Top Light, Bottom Heavy

In traditional architecture it is important that buildings appear stable. It is intuitive that a pyramid is more stable than an inverted pyramid and this guideline follows the same logic. Buildings should have a heavier feeling base and then feel visually lighter as they become higher. Following are a number of ways to achieve this effect.

6a. Buildings should have a top.

Normally this is either a roof or balustrade. A roof becomes narrower at the top and therefore appears visually lighter as it becomes higher. A balustrade has spaces between the balusters giving an airy look that also appears visually lighter.

Pavillon de Flore of the Louvre Museum below, uses a large roof to visually lighten its top.

Palacio Real in Madrid below, uses a balustrade to visually lighten its top.

6b. If using finishes of differing coarseness, coarser finishes shall be placed lower and smoother finishes higher.

Traditional buildings often emphasize the structural soundness of their foundation and corners by using coarser and/or larger stone on them. The coarser the finish the more rugged, heavy, and solid the stone or render appears.

Walls shall be the same coarseness or less coarse than walls below them. Corners may use coarser stone than the wall below them. However, the corner below them shall be the same coarseness or courser.

Palazzo Gondi below, is a rather pronounced illustration of this concept.

6c. Shorter top story or dormer windows.

Though commonly used in traditional buildings, shorter top stories and/or dormer windows are optional and their use is not always required.

Similar to balustrades, dormer windows with their large spaces between them also appear airy and thus visually light. It is common to place a dormer window above every second window as this creates even larger spaces between them. However, dormer windows can also be placed above every window.

Shorter top stories use less material and have less visual mass than the full stories below them.

There is also a practical component to shorter top stories. Before elevators, top stories were the least desirable floor in the building. These were normally bedrooms or servants’ quarters. Here, high impressive ceilings were not required, therefore they were made lower for economic reasons.

Het Loo Palace below, incorporates both dormer windows and a shorter top story.

6d. For superimposed columns, wider orders go below narrower orders.

It is possible to superimpose the same order of column on different stories. It is also possible to superimpose different orders on different stories. Both options are fine. However, when superimposing different orders, wider orders shall always go  below narrower orders. For example, Tuscan shall always go below Doric, which shall always go below Ionic, which shall always go below Corinthian or Composite (for more information on the five orders see Orders and Their Dimensions).

It is perfectly acceptable to use any combination of columns, as long as the correct progression is followed. In the Chapel Saint-Louis des Invalides below, Corinthian columns are superimposed over Doric.

Giant order columns are columns that span two or more stories. Giant order columns should never be superimposed over single story columns as naturally they will be much wider and thus appear top heavy. If this arrangement is required, use large piers on the lower story, not columns.

6e. The lowest balconies on a façade should be the heaviest.

The highest balconies do not have to be the lightest; sometimes it is even nice to alternate the weight of balconies in order to establish a visual rhythm. However, the lowest balconies should always be the heaviest.

Also, for buildings with three or more stories, if only one story has balconies, it should not be the top story.

Townhouses in Utrecht below, provide an example of the lowest balconies being the heaviest.

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