Axis

Rules that use the word

Set the monument on the solstice axis. Orient the principal axis of the monument on the rising or setting of the sun at a solstice, so that the architecture frames it.

Along the axis: floors rise, roofs fall, light fades. Arrange the temple on a single axis (pylon, open court, hypostyle hall, sanctuary) so that at each threshold the floor rises, the roof descends and the light diminishes, until the god’s shrine is reached in darkness.

The oval plan. To combine the unity of a central plan with the direction a church needs, plan the space as an oval, set across the axis to widen the view of the altar, or along it to lead the eye towards it.

From the atrium to the apse. Order the church as a single path: a colonnaded atrium, a narthex, the long nave drawn toward the altar, and the apse framed by a triumphal arch at the end of the axis.

An odd number of bays. Give a hall an odd number of bays across the front (three, five, seven, nine or eleven) so that the central axis passes through a bay and a doorway, never through a column.

Terraces on the axis of the villa. On a hillside, cut the garden into level terraces held by retaining walls, join them by stairs and ramps on a single axis that runs from the house, and lead water down the axis from level to level.

Where it appears in the book

In the chapters What Is Architecture?, Post and Lintel, The Arch, Vaults, Domes, The Doric Order, Columns in Company, The Temple.

A feature of Chinese, Persian and Mughal garden, Early Islamic (Umayyad and Abbasid), Italian Renaissance garden, French formal garden, Deconstructivism architecture.

Nearby in the glossary

Attic · Attic base · Attractor · Avlu · Baluster · Balustrade · Baptistery · Bar tracery