detail would occupy the pages of a separate work, and which, indeed, from its nature, could not be exhausted. We trust, however, enough has been given to conduct the student on the way to a right understanding of this part of the laws of composition.

SECT. V.

SUBDIVISIONS AND APARTMENTS OF BUILDINGS AND THEIR POINTS OF SUPPORT.

2848. The subdivisions, apartments, or portions whereof a building consists are almost as many as the elements that separately compose them: they may be ranked as porticoes, All these porches, vestibules, staircases, halls, galleries, salons, chambers, courts, &c. &c. are but spaces enclosed with walls, open or covered, but mostly the latter, as the case may require. When covered, the object is accomplished by vaults, floors, terraces, or roofs. In some of them, columns are employed to relieve the bearing of the parts above, or to diminish the thrust of the vaulting. The horizontal forms of these apartments - a general name by which we shall designate them, be their application what it may -are usually squares, parallelograms, polygons, circles, semicircles, &c.; their size, of course, varying with the service whereto they are applied. Some will require only one, two, or three interaxal divisions; others, five, seven, or more. It is only these last in which columns become useful; and to such only, therefore, the system is usefully applied. The parts whereof we speak may belong to either public or private buildings: the former are generally confined to a single story, and are covered by vaults of equal or different spans; the latter have usually several stories, and are almost invariably covered with roofs or flats.

2849. When columns are introduced into any edifice to diminish the action of the vaults and increase the resistance to their thrust, the choice of the species of vault must be well considered. If, for example, the vault of a square apartment (fig. 1019.) of five interaxal

Fig. 1019.

Fig. 1020.

Fig. 1021.

divisions be covered with a quadrangular dome, or, in other words, a quadrantal cove, mitred at each angle, twelve columns would be required for its support. If the vault were cylindrical (fig. 1020.) eight columns only would be necessary; but if the form of the covering be changed to the groined arch (fig. 1021.), four columns only will be required. Supposing a room of similar form on the plan contained seven interaxal divisions each way, twenty columns must be employed for the coved vault, twelve columns for that whose covering was semi-cylindrical, and still but four for the groined vault. It is obvious, therefore, keeping economy in mind, that the consideration and well weighing of this matter is most important, inasmuch as under ordinary circumstances we find it possible to make four columns perform the office of twelve and even twenty. Here, again, we have proof of the value of the interaxal system, whose combinations, as we have in the previous section observed, are infinite. But the importance of the subject becomes still more interesting when we find that economy is inseparable from that arrangement whose adoption insures stability and symmetry of the parts. These are considerations whereof it is the duty of the architect who values his reputation and character never to lose sight. If honour guide him not, the commission wherewith he is intrusted had better have been handed over to the mere builder, - we mean the respectable builder, who will honestly do his best for his employer. 2850. What occurs in square apartments occurs equally in those that are oblong, for the first or square is but the element of the last. If it happen that from the interaxal divisions contained in the length of an oblong or parallelogram, the subdivisions will not allow of three bays of groins, it does not follow that the arrangement must be defective, for one may be obtained in the middle bay. In subdivisions of width, allowing five interaxes, at least four columns would be saved, and in those of seven interaxes eight columns might be dispensed with. (See fig. 1022.)

2851. When the subdivisions on the plan, supposing it not square, take in five interaxes which in the longitudinal extent of the apartment include several bays of groins, whose number must always be odd, one column is sufficient to receive each springing of the arch, but in those of seven interaxal divisions two columns will be necessary. (See fig. 1023, A.) 2852. If the vaulting be on a large scale, its weight and thrust are necessarily increased,

and the columns may be changed into pilasters connected with the main walls, as in fig. 1024., or as II in the preceding figure.

2853. The height of the apartment from the floor to the springing of the arches will be found three interaxes in apartments whose horizontal combination is of five interaxes, and four and a half for the height to springing of such as are of seven interaxal divisions on the plan. Where the combinations are different in the adjoining apartments the heights just mentioned afford the facility of lighting the larger one above the crown of the lower one, as at B in fig. 1023.

