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 constructing buildings o ...

structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (sideways)

force In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...

s arising out of inadequately braced roof 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 ( sux, , ''house of heavens''), also referred to as the Temple of Inanna, was an ancient Sumerian temple in Uruk. Considered "the residence of Inanna" and Anu, it is mentioned several times in the ''Epic of Gilgamesh The ''Epi ...

Temple (ancient Uruk), dating to as early as the 4th millennium BC.

Terminology

In addition to

flying Flying may refer to: * Flight, the process of flying * Aviation, the creation and operation of aircraft Music Albums * ''Flying'' (Grammatrain album), 1997 * ''Flying'' (Jonathan Fagerlund album), 2008 * ''Flying'' (UFO album), 1971 * ''Fl ...

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 is at 135° to the walls (45° off of where a regular buttress would be). The gallery below shows top-down views of various types of buttress (dark grey) supporting the corner wall of a structure (light grey). File:Anglebuttress.PNG, Angled buttress File:Claspingbuttress.PNG, Clasping or clamped buttress File:Diagonalbuttress.PNG, Diagonal or 'french' buttress File:Setbackbuttress.PNG, Setback buttress

Gallery

File:Buttress - Palace of Westminster - London - England - 040404.jpg, A buttress and a flying buttress, mostly concealed, supporting walls at the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

File:Zejtun cultural heritage 11.jpg, Buttress at Our Saviour's Chapel, Żejtun, 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 ( it, Duomo di Milano ; lmo, Domm de Milan ), or Metropolitan Cathedral-Basilica of the Nativity of Saint Mary ( it, Basilica cattedrale metropolitana di Santa Maria Nascente, links=no), is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombard ...

, 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 architecture like Paoay Church, Philippines File:Western side of the Great Mosque of Kairouan.jpg, Buttresses of the western side of the Mosque of Uqba in Kairouan, Tunisia File:Standalone row house in Centralia, Pennsylvania.JPG, Buttresses to support the wall of this

row house In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house (British English, UK) or townhouse (American English, US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings party ...

were constructed after its neighboring house was taken down as part of the Centralia mine fire.

References

External links

{{Wikisource1911Enc, Buttress Fortification (architectural elements) Castle architecture Columns and entablature Architectural elements

Terminology

Gallery

See also

References

External links