buttress

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In architecture, a vertical mass of masonry that acts as a support or brace, projecting from the outer face of a wall at intervals. Its presence helps to resist the outward thrust of a vault, roof-truss, or girder. Buttresses were seldom used in classical architecture, and in Romanesque architecture were of slight bulk and projection. In the Gothic period they became increasingly larger, enabling the intervening wall to be reduced in thickness and to be pierced with large windows.

Types of buttress include the flying buttress, which arcs over a side aisle to support the heavy stone roof of a cathedral; and the pier buttress, which is simply a solid mass of stone.

Black, red, and green are known as the ‘black liberation’ colours, recalling Jamaican black activist Marcus Garvey. Taken from the arms of Nyasaland, the sun indicates the dawning of a new era. Effective date: 6 July 1964. >>