Oriel window

Oriel windows in San Francisco, California.

Oriel windows with brackets in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, France.

Oriel windows are a form of bay window which project from the main wall of the building but do not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, brackets or similar, an oriel window is most commonly found projecting from an upper floor but is also sometimes used on the ground floor.

Oriel windows are seen in Arab architecture in the form of mashrabiya. In Indian culture these windows and balconies are projected from the street front, providing an area in which women could peer out and see the activities below while remaining invisible.^{[citation needed]}

Origins

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "oriel" is derived from Anglo-Norman oriell and post-classical Latin oriolum, both meaning gallery or porch, perhaps from classical Latin aulaeum, curtain.

• Oriel College, Oxford, took its name from a balcony or oriel window forming a feature of a building which occupied the site the college now stands on.^{[citation needed]}

• Oriel Chambers in Liverpool was a very controversial building when it was built, featuring an entire facade of glass oriel windows. It is seen as an early example of modernism.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

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  16th century oriel window in the City of London, Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great.

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  19th century neo-gothic oriel window on Bradford City Hall.

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  Oriel window located in Grande Île, Strasbourg

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  Ground floor oriel window, Perssonska gården, Hedemora, Sweden

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  Oriel Chambers, Liverpool, by Peter Ellis, 1864

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  Massive half timbered oriel window on a pre-1581 church, Bouxwiller, Alsace, France

See also

• Bay window for more details
• Bow window
• Bretèche
• Turret window