Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5.1
Hinged, pivoting and sliding
pedestrian doors
strength were required, a
clapboarded door leaf might be
studded with metal. By the late
eighteenth century some of the finest
entrance doors were framed up to
double square proportions, in painted
wood. Wood held sway until the
Industrial Revolution, when metal
frames became practicable. Glazed
doors are for the most part a feature
of the twentieth century.
practically all-glass door (Figure 5.3)
Hinging was not always appropriate
for these designs, and pivots were
introduced, sometimes incorporating
hydraulically
operated closers.
Attempts to reduce the
infiltration of wind and rain through
open doors led to the revolving
doorset, smaller ones hand operated
(Figure 5.4), but larger versions
power operated.
Power operation devices for
hinged or sliding doors are of two
kinds, either fully automatic, where
an electronic sensor detects the
presence of a person, and operates the
door, or where the pedestrian's initial
contact with the door is sensed before
the mechanism assists. Mechanisms
should not operate too quickly, for
Characteristic details
Basic structure
Leaves of timber hinged to frames
of timber have were the basic
construction for the majority of
domestic doors, and for many non-
domestic doors, until the second half
of the twentieth century; indeed, a
considerable number of timber doors
have survived from the sixteenth
century, particularly in ecclesiastical
buildings.
Framed and panelled main
entrance doors, depending on their
height and width, might be of six,
eight, ten or twelve panels. Stiles,
rails and muntins might be ogee
moulded, or just chamfered, with
panels sometimes flush and
sometimes raised. In any event, the
panels would normally be made up
with the door, and not beaded in,
glazing fashion. The fashion in rail,
muntin and moulding sections
changed over the years, sometimes
narrow, and sometimes broad.
It is only during the twentieth
century that alternative materials
came into common use for both
leaves and frames, firstly steel, and
then aluminium, and now the
Figure 5.2
'Carefully designed to be in harmony with
the remainder of the detailing'
Doorways, particularly main
entrances, have, over the years,
invariably been a major element in
the architectural design of building
exteriors, and have usually been very
carefully designed to be in harmony
with the remainder of the detailing.
Frequently the doorway was meant to
impress, or even overawe, visitors,
even when the need for defence was
past. Door heads were superimposed
by ornamental or segmental
pediments signifying the status of the
owner (Figure 5.2). In Georgian
times an elegantly glazed tympanum
might fill the space between the door
head and the relieving arch over.
Door leaves too could be
elaborate. Fifteenth century framed
door leaves, for example, might be
decorated with arched or linenfold
carved panels. Where impressions of
Figure 5.3
Glass doors, Sainsbury Centre, University
of East Anglia
