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A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air.






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Brick Wall Old
A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air. There are three principal types of structural walls: building walls, exterior boundary walls, and retaining walls.

Building walls

Building walls have one main purpose: to support roofs and ceilings. Such walls most often have three or more separate components. In today's construction, a building's wall will usually have the structural elements (such as 2×4 studs in a house wall), insulation
Thermal insulation

The term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer....
, and finish elements, or surface (such as drywall
Drywall

Drywall is a common building material typically made of a layer of gypsum plaster pressed between two thick sheets of paper, then kiln dried. Drywall is used globally for the finish construction of interior walls and ceilings....
 or panelling
Panelling

Panelling is a wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials....
). In addition, the wall may house various types of electrical wiring
Electrical wiring

Electrical wiring in general refers to insulated conductor used to carry electricity, and associated devices. This article describes general aspects of electrical wiring as used to provide power in buildings and structures, commonly referred to as building wiring....
 or plumbing
Plumbing

Plumbing is the skilled trade of working with pipe , Tubing and plumbing fixtures for drinking water systems and the drainage of waste. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping systems, plumbing fixtures and equipment such as water heaters....
. Electrical outlets are usually mounted in walls.

Building walls frequently become works of art externally and internally, such as when featuring mosaic
Mosaic

Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other material. It may be a technique of Decorative arts, an aspect of interior decoration or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral....
 work or when mural
Mural

A mural is a painting on a wall, ceiling, or other large permanent surface....
s are painted on them; or as design foci when they exhibit textures or painted finishes for effect.

On a ship, the walls separating compartments are termed "bulkheads
Bulkhead (partition)

A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are deck and deckheads....
", whilst the thinner walls separating cabins are termed "partitions".

In architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
 and civil engineering
Civil engineering

Civil engineering is a Professional Engineer discipline that deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works such as bridges, roads, canals, dams and buildings....
, the term curtain wall
Curtain wall

Curtain wall is a term used to describe a building fa?ade which does not carry any dead and live loads from the building other than its own dead load, and one which transfers the horizontal loads that are incident upon it....
 refers to the facade
Facade

A facade or fa?ade is generally one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides and rear. The Word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
 of a building which is not load-bearing but functions as decoration, finish, front, face, or history preservation.

Boundary walls

Stone Wall
Boundary walls include privacy walls, boundary-marking walls on property, and city walls. These intergrade into fence
Fence

A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent Transport across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage ....
s; the conventional differentiation is that a fence is of minimal thickness and often is open in nature, while a wall is usually more than a nominal thickness and is completely closed, or opaque. More to the point, if an exterior structure is made of wood or wire, it is generally referred to as a fence, while if it is made of masonry
Masonry

Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar , and the term "masonry" can also refer to the units themselves....
, it is considered a wall. A common term for both is barrier
Separation barrier

The term separation barrier is a euphemism for walls or fences constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line or border, or to separate two populations....
, convenient if it is partly a wall and partly a fence, for example the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a physical separation barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic , including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany....
. Another kind of wall/fence ambiguity is the ha-ha which is set below ground level, so as not to interrupt a view yet acting as a barrier to cattle for example.

Before the invention of artillery
Artillery

Artillery is a military Combat Arms which employs any apparatus, machine, an assortment of tools or instruments, a system or systems used as weapons for the discharge of large projectiles in combat as a major contribution of fire power within the overall military capability of an armed force....
, many Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
an cities
City

A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status.Large industrialized cities generally have advanced systems for sanitation, utilities, land usage, house, and transportation and more....
 had protective walls. In fact, the English word "wall" is derived from Latin vallum
Vallum

A vallum was a type of palisade, used as part of the Roman Empire defensive fortification system. It was usually made out of soil, sometimes enforced with wood and Rock , and also had a deep moat ....
, which was a type of fortification wall. Since they are no longer relevant for defense, the cities have grown beyond their walls, and many of the walls have been torn down. Extreme examples of boundary walls include the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China or is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the History of China from Xiongnu attacks during the rule of Dynasties in Chinese history....
 and Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall

Hadrian's Wall is a Rock and Sod fortification built by the Roman Empire across the width of what is now northern England. Begun in AD 122, during the rule of emperor Hadrian, it was the middle of three such fortifications built across Great Britain, the first being from the River Clyde to the River Forth under Agricola and the last the Ant...
. A modern functional example was the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a physical separation barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic , including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany....
, which divided East and West Berlin.

