Batter (walls)

Tomb of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq (d. 1325), Delhi, with a batter of 25°.[1]

In architecture, batter is a receding slope of a wall, structure, or earthwork.[2] A wall sloping in the opposite direction is said to overhang.[3] When used in fortifications it may be called a talus.

A batter frame is used to guide the construction of a battered dry stone wall.

The term is used with buildings and non-building structures to identify when a wall or element is intentionally built with an inward slope. A battered corner is an architectural feature using batters. A batter is sometimes used in foundations, retaining walls, dry stone walls, dams, lighthouses, and fortifications. Other terms that may be used to describe battered walls are "tapered" and "flared". Typically in a battered wall, the taper provides a wide base to carry the weight of the wall above, with the top gradually resulting in the thinnest part as to ease the weight of wall below.[4] The batter angle is typically described as a ratio of the offset and height or a degree angle that is dependent on the building materials and application. For example, typical dry-stone construction of retaining walls utilizes a 1:6 ratio, that is for every 1 inch that the wall steps back, it increases 6 inches in height.[5]

  1. ^ Blair, Sheila, and Bloom, Jonathan M., The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250-1800, p. 154, 1995, Yale University Press Pelican History of Art, ISBN 0300064659
  2. ^ "Batter v.2. def. 1 and 2. and "Batter n.2". Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009
  3. ^ Whitney, William Dwight. "Batter 2." The Century Dictionary. New York: Century, 1889. 476-77. Print.
  4. ^ Gelernter, Mark (1999). A History of American Architecture: Buildings in Their Cultural and Technological Context. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. ISBN 1584651369.
  5. ^ "Building Dry Stone Retaining Walls". National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. National Park Service. Retrieved 12 December 2018.