A conical roof or cone roof is a cone-shaped roof that is circular at its base and terminates in a point.
Distribution
Conical roofs are frequently found on top of towers in medieval town fortifications and castles, where they may either sit directly on the outer wall of the tower (sometimes projecting beyond it to form eaves) or form a superstructure above the fighting platform or terrace of the tower. The latter necessitated the use of spouts to lead the water away over the top of the walls (e.g. as at Andernach's Alter Krahnen). In this case the cone roof was surrounded by a defensive wall, a parapet or a battlement. Such conical roofs were usually constructed using a timber-framed support structure covered with slate; more rarely they were made of masonry.
A small circular turret or tourelle with a conical roof is called a pepperpot or pepperbox turret.[3]
Present
Today, conical roofs are more often used in rural areas either for circular or small square buildings. They are difficult to construct but use locally available materials.[4]
^Curl, James Stevens and Susan Wilson. The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture, 3rd edn. Oxford: OUP, 2015, p. 567.
^Rückert, Klaus and Effatolsadat Shahriari. Guideline for sustainable, energy efficient architecture and construction. Young Cities Research Paper Series, Volume 10. Ed. by Technische Universität Berlin and Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Center, Tehran. Berlin: TUB, 2014, p. 64.
^Buxton, David Roden (1937). Russian Mediaeval Architecture with an Account of the Transcaucasian Styles and Their Influence in the West. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. This conical dome is a characteristic of Armenian and Georgian architecture as is the bulb of Russian; it is universal except in some of the earliest buildings.
^Maranci, Christina (2001). Medieval Armenian Architecture: Constructions of Race and Nation. Leuven: Peeters. p. 33. ...the conical roof, which, as he pointed out, is typical of Armenian architecture.
^Adalian, Rouben Paul (2010). "Architecture, Ecclesiastical". Historical Dictionary of Armenia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. p. 97. ISBN978-0-8108-7450-3. The characteristic dome consisted of, exteriorly, a tall drum or polygonal cylinder with a conical roof...