Spanish Colonial architecture
Spanish Colonial architecture represents Spanish colonial influence on New World and East Indies' cities and towns, it is still being seen in the architecture as well as in the city planning aspects of conserved present-day cities. These two visible aspects of the city are complementary; the 16th century Laws of the Indies included provisions for the layout of new colonial settlements in the Americas and elsewhere. To achieve the desired effect of inspiring awe among the Indigenous peoples of the Americas-Indians as well as creating a legible and militarily manageable landscape, the early colonizers used and placed the new architecture within planned townscapes and mission compounds; the new churches and mission stations, for example, aimed for maximum effect in terms of their imposition and domination of the surrounding buildings or countryside. In order for that to be achievable, they had to be strategically located – at the center of a town square or at a higher point in the landscape; these elements are common and can be found in every city and town in Spain.
The Spanish Colonial style of architecture dominated in the early Spanish colonies of North and South America, were somewhat visible in its other colonies. It is sometimes marked by the contrast between the simple, solid construction demanded by the new environment and the Baroque ornamentation exported from Spain. Mexico, as the center of New Spain—and the richest province of Spain's colonial empire—has some of the most renowned buildings built in this style. With twenty-nine sites, Mexico has more sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list than any other country in the Americas, many of them boasting some of the richest Spanish Colonial architecture; some of the most famous cities in Mexico built in the Colonial style are Puebla, Querétaro and Morelia. The historic center of Mexico City is a mixture of architectural styles from the 16th century to the present; the Metropolitan Cathedral – built from 1563 to 1813 in a variety of styles including the Renaissance and Neo Classical. The rich interior is Baroque.
Other examples are the Palacio Nacional, the beautifully restored 18th-century Palacio de Iturbide, the 16th-century Casa de los Azulejos – clad with 18th-century blue-and-white talavera tiles, many more churches, cathedrals and palaces of the elite. During the late 17th century to 1750, one of Mexico's most popular architectural styles was Mexican Churrigueresque; these buildings were built in an ultra-Baroque, fantastically extravagant and visually frenetic style. Antigua Guatemala in Guatemala is known for its well preserved Spanish colonial style architecture; the city of Antigua is famous for its well-preserved Spanish Mudéjar-influenced Baroque architecture as well as a number of spectacular ruins of colonial churches dating from the 16th century. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site; the Ciudad Colonial of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, founded in 1498, is the oldest city in the New World and a prime example of this architectural style. The port of Cartagena, founded in 1533 and Santa Ana de Coro, founded in 1527, are two more UNESCO World Heritage Sites preserving some of the best Spanish colonial architecture in the Caribbean."
San Juan was founded by the Spaniards in 1521, where Spanish colonial architecture can be found like the Historic Hotel El Convento. Old San Juan with its walled city and buildings are good examples, in excellent condition. According to UNESCO, Ecuador has the largest, best-preserved, least-altered historic centre in Latin America, despite several earthquakes, it was the first city, inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List, along with Kraków, Poland in 1978. The historic district of this city is the sole largest and best preserved area of Spanish Colonial architecture in the world; the idea of laying out a city in a grid pattern is not unique to the Spanish. In fact, it never started out with the Spanish colonizers, it has been traced back to some ancient civilizations the ancient cities of the Aztec and Maya, Ancient Greeks. The idea was spread by the Roman conquest of European empires and its ideas were adopted by other civilizations, it was popularized at different paces and in different levels throughout the Renaissance—the French took to building grid-like villages and the English, under King Edward I did as well.
Some argue, that Spain was not part of this movement to order towns as grids. Despite its clear military advantage, despite the knowledge of city planning, the New World settlements of the Spanish grew amorphously for some three to four decades before they turned to grids and city plans as ways of organizing space. In contrast to the orders given much on how the city should be laid out, Ferdinand II did not give specific instructions for how to build the new settlements in the Caribbeans. To Nicolas De Ovando, he said the following in 1501: As it is necessary in the island of Española to make settlements and from here it is not possible to give precise instructions, investigate the possible sites, in conformity with the quality of the land and sites as well as with the present population outside present settlements establish settlements in the numbers and in the places that seem proper to you. In 1513 the monarchs wrote out a set of guidelines that ordained the conduct of Spaniards in the New World as well as that of the Indians that they found there.
