Intercolumniation

Illustration from The Four Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio, translation by Thomas Ware published in London, 1738

In architecture, intercolumniation is the spacing between columns in a colonnade, as measured at the bottom of their shafts.[1] In classical, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture, intercolumniation was determined by a system devised by the first-century BC Roman architect Vitruvius.[2] Vitruvius compiled standard intercolumniations for the three classical Greek orders, expressed in terms of the column diameter,[1] twice the Vitruvian module, and he warned that when columns are placed three column-diameters or more apart, stone architraves break.[3]

Standard intercolumniations

The standard intercolumniations are:[4]

Pycnostyle 
One and a half diameters
Systyle 
Two diameters
Eustyle 
Two and a quarter diameters, considered by Vitruvius to be the best proportion[5]
Diastyle 
Three diameters
Araeostyle 
Four or more diameters, requiring a wooden architrave rather than one of stone
Araeosystyle 
Alternating araeostyle and systyle

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Intercolumniation". The Columbia Encyclopedia, sixth edition. Columbia University Press. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  2. ↑ "Intercolumniation". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  3. ↑ Vitruvius, De architectura iii.3.4
  4. ↑ "Intercolumniation". Webster's Dictionary, 1913. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
  5. ↑ Vitruvius, De architectura, iii.3.6.


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