Coffering is a decorative and structural ceiling technique in which a series of recessed square, rectangular, or polygonal panels, coffers, are set into a ceiling or vault in a regular grid, reducing the weight of the structure above while creating a pattern of shadow and relief that can be further enriched with molding, rosettes, or paint. Used since antiquity, most famously in the coffered concrete dome of the Roman Pantheon, and carried into the coffered ceilings of Renaissance and later classical and neoclassical buildings, coffering remains a recurring device wherever a large flat or domed ceiling needs both weight reduction and decorative articulation.
FAQs
Why does the Pantheon's dome have a coffered ceiling?
The sunken panels lighten the dome's weight while the surrounding grid keeps it strong, as in the Pantheon (about 126 AD).
The sunken panels reduce the amount of material, and so the weight, that the dome's concrete has to carry, while the raised grid left between them keeps the structure strong; the Pantheon in Rome, completed around 126 AD, is the best-known ancient example of this design, letting the panels lighten the load without weakening the frame. Coffering was long assumed to be mainly a stone-and-concrete technique until archaeologists reported in 2012 that wooden coffered ceilings existed in Roman buildings too, contradicting a long-held belief that wooden coffering began with Renaissance-era chateaux in France's Loire Valley.
Connections
Associated With
Coffering and corbelling are both masonry techniques used to reduce structural weight while adding decorative articulation.
Pantheon, Works The Pantheon's dome is built with a celebrated coffered ceiling.
Sources
Coffer (Wikipedia)
Lead sectionQuote, Lead section
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.
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