2854. Sometimes the springing is from the walls themselves, as at C, fig. 1023., instead of from the columns as at L. The first of these arrangements should be permitted only when en suite with the apartment there is another, D, wherein the springings are from columns. When the apartment is the last of the suit, the springings must be from piers or columns, one interaxis at least from the wall. If all these matters are well understood, as also the sections upon the orders, and upon the different elementary parts of a building, a graphic combination has been established by which we shall be much aided in the composition or design of all sorts of buildings, and enabled, with little trouble, and in a much shorter period of time than by any other process, to design easily and intelligently. To do more distinguishes the man of genius from the man who can be taught only up to a certain point.

SECT. VI.

COMBINATION OF THE PARTS IN LEADING FORMS.

2855. Having shown the mode whereby the parts of a building are horizontally and vertically combined in the several apartments, which may be considered the grammar of composition, we shall now show its application in the leading forms or great divisions of the plan. Keeping in mind the advantage, upon which we have before touched, of arranging the walls of buildings as much as possible in straight lines, we should also equally endeavour to dispose the principal apartments on the same axes in each direction. Upon first thoughts the student may think that a want of variety will result from such arrangement, but upon proper reflection he will in this respect be soon undeceived. The combinations that may be made of the different principal axes are, as above stated, numberless, that is, of those axes whereon the parts may be advantageously placed so as to suit the various purposes to which the building is destined, paying also due regard to the nature of the ground whereon the

2856. Let us, for example, take a few only of the combinations which may be formed from the simple square, as in the first sixteen diagrams of fig. 1025., by dividing it in both directions into two, three, and four parts. The thick lines of the diagrams may be considered as representing either walls or suits of apartments, in which latter case the open spaces between them become courts. In reference also to the vertical combinations connected with the dispositions in question, some parts of them may consist of one, other parts of two and three stories, as well for additional accommodation of the whole building to its purpose as for producing variety of outline in the elevation. If, as in some of the diagrams, we omit some of the axes used for the division, such omissions produce a new series of subdivi sions almost to infinity. By this method large edifices may be most advantageously designed; it enables us to apply to the different leading axes the combinations suitable to the destination of the building. Considered however as merely an exercise for the student, the use of it is so valuable that we do not believe any other can be so beneficially employed by those masters who profess to teach the art. We have not gone into the subdivisions of the circle in detail, contenting ourselves with the two most obvious dispositions. These are susceptible of as great variety as the square, observing however that the leading axes must be concentric.

Fig. 1025.

2857. Following up the method just proposed, let us imagine a design consisting of a certain number of similar and dissimilar parts placed in certain relations to each other. Now, having fixed clearly in our mind the relative situations of the several parts and the mode by which they are connected with each other, we shall have a distinct perception of the work as a whole. We may abbreviate the expression of a design by a few marks, as in fig. 1026., wherein the crosses represent square apartments, and the simple lines are the expressions of parallelograms, whose relative lengths may be expressed by the lengths of the lines. The next step might be to expand these abbreviations into the form given in fig. 1027., on which we may indicate by curves and St. Andrew's crosses, as dotted in the diagram, the way in which the several apartments are to be covered.

B

+

+

Fig. 1026.

Fig. 1027.

2858. We may now proceed with the design; but first it will be well to consider one of the apartments, for which let one of + the angles B be taken (see fig. 1027. and 1028.). Suppose it, for instance, to be five or any other number of interaxal parts square. This, then, will be the width of the apartments whose forms are that of a parallelogram; and inasmuch as in this apartment the diameter of the vault will be diminished by two interaxes, which results from the use of the four angular columns, the groined vault will be of the width of three interaxes, and the same arrangement will govern the rest of the apartments. In the centre an open court is attendant on the disposition, as indicated by the diagram. The section which is the result of the combination, subject however to other regulation in the detail, is given under the plan of the figure, and the elevation above it entirely depends upon, and is regulated by, the joint combination of the plan and section. The example is given in the most general way, and with the desire of initiating the student in the theory of his art. The building here instanced might serve some public purpose, such as a gallery for the reception of painting or sculpture, or at least give the hint for one; but our object is not to be misunderstood, we seek only to give the tyro an insight into the principles of composition. 2859. It is not our intention to enter further on the variety which follows the method of designing, of which the foregoing are only intended as hints; but we cannot leave the subject without submitting another example for the study of the reader. Our desire is that of establishing general principles, whereof fig. 1029. is a more complete illustration than those that have preceded it. The abbreviated form of the horizontal disposition is shown at A, and in B it is further extended, and will be found to be very similar to that of No. 15. in fig. 1025. In the example the interaxal divisions are not drawn through the

