages and candy; these are called "lanes" to distinguish them from the food aisles. For customer convenience and retail stores number the aisles and have signs indicating both the aisle number and the types of products displayed in that aisle. Churches, courtrooms and meeting halls may identify individual rows, seats or sections but do not assign aisle numbers or display signs regarding aisles. Libraries are divided into several areas: Circulation desk Collections, areas where materials are grouped, e
Choir
A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with face gestures. A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a chorus; the former term is often applied to groups affiliated with a church and the second to groups that perform in theatres or concert halls, but this distinction is far from rigid. Choirs may sing without instrumental accompaniment, with the accompaniment of a piano or pipe organ, with a small ensemble, or with a full orchestra of 70 to 100 musicians; the term "Choir" has the secondary definition of a subset of an ensemble. In typical 18th- to 21st-century oratorios and masses, chorus or choir is understood to imply more than one singer per part, in contrast to the quartet of soloists featured in these works.
Choirs are led by a conductor or choirmaster. Most choirs consist of four sections intended to sing in four part harmony, but there is no limit to the number of possible parts as long as there is a singer available to sing the part: Thomas Tallis wrote a 40-part motet entitled Spem in alium, for eight choirs of five parts each. Other than four, the most common number of parts are three, five and eight. Choirs can sing without instrumental accompaniment. Singing without accompaniment is called a cappella singing. Accompanying instruments vary from only one instrument to a full orchestra of 70 to 100 musicians. Many choirs perform in many locations such as a church, opera house, or school hall. In some cases choirs join up to become one "mass" choir. In this case they provide a series of songs or musical works to celebrate and provide entertainment to others. Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as a choral concert, by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms and head.
The primary duties of the conductor or choirmaster are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. The conductor or choral director stands on a raised platform and he or she may or may not use a baton. In the 2010s, most conductors do not play an instrument when conducting, although in earlier periods of classical music history, leading an ensemble while playing an instrument was common. In Baroque music from the 1600s to the 1750s, conductors performing in the 2010s may lead an ensemble while playing a harpsichord or the violin. Conducting while playing a piano may be done with musical theatre pit orchestras. Communication is non-verbal during a performance. However, in rehearsals, the conductor will give verbal instructions to the ensemble, since they also serve as an artistic director who crafts the ensemble's interpretation of the music. Conductors act as guides to the choirs they conduct, they choose the works to be performed and study their scores, to which they may make certain adjustments, work out their interpretation, relay their vision to the singers.
Choral conductors may have to conduct instrumental ensembles such as orchestras if the choir is singing a piece for choir and orchestra. They may attend to organizational matters, such as scheduling rehearsals, planning a concert season, hearing auditions, promoting their ensemble in the media. Eastern Orthodox churches, some American Protestant groups, traditional synagogues do not use instruments. In churches of the Western Rite the accompanying instrument is the organ, although in colonial America, the Moravian Church used groups of strings and winds. Many churches which use a contemporary worship format use a small amplified band to accompany the singing, Roman Catholic Churches may use, at their discretion, additional orchestral accompaniment. In addition to leading of singing in which the congregation participates, such as hymns and service music, some church choirs sing full liturgies, including propers. Chief among these are the Roman Catholic churches. Mixed choirs; this is the most common type consisting of soprano, alto and bass voices abbreviate
Church architecture
Church architecture refers to the architecture of buildings of Christian churches. It has evolved over the two thousand years of the Christian religion by innovation and by imitating other architectural styles as well as responding to changing beliefs and local traditions. From the birth of Christianity to the present, the most significant objects of transformation for Christian architecture and design were the great churches of Byzantium, the Romanesque abbey churches, Gothic cathedrals and Renaissance basilicas with its emphasis on harmony; these large ornate and architecturally prestigious buildings were dominant features of the towns and countryside in which they stood. However, far more numerous were the parish churches in Christendom, the focus of Christian devotion in every town and village. While a few are counted as sublime works of architecture to equal the great cathedrals and churches, the majority developed along simpler lines, showing great regional diversity and demonstrating local vernacular technology and decoration.
