Glossary · O
Oval
Also called oval plan
In architecture, an elongated closed curve used for plans and domes, usually built from four or more circular arcs rather than a true ellipse; the characteristic plan of Baroque churches.
Rules that use the word
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.
The piazza as open arms. Before the mother church lay out an oval piazza enclosed by free-standing colonnades four columns deep, so that the church seems to embrace the faithful; set an obelisk at the centre and a fountain on each side along the cross axis, and join the oval to the church front by straight corridors.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters Stairs, Renaissance and Baroque, Gardens and Landscape.
Nearby in the glossary
Order · Organic architecture · Oriel · Orthostat · Ovolo · Pada · Pagoda · Paifang