Fluting (architecture)

Fluting in architecture consists of shallow grooves running along a surface. The term typically refers to the grooves (flutes) running vertically on a column shaft or a pilaster, but need not necessarily be restricted to those two applications. If the hollowing out of material meets in a point, the point (sharp ridge) is called an arris. If the raised ridge between two flutes is blunt, the ridge is a . Fluting promotes a play of light on a column which helps the column appear more perfectly round than a smooth column. As a strong vertical element it also has the visual effect of minimizing any horizontal joints. Greek architects viewed rhythm as an important design element. As such, fluting was often used on buildings and temples to increase the sense of rhythm. It may also be incorporated in columns to make them look thinner, lighter, and more elegant. There is debate as to whether fluting was originally used in imitation of ancient woodworking practices, mimicking adze marks on wooden columns made from tree trunks, or whether it was designed to imitate plant forms. Either way, it was not invented by the Greeks of the classical period who popularized it, but rather passed down or learned from the Mycenaeans or the Egyptians. Fluted columns styled under the Doric order of architecture have 20 flutes. Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite columns traditionally have 24. Fluting is never used on Tuscan order columns. Fluting is always applied exclusively to the shaft of the column, and may run either the entire shaft length from the base to the capital, or only on the upper two thirds of the column shaft. The latter application is used to complement the entasis of the column, which begins one third of the way up from the bottom of the shaft. Fluting might be applied to freestanding, structural columns, as well as engaged columns and decorative pilasters. If the flutes (hollowed-out grooves) are partly re-filled with moulding, this form of decorated fluting is cabled fluting, ribbed fluting, rudenture, stopped fluting or stop-fluting.