BUILDING, in general, is a mass formed by the junction of' materials. When a building is stationary, and erected for dwelling in, or for some useful purpose or ornament, it is called an edifice. Those who intend to build, should make choice of an architect who is known to be a man of ability and of tried experience and integrity. The proprietor should then explain as clearly as possible his ideas and intentions respecting the proposed building, to enable the architect to furnish the requisite plans and estimates. These should be carefully examined and gone into, so that the proprietor be perfectly satisfied that his wishes are understood, and the cost of carrying them into effect brought within the extent of his means or inclinations. The whole management ought then to be committed to the architect, with full liberty in the choice of masters for the execution of the respective depart ments. The architect should then proceed to make out a specification, and contract for each individual branch Con cerned in the business, and put them into the hands of respectable tradesmen ; it' the estimates appear to be reason able, the contracts should be signed. There are many kinds of work for which, however, from novelty in execution, it would be impossible to anticipate a price : but if the work consist of similar repetitions or parts, the value of one part being known. by taking an account of the time, that of the others will follow, and then the estimated expense of the whole may be ascertained. There arc many proprietors whose ideas are never fixed, and no sooner is work done than it is undone: in such a case, the work should be done by measure and value, affixing a regular price to every corres ponding article ; and an account should be taken of the work pulled down. In whatever way the work be valued, there should be a person employed, stationary in the building, called a clerk of the works, whose business it is to give direc tions for fixing, and to superintend all parts of the execution ; to keep the workmen's time, to give in weekly reports, and to examine the work, should it happen to be prepared out of the building.
The drawings necessary in the construction of an edifice are, plans of the several stories, elevations of the fap.des, transverse and a longitudinal section at least, horizontal and vertical sections of all the difficult parts, and a detail of all the mouldings and ornaments at large. These ought to be committed to the care of the clerk of the works. It is not
very easy for an architect to furnish all the detail before a building is to be estimated ; but if' time would permit this to be done, the contractors would be able to undertake the work at the lowest rate, and this would in a great measure super sede the necessity of the addition, which is too generally found necessary to cover the uncertainty of estimating large works.
With regard to building in general, it must be obvious, that to the taste, judgment, and science of the architect, must be left the selection of the character and style of the building to be erected ; no certain rules can be given to form the general contour of an edifice, but the middle part ought to have some commanding feature, and the general outline of the whole should approach to a pyramidal form. Large edi fices are susceptible of great splendour, by an agreeable variety of parts ; but the beauty of a small building consists in the simplicity and symmetry of its surfaces.
The regularly repeated columns, entablatures, and other ornaments which may adorn a circular building, create the most pleasing feelings, and in a straight building also, the uniformity and succession of parts are usually delightful to the observer, hence the gratifying sensation arising from long ranges of colonnades, as in the Grecian temples and the aisles of churches : hut the preceding observation, with respect to the entablature, does not apply in a straight building. The entablatures may either he broken or continued, according to the use of the columns ; the outline of the building being still preserved in either case : for when the repetitions are flu-similes of each other, the eye will judge of the figure of the building the same, whether the entablature be continued or interrupted, which is not the case in rotund edifices. When columns are placed so remote from each other, as not to be capable of supporting an entablature, or not sufficiently near to excite the idea, the entablatures may be broken, as in the triumphal arches at Rome, where the columns are introduced to support the ornaments of triumph. In the peribolus of the Grecian temples, the broken entablatures are not only beautiful, but the repetition of the order itself is useful in reinforcing the strength of the enclosure, and thus performing the ofliee of buttresses to the walls. Much of the agreeable in viewing our venerable antique modern churches, arises from the uniform succession of the buttresses and their ornaments.