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A 'dome' is a common structural element of architecture that resembles the 'hollow upper half of a sphere'

Contents

Description

Characteristics

Saucer dome

Onion dome

Dome theater

Cupola

Famous domes

Xanadu House

See also

External links

References

Description

Domes do not have to be perfectly spherical in cross-section, however; a section through a dome may be an ellipse. If the baseline is taken parallel to the shorter of an ellipse's two diameters, a tall dome results, giving a sense of upward reach. A section across the longer axis results in a low dome, capping the volume instead. A very low dome is a 'saucer dome' (see below). All the surfaces of any dome are curved. A spectacular innovation, one that is at the heart of Baroque style, is the 'oval dome', which gives axial direction and movement to the space beneath it. Though the oval dome is identified with churches of Bernini and Borromini, the first oval dome was erected by Vignola for a small chapel, Sant'Andrea in via Flaminia often called Sant'Andrea del Vignola, which was commissioned in 1552 by Julius III, and finished the following year [1], the biggest oval dome was built in the basilica of Vicoforte by Francesco Gallo.
Domes that have been disproportionately influential in later architecture are those of the Great Stupa in Sanchi (actually, a solid mound with stone facing), the Pantheon in Rome, Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. In Western architecture, the most influential domes built since the Renaissance have been those of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and Jules Hardouin-Mansart's dome at Les Invalides in Paris. The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral in London was the inspiration for the United States Capitol in Washington, which in turn inspired domes of most of the US state capitols. See further influential domes below.
A cathedral is often referred to as a ''duomo'' in Italian or "dom" in German, not because so many are crowned with 'crossing domes' over the space where transepts intersect the nave, but from the Latin "domus", house, in this case the "domus dei", the house of God. A dome is a mark of palatial ambitions whenever it is seen crowning a residence. The first residential domes were seen in Nero's ''Domus Aurea'' that covered the slope of the Palatine Hill, built after the Great Fire of Rome of AD 64 with a lavishness that scandalized the senatorial class.
In the 20th century, thin "eggshell" domes of pre-stressed concrete by architect-engineers such as Nervi opened new directions in fluid vaulted spaces enclosed beneath freeform domed space which now might be supported merely at points rather than in the traditional constricting ring.

Characteristics

A dome can be considered as an arch which has been rotated around its vertical axis. As such, domes have a great deal of structural strength. A small dome can be constructed of ordinary masonry, held together by friction and compressive forces. Larger domes built after Brunelleschi's dome that triumphantly spanned the crossing of Santa Maria del Fiore, the ''duomo'' of Florence, have all been built as double domes, with inner and outer shells.

A dome can sit directly on a circular base, however, this is not possible if the base is square. The concave triangular or trapezoidal sections of vaulting that provide the transition between a dome and the square base on which it is set and transfer the weight of the dome are called 'pendentives'. (A less sophisticated version of a pendentive is a squinch.) Under the dome illustrated at left, the pendentives bear circular medallions in bas relief.A 'pendentive' is a constructive device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. The pendentives, which are triangular segments of a sphere, taper to points at the bottom and spread at the top to establish the continuous circular or elliptical base needed for the dome. In masonry the pendentives thus receive the weight of the dome, concentrating it at the four corners where it can be received by the piers beneath. Prior to the pendentive's development, the device of corbelling or the use of the squinch in the corners of a room had been employed. The first attempts at pendentives were made by the Romans, but full achievement of the form was reached only by the Byzantines in Hagia Sophia at Constantinople (6th cent.). In the 'simple dome' the pendentives are part of the same sphere as the dome itself, however such domes are rare. ^[1] In the more common 'compound dome' the pendentives are part of the surface of a sphere of larger radius than the dome itself but whose center is at a point lower than that of the dome. Another alternative is for a 'drum' to be inserted between the dome and pendentives. Pendentives were commonly used in Byzantine, Renaissance and baroque churches.
A half-dome forms the head of an exedra or its smaller version, a niche. In Late Antiquity, the exedra developed into the apse, with separate developments in Romanesque and Byzantine practice.
Many domes are topped by a 'lantern', a structure with openings (or windows) to admit light in the cupola.
Many sports stadiums are domed, especially in climates that have widely-variable summer and winter weather. The first such stadium was the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. A major improvement to the domed stadium was accomplished with the construction of SkyDome, now Rogers Centre, in Toronto, Ontario, the first domed stadium with a retractable roof.

