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A buttress is an
File:Anglebuttress.PNG, Angled buttress
File:Claspingbuttress.PNG, Clasping or clamped buttress
File:Diagonalbuttress.PNG, Diagonal or 'french' buttress
File:Setbackbuttress.PNG, Setback buttress
File:Buttress - Palace of Westminster - London - England - 040404.jpg, A buttress and a flying buttress, mostly concealed, supporting walls at the
A buttress is an architectural
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
structure built against or projecting from a wall
A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or serves a decorative purpose. There are various types of walls, including border barriers between countries, brick wal ...
which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (sideways) force
In physics, a force is an influence that can cause an Physical object, object to change its velocity unless counterbalanced by other forces. In mechanics, force makes ideas like 'pushing' or 'pulling' mathematically precise. Because the Magnitu ...
s arising out of inadequately braced roof
A roof (: roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of tempera ...
structures.
The term ''counterfort'' can be synonymous with buttress and is often used when referring to dams, retaining walls and other structures holding back earth.
Early examples of buttresses are found on the Eanna
E-anna ( , ''house of heavens''), also referred to as the Temple of Inanna, was an ancient Sumerian temple in Uruk. Considered the "residence" of Inanna, it is mentioned throughout the ''Epic of Gilgamesh
The ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' () is ...
Temple (ancient Uruk
Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...
), dating to as early as the 4th millennium BC.
Terminology
In addition toflying
Flying may refer to:
* Flight, the process of flying
* Aviation, the creation and operation of aircraft
Music
Albums
* '' Flying (Cody Fry album)'', 2017
* ''Flying'' (Grammatrain album), 1997
* ''Flying'' (Jonathan Fagerlund album), 2008
* ...
and ordinary buttresses, brick and masonry buttresses that support wall corners can be classified according to their ground plan. A clasping or clamped buttress has an L-shaped ground plan surrounding the corner, an angled buttress has two buttresses meeting at the corner, a setback buttress is similar to an angled buttress but the buttresses are set back from the corner, and a diagonal (or 'French') buttress bisects the angle between the walls where they meet.
The gallery below shows top-down views of various types of buttress (dark grey) supporting the corner wall of a structure (light grey).
Gallery
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...
File:Zejtun cultural heritage 11.jpg, Buttress at Our Saviour's Chapel, Żejtun
Żejtun ( ) is a town in the Southern Region of Malta, with a population of 11,218 at the end of 2016. Żejtun is traditionally known as Città Beland, a title conferred by the grandmaster of the Order of the Knights of Malta, Ferdinand von ...
, Malta
File:2014 02 13 16 12 25 Milano ITALY Duomo facciata facade con lampione with street lamp photo Paolo Villa FOTO3972.JPG, Façade buttresses at Milan Cathedral
Milan Cathedral ( ; ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary (), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, Nativity of St. Mary (), it is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdi ...
, Italy
File:Barrage Daniel-Johnson2 edited.jpg, Buttresses on the 700ft tall Daniel-Johnson Dam, Quebec
File:Stone Butresses (48013292043).jpg, Thick buttresses characterize Earthquake Baroque
Earthquake Baroque, or Seismic Baroque, is a style of Baroque architecture found in the Philippines and in Guatemala, which were Spanish-ruled territories that suffered destructive earthquakes during the 17th and the 18th centuries. Large public b ...
architecture like Paoay Church
Saint Augustine Parish Church, commonly known as Paoay Church, is a Roman Catholic church in the municipality of Paoay, Ilocos Norte in the Philippines. It is under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Diocese of Laoag. Completed in 1710, t ...
, Philippines
File:Western side of the Great Mosque of Kairouan.jpg, Buttresses of the western side of the Mosque of Uqba
The Great Mosque of Kairouan (), also known as the Mosque of Uqba (), is a mosque situated in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Kairouan, Tunisia and is one of the largest Islamic monuments in North Africa.
Established by the Arab general U ...
in Kairouan
Kairouan (, ), also spelled El Qayrawān or Kairwan ( , ), is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city was founded by the Umayyads around 670, in the period of Caliph Mu'awiya (reigned 661 ...
, Tunisia
Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...
File:Standalone row house in Centralia, Pennsylvania.JPG, Buttresses to support the wall of this row house
A terrace, terraced house (British English, UK), or townhouse (American English, US) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses party wall, sharing side walls. In the United States ...
were constructed after its neighboring house was taken down as part of the Centralia mine fire
The Centralia mine fire is a coal-seam fire that has been burning in the labyrinth of abandoned Coal mining, coal mines underneath the Borough (Pennsylvania), borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. Its o ...
.
File:Church of St. Lucas, near Jelsa, Hvar, Croatia 20230826 06.jpg, Buttresses supporting 14th-century chapel of St. Lucas near Jelsa, Croatia
Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...
See also
*Cathedral architecture
Cathedrals, collegiate churches, and monastic churches like those of abbeys and priories, often have certain complex structural forms that are found less often in parish churches. They also tend to display a higher level of contemporary ar ...
*Flying buttress
The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of a ramping arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall ou ...
*Strainer arch
A strainer arch (also straining arch) is an internal structural arch built to relieve the inward pressure off the spanned vertical supports (providing a "buttress", thus also called buttressing arches), usually as an afterthought to prevent the s ...
*Pilaster
In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...
*Retaining wall
Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...
References
External links
{{Wikisource1911Enc, Buttress Fortification (architectural elements) Castle architecture Columns and entablature Architectural elements Arches and vaults