Power of Domes in Architecture (original) (raw)

2014, Proceedings of ‘AEIC 2014’ Al-Azhar Engineering 13th International Conference, organized by Faculty of Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Egypt, This proceedings is an edition of the Journal of Engineering Sector of Engineering Colleges - Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

One of the powerful architectural representations is the dome. This element resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. In the age of civilizations, the form of the dome was stuck to public's minds as an iconic sign for a sacred building, but in the present time architects have built domes to achieve new purposes using new building technologies. This paper, therefore, investigates these technologies and outlines the new role of domes following a scientific methodology consisted of two parts; the first part addresses the basic definition of the dome, recognizes its historical background, and concludes the main criteria of designing a dome. The second part analyzes samples of the contemporary domes recognizing their building technologies and their design criteria. One of the important conclusions is; due to the evolution of building technology, the dome representations witnessed a radical change in structure, materiality, dimensions, illumination intensity, and meaning.