Drape / drapery
Drapery refers to pieces of cloth or textiles that hang in specific positions mainly for decoration. The drape of a material merely describes the way that material falls, folds or hangs.
In buildings it normally refers to textiles that hang around a window reveal or bed for example. Drapery is also used to describe loose clothing and how if falls over the human form. It was an important element of early artworks, such as shawls, head scarfs and loin cloths that featured heavily from the Greek to the Renaissance periods, particularly in sculptural pieces.
Today the term drapery or drapes might be used instead of curtains, however drapery specifically refers to the act of falling and folding whereas a curtain refers to the material and its function. The early curtains of the Egyptians in around 3100 B.C, made of animal hides to hang in doorways, were more akin to drapery as they hung in a fixed position, rather than being moveable as with curtains. The specific styles of pleat in different types of curtains, such as pencil, pinch or globlet pleats might be more readily referred to as drapery, because the focus of these is the fall or drape of the fabric.
Window scarves or valances are also forms of drapery.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
Featured articles and news
From the UKs largest manufacturer and supplier of lime.
From mud bricks to smart concrete
A brief history from 7000BC to a future on the moon.
Regulator of Social Housing publishes latest fire safety report
Covering remediation of 11 metre plus social housing sector buildings.
Apartment and Duplex Defects Remediation Bill 2024
Approved for priority drafting by Government of Ireland.
The long list with in the frame of key historical events.
Competence frameworks for sustainability in the built environment
Code of practice, core criteria consultation draft for comment.
UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard Sept update
Pilot version for testing and feedback on its adoption due.
New Floods Resilience Taskforce
With a wet met office autumn prediction.
National Retrofit Hub takeover of Net Zero stage
At Birmingham UK Construction Week in October.
AT Awards 2024 finalists announced
With more to come, prior to the Awards ceremony in October.
London construction cools as hotspots appear nationally
Increases in the East of England, Yorkshire and Scotland.
ARB proposals for a new Architects Code
Announced in the shadow of the final Grenfell Inquiry report.
Combining human creativity and tech innovation now and in the future
Building automation and control systems market study
BSRIA 2024 North America BACS software & services.
Impact of digital technology on productivity in construction
New CIOB academy guidance for companies of all sizes.
Demolition and retrofit approaches in Planning Policy
MHCLG demolition and retrofit survey to inform future updates to national planning policy.
Expert taskforce to spearhead new, new town generation
Sir Michael Lyons given 12 months for recommendations.
Government policy statement on new towns
A coded vision for a new generation of new towns.