Fluting (architecture)

Fluting in architecture and the decorative arts consists of shallow grooves running along a surface. The term typically refers to the curved grooves (flutes) running vertically on a column shaft or a pilaster, but is not restricted to those two applications. If the hollowing out of material meets in a point, the point (sharp ridge) is called an arris. If the raised ridge between two flutes appears flat, the ridge is a fillet.

Especially in stone architecture, fluting distinguishes the column shafts and pilasters visually from plain masonry walls behind. Fluting promotes a play of light on a column which helps the column appear more perfectly round than a smooth column. As a strong vertical element it also has the visual effect of minimizing any horizontal joints. Greek architects viewed rhythm as an important design element. As such, fluting was often used on buildings and temples to increase the sense of rhythm. It may also be incorporated in columns to make them look thinner, lighter, and more elegant.

It is generally agreed that fluting was used on wooden columns (none of which have survived) before it was used on stone; with a curved adze applying concave fluting to wooden columns made from tree trunks, would have been relatively easy. Convex fluting was probably intended to imitate plant forms. Minoan and Mycenaean architecture used both, but Greek and Roman architecture used the concave style almost exclusively.

Fluting was very common in formal ancient Greek architecture, and compulsory in the Greek Doric order. It was optional for the Ionic and Corinthian orders. In Roman architecture it was used a good deal less, and effectively disappeared in European medieval architecture. It was revived in Renaissance architecture, without becoming usual, but in Neoclassical architecture once again became very common in larger buildings. Throughout all this, fluting was used in several of the decorative arts in various media.