Buildings were at first from those intended for other purposes but, with the rise of distinctively ecclesiastical architecture, church buildings came to influence secular ones which have imitated religious architecture. In the 20th century, the use of new materials, such as steel and concrete, has had an effect upon the design of churches; the history of church architecture divides itself into periods, into countries or regions and by religious affiliation. The matter is complicated by the fact that buildings put up for one purpose may have been re-used for another, that new building techniques may permit changes in style and size, that changes in liturgical practice may result in the alteration of existing buildings and that a building built by one religious group may be used by a successor group with different purposes; the simplest church building comprises a single meeting space, built of locally available material and using the same skills of construction as the local domestic buildings.
Such churches are rectangular, but in African countries where circular dwellings are the norm, vernacular churches may be circular as well. A simple church may be built of mud brick and daub, split logs or rubble, it may be roofed with thatch, corrugated iron or banana leaves. However, church congregations, from the 4th century onwards, have sought to construct church buildings that were both permanent and aesthetically pleasing; this had led to a tradition in which congregations and local leaders have invested time and personal prestige into the building and decoration of churches. Within any parish, the local church is the oldest building and is larger than any pre-19th-century structure except a barn; the church is built of the most durable material available dressed stone or brick. The requirements of liturgy have demanded that the church should extend beyond a single meeting room to two main spaces, one for the congregation and one in which the priest performs the rituals of the Mass. To the two-room structure is added aisles, a tower and vestries and sometimes transepts and mortuary chapels.
The additional chambers may be part of the original plan, but in the case of a great many old churches, the building has been extended piecemeal, its various parts testifying to its long architectural history. In the first three centuries of the Early Livia Christian Church, the practice of Christianity was illegal and few churches were constructed. In the beginning, Christians worshipped along with Jews in private houses. After the separation of Jews and Christians, the latter continued to worship in people's houses, known as house churches; these were the homes of the wealthier members of the faith. Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians writes: "The churches of Asia send greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, greet you warmly in the Lord."Some domestic buildings were adapted to function as churches. One of the earliest of adapted residences is at Dura Europos church, built shortly after 200 AD, where two rooms were made into one, by removing a wall, a dais was set up.
To the right of the entrance a small room was made into a baptistry. Some church buildings were built as church assemblies, such as that opposite the emperor Diocletian's palace in Nicomedia, its destruction was recorded thus: When that day dawned, in the eighth consulship of Diocletian and seventh of Maximian while it was yet hardly light, the perfect, together with chief commanders and officers of the treasury, came to the church in Nicomedia, the gates having been forced open, they searched everywhere for an idol of the Divinity. The books of the Holy Scriptures were found, they were committed to the flames; that church, situated on rising ground, was within view of the palace. The sentiment of Diocletian prevailed, who dreaded lest, so great a fire being once kindled, some part of the city might he burnt; the Pretorian Guards came in battle array, with axes and other iron instruments, having been let loose everywhere, they in a few hours leveled that lofty edifice with the ground. From the first to the early fourth centuries most Christian communities worshipped in private homes secretly.
Some Roman churches, such as the Basilica of San Clemente in Rome, are built directly over the houses where early Christians worshipped. Other early Roman churches are b
France
France the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean, it is bordered by Belgium and Germany to the northeast and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic and Indian oceans; the country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nice. During the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by a Celtic people. Rome annexed the area in 51 BC, holding it until the arrival of Germanic Franks in 476, who formed the Kingdom of Francia.
The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned Francia into Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia which became the Kingdom of France in 987 emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages following its victory in the Hundred Years' War. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a global colonial empire was established, which by the 20th century would become the second largest in the world; the 16th century was dominated by religious civil wars between Protestants. France became Europe's dominant cultural and military power in the 17th century under Louis XIV. In the late 18th century, the French Revolution overthrew the absolute monarchy, established one of modern history's earliest republics, saw the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which expresses the nation's ideals to this day. In the 19th century, Napoleon established the First French Empire, his subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a tumultuous succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870.
France was a major participant in World War I, from which it emerged victorious, was one of the Allies in World War II, but came under occupation by the Axis powers in 1940. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and dissolved in the course of the Algerian War; the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, remains today. Algeria and nearly all the other colonies became independent in the 1960s and retained close economic and military connections with France. France has long been a global centre of art and philosophy, it hosts the world's fourth-largest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the leading tourist destination, receiving around 83 million foreign visitors annually. France is a developed country with the world's sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP, tenth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of aggregate household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, human development.
