In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests.Gottfried Semper's The Four Elements of Architecture (1851) posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, and the wall make up all of architectural theory. The plinth usually rests directly on the ground, or "stylobate". According to Semper, the plinth exists to negotiate between a structure and the ground. Semper's theory has been influential in the development of architecture.

Many houses in flood-prone rural areas of Bangladesh are built on plinths ("homestead plinths").

The word is also used for the base of a cabinet or an audio turntable.^{[citation needed]}

In dam engineering, the "plinth" is the link between the ground and the dam. For the case of arch dams, the term is changed to "pulvino".

Antony Mark David Gormley OBE RA (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His best known works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in the North of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998, Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool, and Event Horizon, a multi-part site installation which premiered in London in 2007, and in 2010 around Madison Square in New York City.

The youngest of seven children born to a German mother and an Irish father, Gormley grew up in a wealthy Roman Catholic family living in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire. He attended Ampleforth College, a Benedictine boarding school in Yorkshire, before reading archaeology, anthropology and the history of art at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1968 to 1971. He travelled to India and Sri Lanka to learn more about Buddhism between 1971 and 1974. Attending at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and Goldsmiths in London from 1974, he completed his studies with a postgraduate course in sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London, between 1977 and 1979.

Rick Owens (born 1961) is an American fashion designer hailing from California, celebrated for his avant garde and subversive eye.

He is married to Michele Lamy. Since 2003, Rick Owens has lived in Paris.

Born and raised in Porterville, California, Owens studied fine arts at Otis/Parsons (now known as Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles for two years before dropping out and taking pattern-making and draping courses at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College leading to work in the garment industry doing knock offs of designer clothing. His own label, begun in 1994 found a following, selling exclusively to Charles Gallay, a pioneering Los Angeles retailer who kept Owens in business for several years. In 2001, he signed with Italian sales agent Eo Bocci Associati for worldwide distribution, and his production moved to Italy. His real and birth name is Gene Schenker.

He began to receive attention when an image of Kate Moss shot by Corinne Day appeared in Vogue Paris, featuring one of Owens' fitted distressed leather jackets. He showed his first runway collection in September 2002 during New York Fashion Week. The show was sponsored by American Vogue and Anna Wintour, who also featured him and his muse Kembra Pfahler in a spread shot by Annie Leibovitz. At this time, he accepted the post of artistic director at Revillon, the French fur maison founded in 1723. Working and producing in Europe led him to his decision to move from Los Angeles to Paris and show during the Paris collections. He also began his longstanding collaboration with stylist Panos Yiapanis, who has been working with Owens on all his catwalk shows to date. He marked the anniversary of his 10th season in 2009 with a launch of a retrospective limited edition book named ‘L’ai - Je Bien Descendu?,’ which included a number of provocative photographs. A monograph published by Rizzoli will follow in 2011.

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004. He was known for his eclectic taste in music and his honest and warm broadcasting style.

He was one of the first broadcasters to play psychedelic rock and progressive rock records on British radio, and he is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres, including pop, reggae, indie rock, alternative rock, punk, hardcore punk, breakcore, grindcore, death metal, British hip hop, and dance music.

Peel's Radio 1 shows were notable for the regular 'Peel sessions', which usually consisted of four songs recorded by an artist live in the BBC's studios, and which often provided the first major national coverage to bands that later would achieve great fame. (These 'sessions' are similar to 'Live Lounge' sessions recorded today for the station.) Another popular feature of his shows was the annual Festive Fifty countdown of his listeners' favourite records of the year.