Skyline (architecture )

DEFINITIONS

Skyline is a very recent term. Until the midnineteenth
 century the word skyline was a synonym for horizon,
 used in travel literature in reference to the meeting of
sky and land (Attoe, 1981).
Typical dictionary definitions are ‘ the line where earth
 and sky meet’, ‘the horizon’ and ‘the outline of a . . .
mountain range seen against the sky’. Use of the word

‘skyline’ in relation to buildings did not appear until the 1890s.
 Its new currency was directly related to a new building type, the skyscraper. Maitland’s American Standard Dictionary of 1891 is the first known dictionary to include the word skyscraper: the meaning given is ‘a very tall
building such as now are being built in Chicago’ (Attoe, 1981).
This intrusion of skyscrapers at the meeting of sky and land necessitated a broadening of the meaning of skyline. ‘Horizon’ being linear, horizontal and passive in form could not characterize the aggressive, vertical and thrusting form of man’s latest additions to the landscape.
Hence ‘skyline’ assumed this role and was redefined to include buildings seen against the sky. ‘Roofline’ for
the purpose of this book refers to more local conditions:
the outline of the roof or a group of roofs seen against the sky. ‘Roofscape’, a term which became popular in the 1950s and 1960s, denotes the landscape of the roofs seen from above in a panoramic view.