Cupolas are a very popular architectural enhancement on top of horse barn roofs and riding arenas. Roof top cupolas are also popular features on homes, gazebos, pavillions, public buildings and businesses. A cupola may be built to be accessible from the inside and thereby provide a lofty perch for viewing pleasure of the surrounding area. Often such cupolas are encircled by a widows walk or roof deck railing. Usually cupolas are chosen for their heightened architectural interest and also to provide substantial ventilation to the roof, attic or building space below. Cupolas may be built in various shapes including circular, square, hexagonal and octagonal. Cupolas typically have a curved conical, bell-shaped or pyramidal domed roof and are often crowned with a ornamental roof finial perched at the very top. Cupolas may be constructed from a variety of materials with wood and metals being the most common. Among metals, rust-free aluminum and copper are the preferred material. Aluminum makes for a generally light weight, manageable cupola design and the aluminum is usually painted to color coordinate with the underlying building's wall and trim colors. Copper cupolas are most always left uncoated and provide the most elegant and distinguished appearance, weather beautifully, are the most maintenance-free, eco-friendly green choice, most durable and longest lasting of all cupolas. Cupolas provide a pleasing, very attractive elegance to any building while cupola ventilation serves as an excellent roof vent.

Rutland's architectural craftsmen hand made several custom large cupolas designed for a massive horse barn riding arena. Structural .063 aluminum was used, with large aluminum louvers in the four walls, a swooping bell-shaped pyramidal domed roof and topped with a finial ball and spiked cone. All joints or seams were TIG welded and polished, which provides the most strength, durability and refined, pleasing appearance. One very large cupola would perch in the center of the horse barn arena's expansive roof line and two slightly smaller cupolas would sit to either side of the larger one. The cupolas would help break up the roof line, provide a high degree of architectural interest and attractiveness and supply substantial ventilation of the underlying roof space. The cupola sides were painted a bay brown to coordinate with the stained wood walls of the riding arena and adjacent horse barns. The cupola's roof was painted hunter green to match the green metal roof on the horse barns. Below are pictures showing the progression of the cupola construction from structural framing to final installation shots on top the horse barn.

Cupola Structural Aluminum TIG Welded Frame - Polished Seams

Large Aluminum Louvers are Inserted Into Cupola Sides

Domed Roof and Roof Finial Attached On Top of Cupola 

Cupolas Finished in Two-Tone Paint Job

Cupolas Are Installed Top of Horse Barn Arena

Horse Barn Cupola Construction Project Completed

Obtain more information on roof top aluminum cupola designs and copper cupolas at Rutland Architectural Cupolas.

For the framework we will be using aluminum tubing, plywood sheathing and waterproof membrane. We begin by precisely cutting square aluminum tubing to size and bending the tubes using a roll forming machine to form the base and the many vertical support cross members. A partially completed aluminum frame is shown below.


After all the plywood sheathing panels have been securely fastened in place with self-tapping screws, we then apply to the partially completed dome a self-sealing waterproof membrane, taking care to completely seal the dome. After the membrane is in place, we draw guidelines and begin carefully attaching the hand-cut copper tile to the dome and to each other. The copper tile have been designed to interlock securely with each other and we use copper ring shank nails to fasten them to the plywood.