# Why Would An Architect Do This?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 22, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547 "2012-03-22T22:16:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/1 "2012-03-22T22:16:08Z")
(Design columns with a larger diameter at the top)?
At the (restored) royal palace of Knossos (Crete), the columns supporting the roof have larger diameters at the top.
> **[Knossos, the Minoan Frescoes](https://www.explorecrete.com/Knossos/05_Knossos_Minoan_Frescoes.html)**
>
> The room with the Minoan frescoes in Knossos contains copies of the Minoan frescoes
What was the reasoning behind this?
The Greek temples had columns that were not cylinder-they taper inwards from the base to the top (this was done to prevent the appearence of bending.
But why design columns the way there were at Knossos?
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### Author:  [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/2 "2012-03-22T22:18:49Z")
I can’t see anything about what you’re describing on that page.
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### Author:  [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2012, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/3 "2012-03-22T22:36:02Z")
Since this is in IMHO, I’ll offer some opinions.
–Inverted columns could offer better visibility. A pure stone building without a domed roof uses a lot of pillars for support. The narrower the columns at eye level, the less the view is obscured.
–Inverted columns makes for shorter spans up top, as the pillars are widest where they meet the ceiling supports.
–Artists and architects just get a kick out of doing something different if they get a chance.
And just for the heck of it, here’s Frank Wright’s Johnson Wax office building, with many [mushroom shaped pillars](http://modernproperty.typepad.com/.a/6a00e008dc0b5188340133edbb5ebd970b-pi).
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/4 "2012-03-23T01:44:28Z")
Those “mushrooms” are catch basins for the roof leaks. I kid, but only a bit. For all of his design skills, Mr. Wright just could never seem to design water-tight roofs. His Marin Civic Center was notorious for leaking, and Fallingwater was aptly named as well. (it’s also been nicknamed Risingmildew)
As for the OP’s question, what little I can see in the linked pic, is that they’re “cigar” columns - a fairly uncommon variant on the classic Roman style.
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/5 "2012-03-23T01:54:14Z")
It’s such a tiny pic, I thought it was an ad at first. It looks like the columns are perfectly cylindrical but there’s more decorative finishing at the top than at the bottom. Sort of like crown molding.
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### Author:  [@Hakuna\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hakuna_Matata)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/6 "2012-03-23T02:38:40Z")
better picture of the Minoan column
[ ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Knossos_-_09.jpg)
Why not? Sometimes doing something a little different is fine.
In Architecture not everything has or needs a reason, sometimes you do something because you like it.
I don’t believe there has been any conclusive determination but some historians believe it serves as a religious symbol in some contexts but it has been awhle since I took any Greek history class.
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### Author:  [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/7 "2012-03-23T08:45:41Z")
> [@Hakuna\_Matata](#):
>
> better picture of the Minoan column
>
> [File:Knossos - 09.jpg - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Knossos_-_09.jpg)
Those bear some resemblance to modern [bridge](http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/145756/145756,1207679594,1/stock-photo-underside-of-curved-concrete-bridge-support-against-blue-sky-11298100.jpg) [supports](http://theinfrastructureshow.com/images/28.jpg).
That last photo is the new I-35W Mississippi River bridge that replaced the one that collapsed five years ago, so I would hope that it went up using state of the art structural engineering concepts.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/8 "2012-03-23T09:09:40Z")
I’ve heard it’s because they were taking perspective into account: they knew that a cylindrical column looks thinner on top, so they made them troncoconical in order to make them appear more “the same size all over” when looked at by someone very close to their feet; more homogeneous = more harmonious.
IOW, “it looked better”.
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### Author:  [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/9 "2012-03-23T12:26:44Z")
WAG: something to do with earthquake-proofing
another WAG: “I don’t want them looking like tree trunks. Do we have to do _everything_ the same as the Egyptians?”
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### Author:  [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/10 "2012-03-23T12:46:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The Minoan Columns were made out of cypress tree trunks. They placed them upside down in order to prevent sprouting of the tree.
From [this site](http://heraklion.pictures-crete.com/column). Of course, the columns look like adobe to me–Arthur Evans remodeled the heck out of Knossos. But I could see non-wood columns made that way so they’d look like the original cypress ones…
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/11 "2012-03-23T15:56:27Z")
the op asks the right question, but about the wrong profession.
He should have asked “why would an **engineer** do this”, not an architect.
(the link in the OP leads to a tourist page, not a pic of architectural columns.But the link in post number 7 shows a fine example of a well-engineered column)
And the engineering is simple: the wide plate on top of the column supports the weight of the roof over a wider surface area.The column itself is too narrow.
To understand the concept, imagine a silly , extreme example:
Suppose the columns were as thin as toothpicks.They would poke through the roof, not support its weight.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/12 "2012-03-23T16:23:04Z")
**chappachula** , sorry but that’s wrong. The plates support the ceiling but the tops of the columns support the ceiling plus the plates and the narrower bottoms of the columns support the columns plus the plates plus the ceiling.
In the end the weakest point is the one that supports the greatest pressure (weight/surface), whether that happens to be at the top or the bottom. The setup here has columns whose bottom support greater pressure than if the exact same columns had been set with the wider part at the bottom.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/13 "2012-03-23T16:34:07Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> **chappachula** , sorry but that’s wrong. .
oops..I was referring to the square plates on top of the columns. But I see that the OP is asking more about the tapering of the column itself.
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### Author:  [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-an-architect-do-this/616547/14 "2012-03-23T18:40:39Z")
> [@Nava](#):
>
> I’ve heard it’s because they were taking perspective into account: they knew that a cylindrical column looks thinner on top, so they made them troncoconical in order to make them appear more “the same size all over” when looked at by someone very close to their feet; more homogeneous = more harmonious.
>
> IOW, “it looked better”.
This is why. Straight columns appear to taper. Tapered columns, therefore, appear to be straight. It just looks better.