Shell

Also called shells, thin shell, shell structure

A thin curved slab, usually of concrete, that carries load by forces within its own surface rather than by bending; it can span far with very little thickness.

Rules that use the word

The pyramid is a platform for a temple. Treat the stepped pyramid as a platform whose purpose is to lift a small temple towards the sky, reached by a single steep stair on its principal face; enlarge it by building a new shell over the old.

A ring of windows at the foot of the dome. Pierce the base of the dome with a close ring of windows between buttressing ribs, so that the shell seems to float on light rather than to rest on the arches.

The onion dome on a tall drum. Lift each dome on a tall drum and give it a bulbous outer shell that swells beyond the drum and draws up to a point under the cross; build the shell as a light timber frame sheathed in metal over the structural vault below.

Strength from form. A thin curved shell carries load by the membrane forces in its surface, not by bending; so shape it to its loads and supports, and it can span great distances with a thickness of a few centimetres.

The villa garden: porticoes, grottoes, evergreens in rows. Give the villa garden porticoes for sun and for shade, grottoes made in imitation of nature with tufa and shells, evergreens planted in straight rows at equal distances, and hedges of box; set vines on columns over the walks.

The double dome. Build two domes, one above the other: an inner shell proportioned to the room below and an outer shell raised on a tall drum and proportioned to the city outside.

Where it appears in the book

In the chapters Walls and Openings, Vaults, Domes, The Roof, Frame and Skin, Byzantium and the Early Church, The Islamic World, Renaissance and Baroque.

A feature of Persian Islamic (Seljuk, Timurid and Safavid), Italian Renaissance garden, Rococo architecture.

Nearby in the glossary

Shakkei · Shaku · Shala · Shatyor · Shengqi · Shikhara · Shinbashira · Shingle