What is the function of a pendentive?

What is the function of a pendentive?

Pendentive is the term given to a construction element that allows a dome to be placed over square or rectangular spaces. Pendentives are triangular segments of a sphere that spread at the top and taper to points at the bottom, thereby enabling the continuous circular or elliptical base needed to support the dome.

What is a pendentive describe?

In architecture, a pendentive is a constructional device permitting the placing of a circular dome over a square room or of an elliptical dome over a rectangular room. 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.

What is the difference between a pendentive and an squinch?

A squinch, the more basic of the two, is a wedge that fits into the top corner of a space. The use of four squinches turns a square into an octagon to support the dome, but they have a blocky appearance. A pendentive is more elegant, like a spherical triangle.

What is a Triforium and what was its purpose?

triforium, in architecture, space in a church above the nave arcade, below the clerestory, and extending over the vaults, or ceilings, of the side aisles. The triforium became an integral part of church design during the Romanesque period, serving to light and ventilate the roof space.

What is a pendentive in art?

pendentive, in architecture, a triangular segment of a spherical surface, filling in the upper corners of a room, in order to form, at the top, a circular support for a dome.

What is a Pendentive in art?

What does Squinch mean?

1 : to screw up (the eyes or face) : squint. 2a : to make more compact. b : to cause to crouch down or draw together. intransitive verb. 1 : flinch.

What is a pendentive in architecture?

How is a Pendentive formed?

pendentive, in architecture, a triangular segment of a spherical surface, filling in the upper corners of a room, in order to form, at the top, a circular support for a dome. As a result of Byzantine influence, pendentives are frequently used in Islamic architecture.

Which is the correct definition for a triforium?

: a gallery forming an upper story to the aisle of a church and typically an arcaded story between the nave arches and clerestory.