A roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather and the invasion of animals. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous.
In most countries a roof protects primarily against rain. In Persia the citizens used their roofs for milling wheat,farming,gardens and extra space. Depending upon the nature of the building, the roof may also protect against heat, sunlight, cold, snow and wind. Other types of structure, for example, a garden conservatory, might use roofing that protects against cold, wind and rain but admits light. A verandah may be roofed with material that protects against sunlight but admits the other elements.
The characteristics of a roof are dependent upon the purpose of the building that it covers, the available roofing materials and the local traditions of construction and wider concepts of architectural design and practice and may also be governed by local or national legislation.
Read more about Roof: Design Elements, Form of A Roof, Parts of A Roof, Gallery of Significant Roofs
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Famous quotes containing the word roof:
“Come into animal presence.
No man is so guileless as
the serpent. The lonely white
rabbit on the roof is a star
twitching its ears at the rain.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“A tempest cracked on the theatre. Quickly,
The wind beat in the roof and half the walls.
The ruin stood still in an external world.
It had been real. It was something overseas
That I remembered, something that I remembered
Overseas, that stood in an external world.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The current flows fast and furious. It issues in a spate of words from the loudspeakers and the politicians. Every day they tell us that we are a free people fighting to defend freedom. That is the current that has whirled the young airman up into the sky and keeps him circulating there among the clouds. Down here, with a roof to cover us and a gasmask handy, it is our business to puncture gasbags and discover the seeds of truth.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)