A ceiling is the overhead surface or surfaces over a room, and the underside of a floor or a roof. Ceilings are mostly utilized to cover floor and roof construction. They have been favourite areas for decoration from the earliest periods: either by painting the plain surface, in emphasizing the structural members of roof or floor, or in commandeering it as a field for an allover pattern of relief.

Not much is understood of ancient Greek ceilings, but Roman ceilings were intricate with relief as well as painting, as is seen within the vault soffits of Pompeian baths. During the Gothic period, the common theme was to employ structural areas decoratively then came to the creation of the beamed ceiling, for which sizeable cross-girders support smaller floor beams at right angles to them, beams and girders being thickly chamfered and molded and often painted in decorative colours.

In the Renaissance, ceiling design was moved to its highest pitch of uniqueness and difference. Three types were further elaborated. The first was the coffered ceiling, in the complex design of which the Italian Renaissance architects far outdid their Roman prototypes. Circular, square, octagonal, and L-shaped coffers were created, with their edges intricately carved and the field of each coffer decorated with a rosette. The second type consisted of ceilings fully or partially vaulted, often with arched intersections, with painted bands bringing out the architectural design and with pictures filling the remainder of the space. The loggia of the Farnesina villa in Rome, decorated by Raphael and Giulio Romano, is a good demonstration of this. In the Baroque period, wondrous figures in heavy relief, scrolls, cartouches, and garlands were also used to decorate ceilings of this type. The Pitti Palace in Florence and many French ceilings in the Louis XIV style show this. In the third sort, which was notably characteristic of Venice, the ceiling became a single framed painting, like in the Doges’ Palace.

In modern architecture ceilings often are split into two major kinds — the suspended (or hung) ceiling and the exposed ceiling. With ceilings hung at a distance below the structural members, some architects have sought to conceal large amounts of mechanical and electrical equipment, such as electrical conduits, air-conditioning ducts, water pipes, sewage lines, and lighting fixtures. Most suspended ceilings feature a lightweight metal grid suspended from the structure by wires or rods to hold plasterboard sheets or acoustical tiles.

Other architects, featuring the aesthetic of the exposed structural system, take enjoyment in showing the mechanical and electrical equipment. From this design, some structural systems have been put in place that have a deliberately expressive power in themselves and become desirable ceilings.

For ceiling cleaning Brisbane contact Toxicvac today. We will clean ceilings and clean roofspaces to remove rubbish, old insulation and dirt.

Sphere: Related Content