Claustra
Claustra (singular claustrum) are openwork architectural panels or wall elements pierced with geometrical openings, used individually or repeated to form screens and non-load-bearing walls.[1] Unlike latticework, which is formed from crossing members, claustra generally consist of perforated panels or masonry elements. Depending on their design and material, they can filter light, permit ventilation, provide privacy, provide solar shading or support glazing.[2][3]
The term occurs in English-language architectural writing particularly in discussions of North African vernacular architecture and twentieth-century modern architecture, where it is also applied to prefabricated concrete and ceramic elements.[2]
Terminology
Architectural historian Pedro Guedes describes claustra as a Latin term used for elements common in North African vernacular architecture, normally formed in walls to create openings for ventilation.[2]
Auguste Perret adopted the term for precast elements used in his buildings, and it subsequently appeared in discussions of modern architecture.[2] Architects have sometimes distinguished claustra from visually similar elements. In Brazil, where perforated screens are also known as cobogós, Lúcio Costa maintained that the ceramic screens used at his Parque Guinle housing complex in Rio de Janeiro were claustra rather than cobogós.[2]
Antecedents
Pierced panels closing architectural openings long predate the modern use of the term claustra. In early Christian basilicas in Rome, windows were closed by screens of stucco and sometimes stone, pierced with geometrical openings and holding glass panes or sheets of lapis specularis. These screens are known as transennae, and examples uncovered at Santa Sabina between 1914 and 1919 are among the best known.[4]
Such screens are generally treated in architectural writing under their own names rather than as claustra. Openwork screens formed from crossing members are more generally treated as latticework.
Modern architecture
Claustra acquired particular importance in twentieth-century architecture through the use of reinforced concrete, ceramics and prefabricated building elements.[2]
Perret had previously used perforated precast elements while working as contractor on the cathedral of Oran in Algeria.[2] Architectural historian Etien Santiago describes the cathedral's windows as covered by perforated concrete blocks suggestive of the mesh-like window coverings of North African claustra, and identifies them as a precedent for the lattice-like walls of Notre-Dame du Raincy.[5]
At the church of Notre-Dame du Raincy, designed by Auguste and Gustave Perret and completed in 1923, claustra form much of the non-load-bearing perimeter of the building. Kenneth Frampton describes these walls as assembled from square prefabricated concrete panels pierced with geometrical openings containing clear or coloured glass.[3] A limited number of standardized geometrical patterns are combined across the building.[3][6]
The claustra of Notre-Dame du Raincy combine several functions: they constitute much of the non-load-bearing exterior enclosure, support glazing and establish the geometric composition of the facades.[3][6] Guedes also notes Perret's later use of claustra in the Musée des Travaux Publics in Paris.[2]
Use in warm climates
Claustra became associated with architectural responses to hot climates. Guedes discusses them together with cobogós and brises-soleil as devices used by modern architects to control sunlight and encourage air movement.[2]
In Brazil, Lúcio Costa used ceramic claustra at Parque Guinle in Rio de Janeiro. The screens provided solar and privacy screening while allowing air to move through the facade.[2] Costa explicitly distinguished these elements from cobogós despite their similar appearance and environmental functions.[2]
Guedes also identifies the use of precast claustra in North African modern architecture, where architects adapted traditional forms of environmental screening to modern materials and construction methods.[2]
Related architectural screens
Openwork screens occur in many architectural traditions, and similarity in appearance or function does not necessarily imply a direct historical relationship with claustra.
The mashrabiya is a wooden lattice screen found particularly in the architecture of hot and arid regions. Nick Baker and Koen Steemers describe its environmental role as filtering strong light and allowing airflow while maintaining privacy and permitting views from the interior.[7]
Other related forms include the South Asian jali, the Brazilian cobogó, architectural latticework and decorative concrete screen blocks. These forms are not necessarily synonymous with claustra; Guedes notes, for example, that Lúcio Costa explicitly distinguished the ceramic claustra of Parque Guinle from cobogós.[2]
Gallery
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Concrete claustra at Les Andelys, France. -
Building with an exterior claustra in Nouméa, New Caledonia. -
Claustra facade of the Synagogue Don Isaac Abravanel in Paris. -
Église Notre-Dame du Raincy - Interior of the Church
See also
References
- ↑ Curl, James Stevens; Wilson, Susan (2015). "Claustrum". The Oxford Dictionary of Architecture (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199674985. Search this book on
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Guedes, Pedro (2020). "Behind the Veils of Modern Tropical Architecture". Docomomo Journal (63): 6–17. doi:10.52200/63.A.7LQWCQXU.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Frampton, Kenneth (2001). Cava, John, ed. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. MIT Press. pp. 132–134. ISBN 9780262561495. Search this book on
- ↑ Virdis, Alberto (2024). "Minor Arts Becoming Major: The Classical in Dialogue with the Non-Classical at the Origins of the Art of Stained Glass" (PDF). Codex Aquilarensis. 40: 35–58.
- ↑ Santiago, Etien (2019). "Notre-Dame du Raincy and the Great War". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 78 (4): 454–471. doi:10.1525/jsah.2019.78.4.454.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Église Notre-Dame de la Consolation, Le Raincy, 1922-1923" (PDF) (in français). Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine. Retrieved 16 August 2026.
- ↑ Baker, Nick; Steemers, Koen (2002). Daylight Design of Buildings: A Handbook for Architects and Engineers. London: James & James. ISBN 9781873936887. Search this book on
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