CONTENT

POST AND LINTEL

• • • • • What it is?

Evolution across the history How does a post and lintel structure work ?

Materials Conclusion

What is it ?

POST AND LINTEL

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.

a Two vertical posts on either side of 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

POST AND LINTEL

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

Stone Age

POST AND LINTEL

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.

Egiptians

POST AND LINTEL

Karnak, Egipt

Greeks

POST AND LINTEL Post and lintel, it was the first way to support the roofs of temples and buildings. I consist on two posts supporting a lintel nothing in between.

with Parthenon was the maximum width that the number of pillars could support without collapsing, or else they’d have to put more pillars inside.

Romans

POST AND LINTEL 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?

Philip Johnson

,

Glass House

use When post and lintel are 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.

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.

Materials

POST AND LINTEL

Stone Metal Concrete 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-lintel construction.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 available in  Kolossal'noy Istoriey Rima, contrafuertes.html

El muro románico y los contrafuertes

, available in http://kolossalnoy-istoriey rima.blogspot.com/2010/02/el-muro-romanico-y-los-