France is considered a great power in global affairs, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a leading member state of the European Union and the Eurozone, a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, La Francophonie. Applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name "France" comes from the Latin "Francia", or "country of the Franks". Modern France is still named today "Francia" in Italian and Spanish, "Frankreich" in German and "Frankrijk" in Dutch, all of which have more or less the same historical meaning. There are various theories as to the origin of the name Frank. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English, it has been suggested that the meaning of "free" was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation.
Another theory is that it is derived from the Proto-Germanic word frankon, which translates as javelin or lance as the throwing axe of the Franks was known as a francisca. However, it has been determined that these weapons were named because of their use by the Franks, not the other way around; the oldest traces of human life in what is now France date from 1.8 million years ago. Over the ensuing millennia, Humans were confronted by a harsh and variable climate, marked by several glacial eras. Early hominids led a nomadic hunter-gatherer life. France has a large number of decorated caves from the upper Palaeolithic era, including one of the most famous and best preserved, Lascaux. At the end of the last glacial period, the climate became milder. After strong demographic and agricultural development between the 4th and 3rd millennia, metallurgy appeared at the end of the 3rd millennium working gold and bronze, iron. France has numerous megalithic sites from the Neolithic period, including the exceptiona
Clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. The purpose is to admit fresh air, or both. Clerestory denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. Similar structures have been used in transportation vehicles to provide additional lighting, ventilation, or headroom; the technology of the clerestory appears to originate in the temples of ancient Egypt. The term "clerestory" is applicable to Egyptian temples, where the lighting of the hall of columns was obtained over the stone roofs of the adjoining aisles, through slits pierced in vertical slabs of stone. Clerestory appeared in Egypt at least as early as the Amarna period. In the Minoan palaces of Crete such as Knossos, by contrast, lightwells were employed in addition to clerestories. According to Biblical accounts, the Hebrew temple built by King Solomon featured clerestory windows made possible by the use of a tall, angled roof and a central ridgepole.
The clerestory was used in the Hellenistic architecture of the periods of ancient Greek civilization. The Romans applied clerestories to basilicas of justice and to the basilica-like bath-houses and palaces. Early Christian churches and some Byzantine churches in Italy, are based on the Roman basilica, maintained the form of a central nave flanked by lower aisles on each side; the nave and aisles are separated by columns or piers, above which rises a wall pierced by clerestory windows. During the Romanesque period, many churches of the basilica form were constructed all over Europe. Many of these churches have wooden roofs with clerestories below them; some Romanesque churches have barrel vaulted ceilings with no clerestory. The development of the groin vault and ribbed vault made possible the insertion of clerestory windows; the nave of a large aisled and clerestoried church was of two levels and clerestory. During the Romanesque period a third level was inserted between them, a gallery called the "triforium".
The triforium opens into space beneath the sloping roof of the aisle. This became a standard feature of Romanesque and Gothic large abbey and cathedral churches. Sometimes another gallery set into the wall space below the clerestory; this feature is found in some late early Gothic buildings in France. The oldest glass clerestory windows still in place are from the late 11th century, found in the Augsburg Cathedral In smaller churches, clerestory windows may be trefoils or quatrefoils. In some Italian churches they are ocular. In most large churches, they are an important feature, both for utility; the ribbed vaulting and flying buttresses of Gothic architecture concentrated the weight and thrust of the roof, freeing wall-space for larger clerestory fenestration. In Gothic masterpieces, the clerestory is divided into bays by the vaulting shafts that continue the same tall columns that form the arcade separating the aisles from the nave; the tendency from the early Romanesque period to the late Gothic period was for the clerestory level to become progressively taller and the size of the windows to get proportionally larger in relation to wall surface, emerging in works such as the Gothic architecture of Amiens Cathedral or Westminster Abbey where their clerestories account for nearly a third of the height of the interior.
Modern clerestories are defined as vertical windows, located on high walls, extending up from the roofline, designed to allow light and breezes into a space, without compromising privacy. Factory buildings are built with clerestory windows. Modern clerestory windows may have another important role, besides daylighting and ventilation: they can be part of passive solar strategies, in energy efficient buildings. To that end, clerestories are used in conjunction with stone, brick and other high mass walls and floors, properly positioned to store solar heat gains during the hotter parts of the day – allowing the walls and the floor to act as a heat bank during the cooler parts of the day. Clerestories – in passive solar strategies – should be properly located and protected from the summer’s sun by rooflines, recessed thick walls or other architectural elements, in order to prevent overheating during the cooling season. Clerestory roofs were used on railway carriages from the mid-19th century to the 1930s.