With regards to city planning, these ordinances had details on the preferred location of a new town and its location relative to the sea and rivers. It detailed the shape and measurements of
Air conditioning
Air conditioning is the process of removing heat and moisture from the interior of an occupied space, to improve the comfort of occupants. Air conditioning can be used in both commercial environments; this process is most used to achieve a more comfortable interior environment for humans and other animals. Air conditioners use a fan to distribute the conditioned air to an occupied space such as a building or a car to improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality. Electric refrigerant-based AC units range from small units that can cool a small bedroom, which can be carried by a single adult, to massive units installed on the roof of office towers that can cool an entire building; the cooling is achieved through a refrigeration cycle, but sometimes evaporation or free cooling is used. Air conditioning systems can be made based on desiccants; some AC systems store heat in subterranean pipes. In the most general sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of technology that modifies the condition of air.
In common usage, though, "air conditioning" refers to systems. In construction, a complete system of heating and air conditioning is referred to as HVAC. Since prehistoric times and ice were used for cooling; the business of harvesting ice during winter and storing for use in summer became popular towards the late 17th century. This practice was replaced by mechanical ice-making machines; the basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been applied in ancient Egypt, where reeds were hung in windows and were moistened with trickling water. The evaporation of water cooled the air blowing through the window; this process made the air more humid, which can be beneficial in a dry desert climate. Other techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season; the 2nd-century Chinese mechanical engineer and inventor Ding Huan of the Han Dynasty invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m in diameter and manually powered by prisoners of the time.
In 747, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty had the Cool Hall built in the imperial palace, which the Tang Yulin describes as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains. During the subsequent Song Dynasty, written sources mentioned the air conditioning rotary fan as more used. In the 17th century, the Dutch inventor Cornelis Drebbel demonstrated "Turning Summer into Winter" as an early form of modern air conditioning for James I of England by adding salt to water. Modern air conditioning emerged from advances in chemistry during the 19th century, the first large-scale electrical air conditioning was invented and used in 1902 by US inventor Willis Carrier; the introduction of residential air conditioning in the 1920s helped enable the great migration to the Sun Belt in the United States. In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge University, conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to cool an object.
Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of volatile liquids could be used to drive down the temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted their experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and with a bellows used to speed up the evaporation, they lowered the temperature of the thermometer bulb down to −14 °C while the ambient temperature was 18 °C. Franklin noted that, soon after they passed the freezing point of water 0 °C, a thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that the ice mass was about 6 mm thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching −14 °C. Franklin concluded: "From this experiment one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day."In 1820, English scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to evaporate. In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida.
He hoped to use his ice-making machine to regulate the temperature of buildings. He envisioned centralized air conditioning that could cool entire cities. Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. Though his process improved the artificial production of ice, his hopes for its success vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died and Gorrie did not get the money he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer, Vivian M. Sherlock, he blamed the "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, for his failure, suspecting that Tudor had launched a smear campaign against his invention. Dr. Gorrie died impoverished in 1855, the dream of commonplace air conditioning went away for 50 years. James Harrison's first mechanical ice-making machine began operation in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Australia, his first commercial ice-making machine followed in 1853, his patent for an ether vapor compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855.
This novel system used a compres
Overhang (architecture)
An overhang in architecture is a protruding structure which may provide protection for lower levels. Overhangs on two sides of Pennsylvania Dutch barns protect doors and other lower level structure. Overhangs on all four sides of barns is common in Swiss architecture. An overhanging eave is the edge of a roof, protruding outwards, beyond the side of the building to provide weather protection. Overhangs are common in medieval Indian architecture the Mughal architecture, where it is known as Chhajja supported by an ornate corbel and seen in Hindu temple architecture as well, it was adapted into the Indo-Saracenic architecture which flourished during the British Raj. Extensive overhangs are incorporated the early Buddhist architecture, seen in early Buddhist temples became part of the Tibetan architecture, Chinese architecture, the traditional Japanese architecture, where it became a striking feature. In late medieval and Renaissance Europe, the upper storeys of timber framed houses overhung the storey below.
