Dictionary:
pi·las·ter (pĭ-lăs'tər)  |
[French pilastre, from Old French, from Old Italian pilastro, from Medieval Latin pīlaster : Latin pīla, pillar + Latin -aster, n. suff., or blend of Latin pīla, pillar, and Late Latin parastatēs, pilaster (from Greek, stay, supporter : para-, beside; see para-1 + -statēs, -stat).]
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: pilaster |
For more information on pilaster, visit Britannica.com.
| Architecture: pilaster |
1. An engaged pier or pillar, often with capital and base.
2. Decorative features that imitate engaged piers but are not supporting structures, as a rectangular or semicircular member used as a simulated pillar in entrances and other door openings and fireplace mantels; often contains a base, shaft, and capital; may be constructed as a projection of the wall itself.
| Archaeology Dictionary: pilaster |
1. Column or pillar incorporated into a wall.
2. In pottery kilns, integral short piers, buttresses, or column-like projections of varying shape, protruding from the kiln wall on the inside of the combustion chamber, and usually intended to support the raised oven floor of the kiln.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: pilaster |
| Word Tutor: pilaster |
Did the house have a simple pilaster or an ornate pilaster in the entry way?
| Wikipedia: Pilaster |
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile.
In discussing Leon Battista Alberti's use of pilasters, which Alberti reintroduced into wall-architecture, Rudolf Wittkower wrote, "The pilaster is the logical transformation of the column for the decoration of a wall. It may be defined as a flattened column which has lost its three-dimensional and tactile value."[1]
A pilaster appears with a capital[2] and entablature, also in "low-relief" or flattened against the wall.
The pilaster is an architectural element in classical architecture used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. In contrast, an engaged column or buttress can support the structure of a wall and roof above. [3]
Pilasters often appear on the sides of a door frame or window opening on the facade of a building, and are sometimes paired with columns or pillars set directly in front of them at some distance away from the wall, which support a roof structure above, such as a portico. These vertical elements can also be used to support a recessed archivolt around a doorway. The pilaster can be replaced by ornamental brackets supporting the entablature or a balcony over a doorway.
When a pilaster appears at the corner intersection of two walls it is known as a canton.[4]
As with a column, a pilaster can have a plain or fluted surface to its profile (cross section) and can be represented in the mode of any architectural style. In the giant order pilasters appear as two-storeys tall, linking floors in a single unit.
The fashion of using this element from Ancient Greek and Roman architecture was adopted in the Italian Renaissance, gained wide popularity with Greek Revival architecture, and continues to be seen in modern architecture.
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A pilaster in civil engineering is a vertical rectangular member that is structurally a pier, and architecturally a column. Pilasters are used to decrease the slenderness ratio for the height of masonry walls - L/R<120.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Pilaster |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - flad vægpille med kapitæl
Français (French)
n. - pilastre
Deutsch (German)
n. - Pilaster
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (αρχιτ.) παραστάδα, πίλαστρο
Português (Portuguese)
n. - pilastra (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - pilastra
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pilaster, väggpelare
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
半露方柱
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 半露方柱
한국어 (Korean)
n. - (벽면 밖으로 나오게 한) 벽기둥
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) عمود جداري, ركيزة للحائط, عضادة
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - עמוד (בעיקר תומך בקיר)
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved. eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pilaster". Read more |
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