POST AND LINTEL
CONTENT
•
What it is?
•
Evolution across the history
•
How does a post and lintel structure work ?
•
Materials
•
Conclusion
POST AND LINTEL
What is it ?
A system in which two upright
members, the posts, hold up the beams
which are laid horizontally across their
top surfaces.
The exposed logs form a structural
frame and the lintel must bear loads
that rest on it as well as its own load
without deforming or breaking.
Two vertical posts on either side of
a lintel hold up the beam and
everything above the opening. This is a
strong support when the structure is
level and gravity pulls down evenly on
the structure. The weight of the wall
above the lintel is the load
POST AND LINTEL
Post
It is a vertical support structure.
The posts must support the lintel and
its loads without crushing or buckling.
Post material must be especially
strong in compression
Lintel
A lintel is a horizontal structural
component, supported at each end by
a post. Lintels are commonly seen
above windows and doors in older
houses,
supporting
the bricks or stone above the opening.
POST AND LINTEL
EVOLUTION ACROSS
THE HISTORY
POST AND LINTEL
Stone Age
Basic post and lintel
construction, but gigantic in
size
of
construction
members. The sides are
vertical slabs of stone,
capped with horizontals.
Stonehenge
POST AND LINTEL
Sumerian Civilization.
Post and lintel were use as the
first structural system , the wall
that the lintel supported was
constructed with bricks.
Sumerians were the ones that
created the first building
supported with a post and lintel
and with brick walls.
POST AND LINTEL
Egiptians
Karnak, Egipt
POST AND LINTEL
Greeks
Post and lintel, it was the
first way to support the roofs
of temples and buildings. I
consist
on
two
posts
supporting a lintel with
nothing in between.
Parthenon was the maximum
width that the number of pillars could
support without collapsing, or else
they’d have to put more pillars inside.
POST AND LINTEL
Romans
Romans
brought
the
concept of post and lintels to a new level
with
the
creation
of
the
arch,
which could support more weight than
the structures of the Greeks and
provided greater stability to their buildings.
Also
they
introduce
buttresses to the structure to
hold up massive cathedral
walls.
POST AND LINTEL
Moderns Uses
Now the wall is an
important complement of the
post and lintel work, because
it adds more support for the
construction and also hides
the post and lintel design
within the framework.
Also post and lintels are
found in the construction of
bridges, complex archways
and pergolas.
POST AND LINTEL
How does this structure work?
When post and lintel are
use as the main structural
system, we have to know that
the horizontal member, the lintel
is the one that supports the
bigger load. It could be a
practical decision the use of this
system when we do not have big
loads to support.
Philip Johnson, Glass House
For example The Glass House
designed by Philip Johnson, with
a very thin roof and small loads.
Post and lintel were born since
the beginning of Stone Age and
they are an appropriate answer
to
solve
small
structural
problems.
POST AND LINTEL
Materials
Stone
Concrete
Metal
Wood
POST AND LINTEL
CONCLUSION
The post and lintel were not fundamentally altered
until the production of iron columns, which were
stronger and smaller, reducing the weight of buildings.
Much modern construction in steel and
concrete is based on the post-and-lintel system,
restoring the formal simplicity of the oldest structures
to modern architecture.
POST AND LINTEL
Bibliographic sources:

Lacoma, T., Advantages of Post & Lintel Construction, available in
http://www.ehow.com/about_5066026_advantages-post-lintelconstruction.html

Payne, A., Art History Lesson 1 - Greek Art, available in
http://www.compuhigh.com/demo/arthistles01.htm

Wikipedia,
Post
and
lintel,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_and_lintel

Kolossal'noy Istoriey Rima, El muro románico y los contrafuertes,
available
in
http://kolossalnoy-istorieyrima.blogspot.com/2010/02/el-muro-romanico-y-loscontrafuertes.html
available
in