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Nero introduced the dome into Roman palace architecture in the 1st century and such rooms served as state banqueting halls, audience rooms, or throne rooms. The Pantheon's dome, the largest and most famous example, was built of concrete in the 2nd century and may have served as an audience hall for Hadrian.
In developing countries, domes are often less expensive alternatives to flat or sloped-roofed construction because they use less material to enclose a given volume and provide a lower rate of heat transfer due to the reduced surface area. Domes made with loam are found in Europe, Asia, and Africa, almost always using mud-bricks or adobes.
There are examples of domed chambers in brick and stone temples built prior to Islamic rule over northern and central India. The introduction of Muslim architecture included the use of domes constructed with stone, brick and mortar, and iron dowels and cramps. Centering was made from timber and bamboo.
The Great Mosque of Córdoba contains the first known examples of the crossed-arch dome type. [159] The use of corner squinches to support domes was widespread in Islamic architecture by the 10th and 11th centuries. [144] After the ninth century, mosques in North Africa often have a small decorative dome over the mihrab.
This new style with exotic domes and richer mosaics would come to be known as "Byzantine" before it traveled west to Ravenna and Venice and as far north as Moscow. Most of the churches and basilicas have high-riding domes, which created vast open spaces at the centers of churches, thereby heightening the light.
The earliest surviving example in Islamic architecture, the Qubbat-al Sulaibiya , was an octagonal structure with a central dome on a drum built around 892 in Samarra on the Tigris. [27] The mausoleum of Ali in Najaf , built by the Hamdanid governor of Mosul before 930, had a high dome supported by columns and had entrances on all sides.
The meaning of the dome has been extensively analyzed by architectural historians. According to Nicola Camerlenghi, it may not be possible to arrive at a single "fixed meaning and universal significance" for domes across all building types and locations throughout history, since the shape, function, and context for individual buildings were determined locally, even if inspired by distant ...
TWA Flight Center, New York. Zoomorphic architecture is the practice of using animal forms as the inspirational basis and blueprint for architectural design. "While animal forms have always played a role adding some of the deepest layers of meaning in architecture, it is now becoming evident that a new strand of biomorphism is emerging where the meaning derives not from any specific ...