Saucer dome

A 'saucer dome' is the architectural term used for a low pitched shallow dome. Described geometrically as being of circular base and a segmental (less than a semicircle) section. A section across the longer axis results in a low dome, capping the volume. A very low dome is a saucer dome. Many of the largest existing domes are of this shape.
Gaining in popularity from the 18th century onwards, the saucer dome is often a feature of interior design, viewed from below it resembles the shallow concave shape of a saucer. The dome itself being often contained in the space between ceiling and attic is invisible externally. These domes are usually decorated internally by ornate plaster-work, occasionally they are frescoed.
They are seen occasionally externally in Byzantine churches and mosques. Most of the mosques in India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have these type of domes.

Onion dome

:''Main article: Onion dome.''
The 'onion dome' resembles more than half of a sphere, exemplified by Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow and the Taj Mahal. They are found mostly in eastern architecture, particularly in Russia, Turkey, India, and the Middle East. An onion dome is a type of architectural dome usually associated with Russian Orthodox churches. Such a dome is larger in diameter than the drum it is set upon and its height usually exceeds its width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point, and strongly resemble the onion, after which they are named.

Dome theater

Structures designed to fit a panoramic movie format.

Cupola

Main articles: Cupola

A 'cupola' is a dome-shaped ornamental structure located on top of a larger roof or dome, often used as a lookout or to admit light and provide ventilation. The word comes, through Italian, from the lower Latin ''cupula'' (classical Latin ''cupella'' from the Greek ''kupellon''), small cup, indicating a vault resembling an upside-down cup.

Famous domes

Listed in order of their completion:

★ c. 1250 BC - Treasury of Atreus, Mycenae, Greece (a corbel dome).

★ c. 250 BC - Great Stupa, Sanchi, India

★ c. 250 BC - Butkara Stupa, Swat, Pakistan

★ 125 AD - The Pantheon, Rome, Italy.

★ 537 - Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey.

★ 691 - Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem

★ 1312 - Dome of Soltaniyeh, Iran.

★ 1436 - The Duomo, Florence, Italy.

★ 1502 - The Tempietto, Rome, Italy.

★ 1557 - Suleiman Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey.

★ 1574 - Selimiye Mosque, Edirne, Turkey.

★ 1593 - St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy.

★ 1615 - Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran.

★ 1616 - The Blue Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey.

★ 1653 - The Taj Mahal, Agra, India.

★ 1659 - Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur Karnataka India.

★ 1708 - Les Invalides, Paris, France.

★ 1708 - St Paul's Cathedral, London, England.

★ 1733 - Basilica ''Regina Montis Regalis'', Vicoforte, Italy.

★ 1749 - The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford, England.

★ 1817 - Gumbad-e-Khazra (Green Dome), Masjid-e-Nabawi, Medina, Saudi Arabia

★ 1857 - British Museum Reading Room, London, England.

★ 1858 - St Isaac's Cathedral, St Petersburg, Russia.

★ 1850s - The United States Capitol, Washington, DC, USA.

★ 1881 - The Devonshire Royal Hospital, Buxton, Derbyshire, UK.

★ 1965 - The Astrodome, Houston, TX, USA.

★ 1975 - The Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans, LA, USA.

★ 1981 - The Hubert Humphrey Metrodome, Minneapolis, MN, USA.

★ 1982 - RCA Dome, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.

★ 1983 - BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

★ 1989 - Stockholm Globe Arena (Ø 110 m), Stockholm, Sweden.

★ 1989 - SkyDome aka Roger's Centre , Toronto, ON, Canada.

★ 2000 - Millennium Dome, London, England.

★ 2001 - The Eden Project, Cornwall, England.

★ 2006-07 - Global Pagoda, Mumbai, India.

Xanadu House

The Xanadu House was a home that used the concept of domes heavily in its shape and design. The home was one of the first non-indigenous homes to use curved surfaces throughout the exterior and interior.

See also

★ Cupola

★ Concrete shell

★ Doming technique

★ Geodesic dome

★ Gonbad

★ Monolithic dome

★ Rotunda

★ Vault

External links

★ The Dome of Brunelleschi, Florence virtual reality movie and pictures

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References

1. Sir Banister Fletcher, A History of Architecture. 18th ed. London, Athelone Press(1975) ISBN 0-485550-01-6