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HOUSE PLAN DETAIL - RESIDENTIAL ARCHES

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BEFORE

AG thinks that arches are to residential design what Julian Beever's sidewalk computer art is to metaphors - as much for decoration as anything and integral parts of the architecture of our lives.

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AFTER

ARCH DETAIL DESIGN STANDARDS

1) There are arches galore in size and style and layout.

2) While not sure why, Before The Architect is increasingly involved in

a) Including and adding arches to a plan set and

b) most of those arches are flattened ellipses

3) No imperatives

a) the house doesn’t have to be large or of

b) any particular architectural style

4) Choices (a sampling)

a) by structure

i) intersecting arch – crossing each other as in an arcade, presenting both rounded and pointed arches in the making

ii) blind arch – solidly filled in below to the base of column, pier, abutment, pilaster or wall

iii) relieving arch – structural element

iv) arcade arch – columns in series, supporting arches

v) colonnade arch – not really an arching at all, rather columns in series supporting, effectively, a beam called "architrave"

b) by shape

i) Roman or semi-circle arch

ii) flat or jack arch

iii) Gothic or pointed arch

iv) Tudor or depressed or flattened Gothic arch

v) Syrian or segmental arch

vi) Moorish or horseshoe arch

c) by accessories

i) spandrel

ii) soffit

iii) impost

iv) hood moulding – also applied over-door and over window interior and exterior

v) voissoirs

vi) cusp

vii) tympanum

viii) lintel

ix) keystone

d) by support

i) column

ii) pier

iii) abutment

iv) pilaster

v) wall, usually with impost

e) by physical relationship

i) springing or springline

ii) springer

iii) haunch

iv) crown

v) intrados – interior curve of arch

vi) extrados – exterior curve of arch

f) by geometry

i) major axis or span

ii) minor axis or rise

iii) arch base vertical alignment with top edge of column, pier, or abutment

g) the Orders in so far as embellishments are concerned

i) Greek

(1) Doric

(2) Ionic

(3) Corinthian

ii) Roman

(1) Tuscan

(2) Composite

iii) Nonce

(1) British

(2) American

Comment: For an interesting and generally practical reference on many of these matters see Traditional Construction Patterns: Design & Detail Rules of Thumb by Stephen A. Mouzon et al., McGraw Hill, 2004.

5) The consequences are

a) favorable: incremental formality

b) favorable: the pleasant perspective of design latitude in lieu of dogma

c) favorable: unobligated opportunity for accessories and

d) favorable: pleasing proportion and regularity (unless your clueless about proportion and regularity, in which case fine someone who is not clueless to help you)

6) What does the AG do?

a) He draws details

Comment: In this instance, AG draws to-scale the basic metrics of interior arches to a house that has substantial exterior arching. The proportions of the exterior arches – based on the dominant set at Front Of House – he takes inside. Of interest, these sections were not the first drawn, which first drawn were more rounded [read: marginally longer minor axis] and regarded by the clients as in need of flattening, which flattening extended to all arches both interior and exterior, considering that the exterior Front Of House arch across the wide Front Porch formed the basis for all other arch proportions.

b) He textually and numerically describes and defines details

Comment: The AG goes to such extents as the table below, so as to provide an orderly presentation of similar features – arches – without relying on the good spirits of construction to see through to the designer’s intent and vision. Note, for example,

1. the discrete treatment of the front door arch in order to distinguish it from all other arches;

2. the identical treatment of similar, lesser passage at Front Of House and Back Of House

3. the attention even to the arching of Courtyard wall doors

4. The same springline and minor axis to the Front Porch LOH and ROH as the Front Porch FOH, even though the two sets of arches have widely dissimilar major axes, in order to provide a symmetrical frame of visual reference both from and toward the house, particularly from the house Front Porch

Note also, please the references to the interior doors drawn in the above Figure.

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