Retaining walls

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Perfectwall
In areas of rocky soils around the world, farmers have often pulled large quantities of stone out of their fields to make farming easier, and have stacked those stones to make walls that either mark the field boundary, or the property boundary, or both.

Retaining wall
Retaining wall

A retaining wall is a structure that holds back soil or rock from a building, structure or area. Retaining walls prevent downslope movement or erosion and provide support for vertical or near-vertical grade changes....
s are a special type of wall, that may be either external to a building or part of a building, that serves to provide a barrier to the movement of earth, stone or water. The ground surface or water on one side of a retaining wall will be noticeably higher than on the other side. A dike is one type of retaining wall, as is a levee
Levee

A levee, lev?e, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial slope or wall to regulate water levels....
, a load-bearing foundation wall, and a sea wall.

Shared walls

Special laws often govern walls shared by neighbouring properties. Typically, one neighbour cannot alter the common wall if it is likely to affect the building or property on the other side. A wall may also separate apartment or hotel walls from each other. Each wall has two sides and breaking a wall on one side will break the wall on the other side.

Etymology

It is notable that English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 uses the same word to refer to an external wall, and the internal sides of a room. This is by no means universal, and many languages distinguish between the two. In German, some of this distinction can be seen between Wand and Mauer.

Walls in popular culture

  • Progressive/psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd

    Pink Floyd are an English Rock music band who initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock and space rock music, and later, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music....
     have a concept album called The Wall
    The Wall

    The Wall is a rock opera presented as a double album by the England progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in late 1979. It was subsequently performed live, with elaborate theatrical effects, and made into Pink Floyd The Wall ....
    . This Wall is not real, but a metaphor for social barring.


  • Social networking site Facebook
    Facebook

    Facebook is a free-access social network service website that is operated and privately held company by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people....
     uses a wall to log the scrawls of friends. Users have gone onto create more advanced versions of the original wall, such as the application SuperWall.


  • The Berlin Wall that separated The Soviet zone of Berlin, Germany from the rest of the city from 1949 until its ultimate desruction in 1989.


See also

  • List of walls
    List of walls

    This is a list of famous walls....
  • Ashlar
    Ashlar

    Ashlar is dressed stone work of any type of stone. Ashlar blocks are large rectangular blocks of masonry sculpted to have square edges and even faces....
  • Curtain wall
    Curtain wall

    Curtain wall is a term used to describe a building fa?ade which does not carry any dead and live loads from the building other than its own dead load, and one which transfers the horizontal loads that are incident upon it....
  • Dry-stone wall
  • Fence
    Fence

    A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent Transport across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage ....
  • Load-bearing wall
  • Sleeper wall
    Sleeper wall

    A Sleeper Wall is a short wall used to support floor joists of a ground floor. It acts to hold the timber joists away from the potentially damp ground....
  • Stone wall
    Stone wall

    Stone walls are a kind of masonry construction which have been made by man for thousands of years. First they were constructed by farmers and primitive people by piling loose field stones in what is called a dry stone wall, then later with the use of Mortar and plaster especially in the construction of city walls, castles, and other forti...
  • Wallpaper
    Wallpaper

    Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of homes, offices, and other buildings; it is one aspect of interior decoration....
  • As mentioned above, The Wall
    The Wall

    The Wall is a rock opera presented as a double album by the England progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in late 1979. It was subsequently performed live, with elaborate theatrical effects, and made into Pink Floyd The Wall ....
     is an album by progressive/psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd

    Pink Floyd are an English Rock music band who initially earned recognition for their psychedelic rock and space rock music, and later, as they evolved, for their progressive rock music....
    .