Roof lantern
A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure.
A lantern roof will generally mean just the roof of a lantern structure in the West, but has a special meaning in
The term roof top lantern is sometimes used to describe the lamps on roofs of taxis in Japan, designed to reflect the cultural heritage of Japanese paper lanterns.
History
The glazed lantern was developed during the Middle Ages, one notable medieval example being that atop the 14th-century Octagon Tower at
Post-Renaissance roof lanterns were made of timber and glass and were often prone to leaking.
Initially wood-framed in the 18th and 19th centuries, skylights became even more popular in metal construction with the advent of sheet-metal shops during the Victorian era. Virtually every urban row house of the late-19th and early-20th centuries relied upon a metal-framed skylight to illuminate its enclosed stairwell. More elaborate dwellings of the era showed a fondness for the roof lantern, in which the humble ceiling-window design of the skylight is elaborated into a miniature glass-paneled conservatory-style roof cupola or tower.[3]
Present day
Modern lanterns benefit from advances in
They serve as an architectural feature, distinguished from commercial manufactured skylights by their custom design, providing unique views to the outdoors. Roof lanterns for residential homes are usually constructed using a combination of triangular and trapezoidal segments, fitted within a
See also
- Chhatri
- Conservatory (greenhouse)
- Cupola
- Daylighting
- Passive daylighting
- Tholobate, a drum under a dome
References
- ^ Horn, Walter. "Romanesque Churches in Florence: A Study in Their Chronology and Stylistic Development". The Art Bulletin. Vol. 25, No. 2 (Jun., 1943), pp. 112-131.
- ISBN 0140561021
- ^ "Skylights & Roof Lanterns". Archived from the original on 2008-10-19.
- ^ "Roof Lanterns, Pyramid & Octagonal". Duplus. Retrieved 2021-01-20.