A ceiling is the overhead surface or surfaces covering a room, and the underside of a floor or a roof. Ceilings are widely placed to hide floor and roof construction. They have been particular places for decorating from the earliest periods: either by painting the flat surface, in bringing out the structural members of roof or floor, or in dedicating it as a field for an allover pattern of relief.

Little more than guesswork is understood of ancient Greek ceilings, but Roman ceilings were intricate with relief and painting, as is found within the vault soffits of Pompeian baths. In the Gothic period, the general design to employ structural elements decoratively then adapted to the design of the beamed ceiling, in which large cross-girders support smaller floor beams at right angles to them, beams and girders being richly chamfered and molded and generally painted in decorative colours.

In the Renaissance, ceiling design was adapted to its highest pitch of individuality and differentiation. Three options were developed. The first was the coffered ceiling, in the complex design of which the Italian Renaissance architects far emulated their Roman prototypes. Circular, square, octagonal, and L-shaped coffers were designed, with their edges intricately carved and the field of each coffer decorated with a rosette. The second form consisted of ceilings entirely or somewhat vaulted, commonly with arched intersections, with painted bands emphasizing 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 illustration of this. In the Baroque period, mystical 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 illustrate this. In the third kind, which was especially iconic of Venice, the ceiling became a huge framed picture, as in the Doges’ Palace.

In modern architecture ceilings may be split into two major varieties — the suspended (or hung) ceiling and the exposed ceiling. With ceilings hung at some distance below the structural members, some architects have decided to conceal great amounts of mechanical and electrical equipment, such as electrical conduits, air-conditioning ducts, water pipes, sewage lines, and lighting fixtures. The large part of suspended ceilings utilize a lightweight metal grid suspended from the structure by wires or rods to support plasterboard sheets or acoustical tiles.

Other architects, desiring the aesthetic of the exposed structural system, take enjoyment in exposing the mechanical and electrical equipment. From this design, some structural systems have been created that have an expressive power in themselves and make popular ceilings.

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

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