Architectural Columns - Interior and Exterior

Since the birth of architectural columns, they have been used for two main purposes, structural and decorative. Although the Egyptians had been using structural columns for hundreds of years, around 600 BC the Greeks adapted a style of fluted column all their own. The Doric order, the first of the three main Greek orders, was born and utilized in many different Greek temples. As time progressed and the Greeks and Romans began to use columns on a consistent basis, several different style of columns emerged and were perfected, acquiring strict structure and guidelines to make a column architecturally correct.

According to several Italian architects, including Vignola, an architectural column must have certain features in order to be classified as architecturally correct. One of the first and most important rules that must be followed when designing or constructing a column is that it must follow one of the five original architectural orders or classifications (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, Composite).

These standards were set to provide architectural columns with the most aesthetically pleasing appearance possible. The other major guideline that must be followed is that each structural or decorative column must have an architectural entasis.

Historically, architectural columns have been given an entasis even from the very beginning of Greek and Roman use. An entasis is given to provide an architectural column with a uniform look, causing the column to appear as though it is straight, or the same diameter from the bottom to the top of the column, when in fact, an entasis causes the column to have a larger diameter at the base, and taper to a slightly smaller diameter towards the top of the shaft.

When a column has these features, it can now be classified as a true architectural column. Common use today is to place a post as a structural support and call it a column, but if you do a little research, architectural columns are designed to follow strict guidelines in order to make them architecturally correct, and aesthetically appealing.

Columns were originally designed with two purposes, to provide structural support and to be pleasing to the eye. Today, columns are still used for these two main purposes, being utilized in buildings ranging from the Capitol building, to common homeowner’s houses. If you are in search of a structural support for your project, make sure that the columns are being used in an architecturally correct fashion, providing you with a visually appealing column unmatched by any other.