Ceilings: History and Purpose

A ceiling is the overhead surface or surfaces above a room, and the underside of a floor or a roof. Ceilings are commonly utilized to cover floor and roof construction. They have been particular areas for decoration from the earliest times: either in painting the flat surface, by emphasizing the structural members of roof or floor, or in commandeering it as a surface for an overall pattern of relief.

Little is known of ancient Greek ceilings, but Roman ceilings were rich with relief and painting, as is shown in the vault soffits of Pompeian baths. In the Gothic period, the common design to utilize structural aspects decoratively then gave rise to the instigation of the beamed ceiling, for which big cross-girders support smaller floor beams at right angles to them, beams and girders being thickly chamfered and molded and often painted in beautiful colours.

During the Renaissance, ceiling design was evolved to its highest pitch of uniqueness and variety. Three types were further elaborated. The first was the coffered ceiling, in the complex design of which the Italian Renaissance architects far bettered their Roman prototypes. Circular, square, octagonal, and L-shaped coffers were popular, with their edges intricately carved and the field of each coffer flourished with a rosette. The second kind consisted of ceilings wholly or in parts vaulted, mostly with arched intersections, with painted bands bringing out the architectural design and with pictures filling the rest of the space. The loggia of the Farnesina villa in Rome, decorated by Raphael and Giulio Romano, is a good demonstration of this. In the Baroque period, mystical figures in heavy relief, scrolls, cartouches, and garlands were also brought in 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 form, which was markedly characteristic of Venice, the ceiling became one single framed painting, as in the Doges’ Palace.

In contemporary architecture ceilings often are divided into two major classes — 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 large amounts of mechanical and electrical equipment, such as electrical conduits, air-conditioning ducts, water pipes, sewage lines, and lighting fixtures. Many suspended ceilings use a lightweight metal grid suspended from the structure by wires or rods to hold up plasterboard sheets or acoustical tiles.

Other architects, desiring the aesthetic of the exposed structural system, take enjoyment in showcasing the mechanical and electrical equipment. In response to this trend, many structural systems have been developed that have a deliberate power in themselves and make for desirable ceilings.

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