plan, but it will be immediately seen that the space allotted to the whole width of the apartments is three in number. In the centre a circular apartment is introduced and covered with a dome, which might have been raised, in the vertical combination, another story, and thus have added more majesty to the elevation. And here we repeat, that in

designing buildings of more than one story, (for it cannot be too often impressed on the mind of the student,) the combination of the vertical with the horizontal distribution will suggest an infinite variety of features, which the artist may mould to his fancy, although it must be so restrained as to make it subservient to the rules upon which fitness depends.

2860. We close the chapter, not without regret, (because the subject is pleasant to us, but a treatise would not fully carry out the principles inculcated,) with an example from Durand in perspective. The general plan, A, fig. 1030., will be found similar to No. 11. in fig. 1025., and the distribution may be a good practice for the student to develope. It is an excellent example for exhibiting of what plastic nature are the buildings which the vertical combinations will admit as based on those which are horizontal.

CHAP. III.

PUBLIC BUILDINGS.

SECT. I.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDINGS.

2861. THIS chapter will be devoted to such remarks on public and private buildings as may be necessary to guide the architect in their general composition. To enter into a detail of each would be impossible, neither indeed could it be useful, for there are rarely two buildings destined to the same purpose which could be erected exactly similar. More or less accommodation may be required in one than another. The site may not be suitable for the reception of similar buildings. A city will require very different buildings as to magnitude from those necessary for a town, besides many other considerations which will immediately occur to the reader.

2862. In designing public and private buildings the first object of the architect is to make himself acquainted with the uses for which the building is destined, and the consequent suitableness of the design for its purpose. He must enter into the spirit which ought to pervade the building, examining and adjusting with care those qualities which are most essential to the end proposed. Thus, though solidity be an essential in all buildings, it is more especially to be attended to in lighthouses, bridges, and the like. In hospitals, not only must the site be healthy, but the interior must be kept wholesome by ventilation and other means. In private houses almost everything should be sacrificed to the convenience and comfort of the proprietor. Security is an essential in the design and construction of prisons. Cleanliness in markets and public slaughter-houses, which we hope will, on every account, be ultimately established in suburbs, and not in the heart of every great town of the empire. Stillness and tranquillity should be provided for in places of study; cheerfulness and gaity must be the feelings with which the architect arranges places of public amusement. The next step will be to consider whether the building should consist of a single mass, and whether it will be necessary that the whole should be solid, or whether it should open interiorly on one or more courts or quadrangles; whether the different solid parts should communicate with or be separate from each other. He must also consider whether the building will abut immediately on the public way, or be placed away from it in an enclosure; whether, moreover, all the solid parts should or should not have the same number of stories.

2863. From the whole the architect must pass to the different parts or divisions, determining which of them should be principal and which subordinate; which should be near and which distant from each other, and consequently their relative places and dimensions; how they should be covered, whether by vaulting or flooring; if the former, what species of vault should be selected, and whether the bearing of the timbers or the extent of the vault will require the aid of intermediate columns. Under these considerations, the sketch being made, the interaxal divisions of each apartment set out and written thereon, the architect may add them together, and thus ascertain the whole number of interaxal divisions, so that he may see that they can be contained on the given site. This done, he should take care that none of the interaxes are too wide or too narrow compared with the scale. Should that be the case, the number of interaxal divisions must be increased or diminished accordingly, either throughout or in those parts wherein the arrangement is defective. 2864. As the number of interaxes is greater or less in the apartments, so we may now determine the order to be used below the springing of the arches. On a sketch thus