The first Pullman coaches in England had clerestory roofs, were imported and assembled at Derby, where Pullman set up an assembly plant in conjunction with the Midland Railway, a predecessor of the London Midland and Scottish Railway. The first coach, a sleeping car named "Midland", was assembled and ready for trial-running in January 1874; the last clerestory-roofed trains on the London Underground were the'Q' stock, which were withdrawn from operation in 1971. Clerestories were used in early double-decker buses, giving better ventilation and headroom in the centre corridor, as well as better illumination; the Volkswagen Type 2 Kombi, or Transport called the Microbus, came in a deluxe version with clerestory windows. VW made the Samba from 1961-67 in several versions, which had as many as 23 windows, it is prized by collectors; the clerestory is known as "Mollycroft Roof" in Romany and other caravans. Säteritak, a Swedish roof style with a strip of windows halfway up Architectur
Italy
Italy the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Austria and the enclaved microstates San Marino and Vatican City. Italy covers an area of 301,340 km2 and has a temperate seasonal and Mediterranean climate. With around 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth-most populous EU member state and the most populous country in Southern Europe. Due to its central geographic location in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean, Italy has been home to a myriad of peoples and cultures. In addition to the various ancient peoples dispersed throughout modern-day Italy, the most famous of which being the Indo-European Italics who gave the peninsula its name, beginning from the classical era and Carthaginians founded colonies in insular Italy and Genoa, Greeks established settlements in the so-called Magna Graecia, while Etruscans and Celts inhabited central and northern Italy respectively; the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom in the 8th century BC, which became a republic with a government of the Senate and the People.
The Roman Republic conquered and assimilated its neighbours on the peninsula, in some cases through the establishment of federations, the Republic expanded and conquered parts of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. By the first century BC, the Roman Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Basin and became the leading cultural and religious centre of Western civilisation, inaugurating the Pax Romana, a period of more than 200 years during which Italy's technology, economy and literature flourished. Italy remained the metropole of the Roman Empire; the legacy of the Roman Empire endured its fall and can be observed in the global distribution of culture, governments and the Latin script. During the Early Middle Ages, Italy endured sociopolitical collapse and barbarian invasions, but by the 11th century, numerous rival city-states and maritime republics in the northern and central regions of Italy, rose to great prosperity through shipping and banking, laying the groundwork for modern capitalism.
These independent statelets served as Europe's main trading hubs with Asia and the Near East enjoying a greater degree of democracy than the larger feudal monarchies that were consolidating throughout Europe. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science and art. Italian culture flourished, producing famous scholars and polymaths such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael and Machiavelli. During the Middle Ages, Italian explorers such as Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, John Cabot and Giovanni da Verrazzano discovered new routes to the Far East and the New World, helping to usher in the European Age of Discovery. Italy's commercial and political power waned with the opening of trade routes that bypassed the Mediterranean. Centuries of infighting between the Italian city-states, such as the Italian Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, left the region fragmented, it was subsequently conquered and further divided by European powers such as France and Austria.
By the mid-19th century, rising Italian nationalism and calls for independence from foreign control led to a period of revolutionary political upheaval. After centuries of foreign domination and political division, Italy was entirely unified in 1871, establishing the Kingdom of Italy as a great power. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, Italy industrialised, namely in the north, acquired a colonial empire, while the south remained impoverished and excluded from industrialisation, fuelling a large and influential diaspora. Despite being one of the main victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil, leading to the rise of a fascist dictatorship in 1922. Participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in military defeat, economic destruction and the Italian Civil War. Following the liberation of Italy and the rise of the resistance, the country abolished the monarchy, reinstated democracy, enjoyed a prolonged economic boom and, despite periods of sociopolitical turmoil became a developed country.
Today, Italy is considered to be one of the world's most culturally and economically advanced countries, with the sixth-largest worldwide national wealth. Its advanced economy ranks eighth-largest in the world and third in the Eurozone by nominal GDP. Italy owns the third-largest central bank gold reserve, it has a high level of human development, it stands among the top countries for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military and diplomatic affairs. Italy is a founding and leading member of the European Union and a member of numerous international institutions, including the UN, NATO, the OECD, the OSCE, the WTO, the G7, the G20, the Union for the Mediterranean, the Council of Europe, Uniting for Consensus, the Schengen Area and many more; as a reflection
