Finials are decorative elements in a variety of American domestic architectural styles, including French colonial, Georgian, Victorian, and Romanesque Revival. Roof finials can be made from a variety of materials including clay, metal, or wood.
What is the pointed top of a building called?
Apex: The highest point or peak in the gable front. Arcade: A range of spaces supported on piers or columns, generally standing away from a wall and often supporting a roof or upper story.
What is a cone roof called?
Conical roofs, sometimes called a witch’s hat, cone roof, turret roof, dome roof, spires or vaults are often used to cover residential and tower shape structures.
What is the triangle at the top of a building called?
pediment, in architecture, triangular gable forming the end of the roof slope over a portico (the area, with a roof supported by columns, leading to the entrance of a building); or a similar form used decoratively over a doorway or window. The pediment was the crowning feature of the Greek temple front.
What are the poles on top of buildings for?
What Do The Poles Do? The poles (or posts) of a pole building provide vertical support; they are the most recognizable feature of one of these buildings because they’re the most vital. Posts are reinforced with horizontal girts to form walls, and purlins are added to create the roof.
Why do buildings have pointy tops?
But these design details aren’t for decoration. They’re among the many features architects use to keep the buildings’ residents from getting vertigo, as supertall skyscrapers can sway up to several feet in the wind.
Why do buildings have spires on top?
As a functional element, skyscraper spires act as lightning rods and broadcast antennas, but as an architectural element, they are often used to increase the apparent height of buildings to perhaps assuage the vanity of building developers and architects.
What is a round pointed roof called?
A conical roof or cone roof is a cone-shaped roof that is circular at its base and terminates in a point.
What is a turret roof called?
When the height of a roof turret exceeds its width it is usually called a tower or steeple in English architecture, and when the height of a ridge turret’s roof exceeds its width, it is called a spire in English architecture or a flèche in French architecture.
What is a turret roof?
Definition. A turret roof is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building. A turret can have a circular top with crenelations as seen in the picture below, a pointed roof, or other kind of apex.
What are decorative pieces on a roof called?
They are called finials or sometimes spires. Basically, they are decorative caps to the point or end of a roof. Finials are not only found on top of homes, but all kinds of building including churches and castles. They are typically carved in stone and they are there to emphasize the apex of a dome, spire or tower.
What are the construction poles called?
A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights.
What are the metal things on top of buildings?
Metal roof flashing is both a method and a device for keeping water from entering a structure at a roof penetration or joint. Flashing can be made of several kinds of materials, but the most flexible and durable are made of metal. Flashing is your last, best line of defense against the enemy of interiors, water.
What are the sticks on top of skyscrapers?
A BEACON FOR THE WORLD TO SEE
At the very top of the building are antennas with airline warning strobe lights that flash 40 times a minute. Visible to pilots over great distances, the lamps are changed about every 18 months by a climber who scales the antenna towers.
What are the spikes on buildings called?
Small or short spires are known as spikes, spirelets, or flèches.
What are the spires called?
flèche
A flèche is the name given to spires in Gothic architecture: in French the word is applied to any spire, but in English it has the technical meaning of a spirelet or spike on the rooftop of a building.
What are the spires on houses called?
Cupolas were originally designed to add natural light and ventilation to the area under a roof. They sit on the ridge of a roof and can be found in many shapes, including square, round, and octagonal.
Why do skyscrapers have spikes?
So how is it that the Empire State Building, and other buildings, can avoid significant damage if they’re being hit a few dozen times per year? These buildings are protected by a lightning rod. Lightning rods are designed to protect a building from the damage that a direct lightning strike can cause.
What is the pointy part of a house called?
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesthetic concerns.
What is a bonnet roof?
Bonnet Roof
Bonnet roofs are essentially a mansard roof in reverse. Also known as kicked eaves, a bonnet roof has four sides with a steep upper slope, and a more gentle lower slope, providing cover around the edges of the house for a porch.
What are the spikes on top of castles called?
A spiked wooden or metal barrier, called portcullis, helped protect the doors from fire and battering. It was lowered by chains from a chamber above the gateway. The word portcullis comes from the Old French porte-coleice, meaning sliding door.