This technique had been superseded by the start of the 18th century, as building in brick or stone became common. It was one of the most common features of American colonial architecture of New England and Connecticut, starting 17th century, which had an overhanging or jettied second story, which ran across the front of the house, sometimes around it; these are known as a garrison houses. In early 20th century it was adapted into the Prairie School architecture, with architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, thus made way into the modern architecture as well. An overhang may refer to an awning or other protective elements
New Orleans
New Orleans is a consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the southeastern region of the U. S. state of Louisiana. With an estimated population of 393,292 in 2017, it is the most populous city in Louisiana. A major port, New Orleans is considered an economic and commercial hub for the broader Gulf Coast region of the United States. New Orleans is world-renowned for its distinct music, Creole cuisine, unique dialect, its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras; the historic heart of the city is the French Quarter, known for its French and Spanish Creole architecture and vibrant nightlife along Bourbon Street. The city has been described as the "most unique" in the United States, owing in large part to its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. Founded in 1718 by French colonists, New Orleans was once the territorial capital of French Louisiana before being traded to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. New Orleans in 1840 was the third-most populous city in the United States, it was the largest city in the American South from the Antebellum era until after World War II.
The city's location and flat elevation have made it vulnerable to flooding. State and federal authorities have installed a complex system of levees and drainage pumps in an effort to protect the city. New Orleans was affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which resulted in flooding more than 80% of the city, thousands of deaths, so much displacement because of damaged communities and lost housing as to cause a population decline of over 50%. Since Katrina, major redevelopment efforts have led to a rebound in the city's population. Concerns about gentrification, new residents buying property in closely knit communities, displacement of longtime residents have been expressed; the city and Orleans Parish are coterminous. As of 2017, Orleans Parish is the third most-populous parish in Louisiana, behind East Baton Rouge Parish and neighboring Jefferson Parish; the city and parish are bounded by St. Tammany Parish and Lake Pontchartrain to the north, St. Bernard Parish and Lake Borgne to the east, Plaquemines Parish to the south, Jefferson Parish to the south and west.
The city anchors the larger New Orleans metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 1,275,762 in 2017. It is the most populous metropolitan area in Louisiana and the 46th-most populated MSA in the United States; the city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723. It has many illustrative nicknames: Crescent City alludes to the course of the Lower Mississippi River around and through the city; the Big Easy was a reference by musicians in the early 20th century to the relative ease of finding work there. It may have originated in the Prohibition era, when the city was considered one big speakeasy due to the government's inability to control alcohol sales, in open violation of the 18th Amendment; the City that Care Forgot has been used since at least 1938, refers to the outwardly easy-going, carefree nature of the residents. La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded in the Spring of 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, on land inhabited by the Chitimacha.
It was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Regent of the Kingdom of France at the time. His title came from the French city of Orléans; the French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire in the Treaty of Paris, following France's defeat by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War. During the American Revolutionary War, New Orleans was an important port for smuggling aid to the rebels, transporting military equipment and supplies up the Mississippi River. Beginning in the 1760s, Filipinos began to settle around New Orleans. Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Count of Gálvez launched a southern campaign against the British from the city in 1779. Nueva Orleans remained under Spanish control until 1803, when it reverted to French rule. Nearly all of the surviving 18th-century architecture of the Vieux Carré dates from the Spanish period, notably excepting the Old Ursuline Convent. Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Thereafter, the city grew with influxes of Americans, French and Africans.
Immigrants were Irish, Germans and Italians. Major commodity crops of sugar and cotton were cultivated with slave labor on nearby large plantations. Thousands of refugees from the 1804 Haitian Revolution, both whites and free people of color, arrived in New Orleans. While Governor Claiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additional free black people, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population; as more refugees were allowed into the Territory of Orleans, Haitian émigrés who had first gone to Cuba arrived. Many of the white Francophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in retaliation for Bonapartist schemes. Nearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans; the 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color, 3,226 slaves of African descent, doubling the city's population. The city became a greater proportion than Charleston, South Carolina's 53 percent. During the final campaign of the War of 1812, the British sent a force of 11,000 in a
Handrail
A handrail is a rail, designed to be grasped by the hand so as to provide stability or support. Handrails are used while ascending or descending stairways and escalators in order to prevent injurious falls. Handrails are supported by posts or mounted directly to walls. Similar items not covered in this article include bathroom handrails—which help to prevent falls on slippery, wet floors—other grab bars, for instance, in ships' galleys, barres, which serve as training aids for ballet dancers. Guard rails and balustrades line drop-offs and other dangerous areas, keeping people and vehicles out; the oldest known handrail was uncovered by French archaeologist Pierre St. Jamaine in an Assyrian ruin in southern Iraq in the city-state Nippur. British Standard and British Standard Code of Practice are harmonized to European Normal series. Handrail height is set between 1 metre. Further details may be found on the UK government website. Various model codes—The International Code Council and National Fire Protection Association —and accessibility standards—ANSI A117.1 and the Americans With Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design —refer to handrail dimensions.
