Terrace (building)

A terrace is an external, raised, open, flat area in either a landscape (such as a park or garden) near a building, or as a roof terrace on a flat roof.

Ground terraces

Terraces are used primarily for leisure activity such as sitting, strolling, or resting. The term often applies to a raised area in front of a monumental building or structure, which is usually reached by a grand staircase and surrounded by a balustrade. A terrace may be supported by an embankment or solid foundation, either natural or man-made. Terraces may also be platforms, supported by columns but without the space below filled in, but terraces are always open to the sky and may or may not be paved.

History and examples of terraces

Agricultural terracing can be traced back to prehistoric times. But architectural terracing is equally ancient. Examples of early architectural terracing in the Middle East have been found at Nahal Oren (a Natufian culture site occupied between 13000 to 9800 BCE), at Tel Yarmut (2700 to 2200 BCE), and at Tel el-'Umeiri (600 BCE). Architectural terracing was widespread globally. For example, architectural (rather than agricultural) terracing also occurred on the island of Babeldaob in modern Palau in the Pacific Ocean.

Terrace

Terrace may refer to:

Proper names

Building

A building or edifice is a structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of shapes, sizes and functions, and have been adapted throughout history for a wide number of factors, from building materials available, to weather conditions, to land prices, ground conditions, specific uses and aesthetic reasons. To better understand the term building compare the list of nonbuilding structures.

Buildings serve several needs of society – primarily as shelter from weather, security, living space, privacy, to store belongings, and to comfortably live and work. A building as a shelter represents a physical division of the human habitat (a place of comfort and safety) and the outside (a place that at times may be harsh and harmful).

Ever since the first cave paintings, buildings have also become objects or canvasess of artistic expression. In recent years, interest in sustainable planning and building practices has also become an intentional part of the design process of many new buildings.

Hip hop

Hip hop or hip-hop is a sub-cultural movement that formed during the early 1970s by African-American and Puerto Rican youths residing in the South Bronx in New York City. It became popular outside of the African-American community in the late 1980s and by the 2000s became the most listened-to musical genre in the world. It is characterized by four distinct elements, all of which represent the different manifestations of the culture: rap music (oral), turntablism or DJing (aural), b-boying (physical) and graffiti art (visual). Even while it continues to develop globally in myriad styles, these four foundational elements provide coherence to hip hop culture. The term is often used in a restrictive fashion as synonymous only with the oral practice of rap music.

The origin of the hip hop culture stems from the block parties of the Ghetto Brothers, when they plugged in the amplifiers for their instruments and speakers into the lampposts on 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue and used music to break down racial barriers, and from DJ Kool Herc at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where Herc mixed samples of existing records with his own shouts to the crowd and dancers. Kool Herc is credited as the "father" of hip hop. DJ Afrika Bambaataa of the hip hop collective Zulu Nation outlined the pillars of hip hop culture, to which he coined the terms: MCing or "Emceein", DJing or "Deejayin", B-boying and graffiti writing or "Aerosol Writin".