Coupled windows
When coupled window or coupling window is called a window structure in which a large window opening is divided by columns.
A distinction is made depending on the number of partial windows
- the biforium from two partial windows,
- the triforium made up of three partial windows (attention: the word 'triforium' also refers to the floor, designed as a walkway or blind arcade , between the arcades to the side aisles and the upper aisles in basilicas , located at the height of the pent roofs of the side aisles.)
- the tetraforium made up of four partial windows,
- the pentaforium made up of five partial windows.
These terms are also used when an arcade arch is subdivided instead of a window.
Before the invention of the steel girder, coupled windows offered not only aesthetic advantages but also structural advantages, since lower pressure forces occur in the arches of narrow partial windows than in wide arches.
In the Romanesque and Gothic architecture, in early Renaissance buildings, people like framed coupled window with a blind arcade one. In the case of Gothic triforias, the middle window could be higher than the two on the side.
In Renaissance and Classicism there are also triforias from a central arched window between two windows with horizontal borders. This combination, also known as the Venetian window , was developed from the motif of the triumphal arch .
