Bulge (architecture)

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The term bulge, which is commonly used in architecture, refers to bulging parts on menhirs , columns or balusters , domes or hoods . Also horseshoe arches must be mentioned in this context. Walls and walls can also be bulged, but this is usually not based on an artistic will to design, but on structural or static inadequacies.

Taj Mahal with outbuildings, around 1645

history

While some large menhirs (e.g. Menhir from Champ Dolent , Menhir from Kerloas or many Portuguese megaliths in the Évora district ) and columns (e.g. Parthenon ) already existed in prehistoric times or in antiquity for optical, perhaps also for static reasons were slightly bulged ( entasis ), ancient or medieval domes are not bulged. Such constructions are an invention of the 15th century, whereby a place of origin or a region of origin has not yet been determined - mainly the Near Eastern Islamic or the Russian Orthodox area would come into question.

Suggestions

amalaka ring stones on two Hindu temples in Mahakuta , India (8th century)

The bulbous domes may be related to the two-dimensional keel arch that spreads around the same time in South Asia and Europe , which - as with the horseshoe arch - is supplemented by a retracted lower part.

The early Hindu architecture already knows slight bulges of dome-like shapes (e.g. at the Mallikarjuna temple in Pattadakal ); the amalaka ring stones should also be mentioned in this context.

Much later prototype motifs could have been the often huge headgear ( turbans ) of the Turkish rulers, of which only later images have survived (e.g. Mehmed II or Suleyman I ). At least in the oriental area, bulged domes can be understood as emblems of sovereignty.

architecture

Bulges on domes

Bulging large domes usually rest on a drum and consist in their core of numerous rings made of bricks , which for aesthetic reasons were clad with tiles or tile mosaics as well as with polished sandstone or marble slabs. They are mostly two-shell - d. H. they consist of a high outer dome and a significantly lower inner dome, which forms the upper part of the room; the space in between was usually not accessible or only accessible through a small opening in the wall.

Bulged domes with a smaller diameter (also known as " onion domes ") often form the end of church towers; they are usually only single-shell and usually rest on an inner wooden structure. The actual dome skin mostly consists of chased metal plates.

Bulges on hoods

Bulges occur in the most varied of ways on church tower domes. Particularly noteworthy are the so-called "Welschen Hauben" in southern Germany, which are manufactured using carpenter technology and then delivered.

Examples

literature

Web links