Briefly answer the question about what a portal is, then we can say that this is nothing more than an appropriately designed entrance to a room. But this element of architectural design is very important. In addition to the input function, it also carries a certain semantic load. Its key significance is that it makes the first judgment on the whole building.
Portal in Architecture
The design of the entrance opening is organically connected with the architectural stylistics of different eras. This can be clearly seen even with a cursory inspection of the architectural monuments of antiquity and the Middle Ages that have survived to this day. From the gates to the entrances to places of worship and administrative buildings. On all lies the indelible seal of the times. The design of the portals reaches particular expressiveness in the Middle Ages, in the Catholic churches of Italy, Spain, France and Germany. In order to understand what a portal is, it is enough to visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, where architectural fragments of portals of different eras and styles are presented in abundance. And such an excursion to the museum can give a lot of attention to the attentive viewer. In addition to the general aesthetic education, one can find completely practical architectural solutions there, when it becomes necessary to fulfill a portal niche under a fireplace or arrange an entrance to a country house in a non-standard way.
How to build a portal?
This question periodically arises before the owners of suburban real estate. And solving it, it is necessary to achieve an organic combination of functional purpose and visual expressiveness of the entrance to the house. To begin with, the opening must have sufficient geometry to freely accommodate the necessary structures and bulky interior items in the house. The calculation of power structures of the ceiling must be performed without fail. And it must be produced by qualified specialists.
It is best to turn to the designer-architect, who will be obliged to take into account the wishes of the customer in the stylistic decision of the input portal and offer him a choice of several possible options. The choice is optimal. In country houses portals made of natural stone combined with door structures made of valuable wood look equally good. Forged metal trim elements look very impressive.
Other portals
The concept of a portal goes far beyond architecture. This is a general technical term that designates an opening in a structure to accommodate any unit or assembly. But much more often this word is used in a figurative sense. What is a portal but an entrance? Entrance to other spaces, worlds, dimensions and imaginative systems.
In the broadest way, the concept of a portal is exploited in science fiction and fantasy literature, as well as in cinema corresponding to these genres.
And there is no need to explain what a portal is to a wide mass of users of the World Wide Web. A portal for them is nothing more than access to the Internet through a particular resource.