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
Famous quotes containing the word roof:
“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 far-off clinching and mating of arches, the leap and thrust of the stone, carrying a great roof overhead, awed and silenced her.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Nor does the man sitting by the hearth beneath his roof better escape his fated doom.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)