Current versions of these codes and standards now agree that handrail is defined as either a circular cross section with an outside diameter of 1¼" minimum and 2" maximum or a non-circular cross section with a perimeter dimension of 4" minimum and 6¼" maximum and a cross section dimension of 2¼" maximum. In addition, the International Residential Code includes a definition of a "Type II" handrail that allows for handrail with a perimeter dimension greater than 6¼"; the IRC and residential portion of the 2009 IBC define Type II handrail as follows: Type II. Handrails with a perimeter greater than 6¼ inches shall provide a graspable finger recess area on both sides of the profile; the finger recess shall begin within a distance of 3/4 inch measured vertically from the tallest portion of the profile and achieve a depth of at least 5/16 inch within 7/8 inch below the widest portion of the profile. This required depth shall continue for at least 3/8 inch to a level, not less than 1¾ inches below the tallest portion of the profile.
The minimum width of the handrail above the recess shall be 1¼ inches to a maximum of 2¾ inches. Edges shall have a minimum radius of 0.01 inch. Handrails are located at a height between 34" and 38". In areas where children are the principal users of a building or facility, the 2010 ADASAD recommends that a second set of handrails at a maximum height of 28" measured to the top of the gripping surface from the ramp surface or stair nosing can assist in preventing accidents; the distance between the wall and handrail gripping surface is governed by local code with the most common requirement being 1½" minimum. The National Fire Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration require that the distance between the wall and handrail be a minimum of 2¼"; the 1992 Americans With Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines stated that there was to be an absolute dimension of 1½" between a handrail and a wall. This was a "grab bar" dimension, part of the 1986 ANSI A117.1. ANSI changed the notation to 1½" minimum in 1990.
This was not corrected in 2010 with the approval of the new ADASAD which now calls for a 1½" minimum clearance. Codes generally require that there be a 1½" clearance between the underside of the handrail and any obstruction—including the horizontal bracket arm. There is an allowance however for variations in the handrail size—for every 1/2" of additional perimeter dimension over 4", 1/8" may be subtracted from the clearance requirement. Handrails are to support a continuous load of 50 plf or a concentrated load of 200 pounds applied at the top of the handrail. Top of gripping surfaces of handrails shall be 34 inches minimum and 38 inches maximum vertically above walking surfaces, stair nosings, ramp surfaces. Handrails shall be at a consistent height above walking surfaces, stair nosings, ramp surfaces; when children are the principal users in a building or facility, a second set of handrails at an appropriate height can assist them and aid in preventing accidents. A maximum height of 28 inches measured to the top of the gripping surface from the ramp surface or stair nosing is recommended for handrails designed for children.
Sufficient vertical clearance between upper and lower handrails, 9 inches minimum, should be provided to help prevent entrapment. Baluster Guard rail Hanging strap Mobile Safety Steps
Common room
The phrase common room is used in British and Canadian English to describe a type of shared lounge, most found in dormitories, at universities, military bases, rest homes and minimum-security prisons. It is connected to several private rooms, may incorporate a bathroom. However, they may be found in day schools and sixth forms. Regular features include couches, coffee tables, other generic lounge furniture for socializing. Depending on its location and purpose of use, a common room may be known by another name. For instance, in mental hospitals, where access is restricted to the daytime hours, this type of room is called a "day room". In Singapore, the term refers to a bedroom without attached bathroom in an HDB apartment unit. Common rooms are mentioned in the Harry Potter series. Common Room Student lounge Media related to Common rooms at Wikimedia Commons
