Column

Structural element that transmits weight from above to below

National Capitol Columns at the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C.

Columns of the Parliament House in Helsinki, Finland

Column of the Gordon Monument in Waterloo.

A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. The term column applies especially to a large round support (the shaft of the column) with a capital and a base or pedestal,^[1] which is made of stone, or appearing to be so. A small wooden or metal support is typically called a post. Supports with a rectangular or other non-round section are usually called piers.

For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. Other compression members are often termed "columns" because of the similar stress conditions. Columns are frequently used to support beams or arches on which the upper parts of walls or ceilings rest. In architecture, "column" refers to such a structural element that also has certain proportional and decorative features. These beautiful columns are available in a broad selection of styles and designs in round tapered, round straight, or square shaft styles. ^[2]A column might also be a decorative element not needed for structural purposes; many columns are engaged, that is to say form part of a wall. A long sequence of columns joined by an entablature is known as a colonnade.

History

Dragon pillar from the Yingzao Fashi, Song dynasty

Antiquity

All significant Iron Age civilizations of the Near East and Mediterranean made some use of columns.

Egyptian

In ancient Egyptian architecture as early as 2600 BC, the architect Imhotep made use of stone columns whose surface was carved to reflect the organic form of bundled reeds, like papyrus, lotus and palm.^[3] In later Egyptian architecture faceted cylinders were also common. Their form is thought to derive from archaic reed-built shrines. Carved from stone, the columns were highly decorated with carved and painted hieroglyphs, texts, ritual imagery and natural motifs. Egyptian columns are famously present in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak (c. 1224 BC), where 134 columns are lined up in sixteen rows, with some columns reaching heights of 24 metres.

One of the most important type are the papyriform columns. The origin of these columns goes back to the 5th Dynasty. They are composed of lotus (papyrus) stems which are drawn together into a bundle decorated with bands: the capital, instead of opening out into the shape of a bellflower, swells out and then narrows again like a flower in bud. The base, which tapers to take the shape of a half-sphere like the stem of the lotus, has a continuously recurring decoration of stipules.

• Examples of Egyptian columns
• 
  Illustration of papyriform capitals, in The Grammar of Ornament
• 
  Illustration of various types of capitals, drawn by the egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius
• 
  Columns with Hathoric capitals
• 
  Papyriform columns of the Luxor Temple

Greek and Roman

The Minoans used whole tree-trunks, usually turned upside down in order to prevent re-growth^{[dubious – discuss]}, stood on a base set in the stylobate (floor base) and topped by a simple round capital. These were then painted as in the most famous Minoan palace of Knossos. The Minoans employed columns to create large open-plan spaces, light-wells and as a focal point for religious rituals.

These traditions were continued by the later Mycenaean civilization, particularly in the megaron or hall at the heart of their palaces. The importance of columns and their reference to palaces and therefore authority is evidenced in their use in heraldic motifs such as the famous lion-gate of Mycenae where two lions stand each side of a column. Being made of wood these early columns have not survived, but their stone bases have and through these we may see their use and arrangement in these palace buildings.

The Egyptians, Persians and other civilizations mostly used columns for the practical purpose of holding up the roof inside a building, preferring outside walls to be decorated with reliefs or painting, but the Ancient Greeks, followed by the Romans, loved to use them on the outside as well, and the extensive use of columns on the interior and exterior of buildings is one of the most characteristic features of classical architecture, in buildings like the Parthenon. The Greeks developed the classical orders of architecture, which are most easily distinguished by the form of the column and its various elements. Their Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders were expanded by the Romans to include the Tuscan and Composite orders.

• 
  Minoan columns at the West Bastion of the Palace of Knossos
• 
  Illustration of the end of a Mycenaean column, from the Tomb of Agamemnon
• 
  Illustration of the Tuscan order
• 
  Illustration of the Doric order
• 
  Illustration of the Ionic order
• 
  Evolution of the Corinthian order
• 
  Illustration of the Composite order
• 
  Praying Woman between two ionic columns, 2nd century, marble, in the Louvre

Persian

Plan, front view and side view of a typical Persepolis column, of Persia (Iran)

Some of the most elaborate columns in the ancient world were those of the Persians, especially the massive stone columns erected in Persepolis. They included double-bull structures in their capitals. The Hall of Hundred Columns at Persepolis, measuring 70 × 70 metres, was built by the Achaemenid king