Architecture Glossary

Here is the architectual glossary

A

• Acanthus Leaf - Motif in classical architecture found on Corinthian columns

• Aedicula - A pedimented entablature with columns used to frame a window or niche

• aisle - subsidiary space alongside the body of a building, separated from it by columns, piers, or posts.

• Apron -

1. raised panel below a window or wall monument or tablet.
2. open portion of a marine terminal immediately adjacent to a vessel berth, used in the direct transfer of cargo between the vessel and the terminal.
3. concrete slab immediately outside a vehicular door or passageway used to limit the wear on asphalt paving due to repetitive turning movements.

• Apse - vaulted semicircular or polygonal end of a chancel or chapel.

• Arcade - passage or walkway covered over by a succession of arches or vaults supported by columns. Blind arcade or arcading: the same applied to the wall surface.

• Arch - a curved structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight.
• Architrave - formalized lintel, the lowest member of the classical entablature. Also the moulded frame of a door or window (often borrowing the profile of a classical architrave).

• Arris - sharp edge where two surfaces meet at an angle.

• Articulation - articulation is the manner or method of jointing parts such that each part is clear and distinct in relation to the others, even though joined.

• Ashlar - masonry of large blocks cut with even faces and square edges.

• Astragal - Molding with a semicircular profile

• Astylar - Facade without columns or pilasters

• Atrium - (plural: atria) inner court of a Roman or C20 house; in a multi-storey building, a toplit covered court rising through all storeys.

• Attic - small top storey within a roof. The storey above the main entablature of a classical façade.

B

• Bahut - a small parapet or attic wall bearing the weight of the roof of a cathedral or church

• Balconet - False balcony outside a window

• Ball flower - an architectural ornament in the form of a ball inserted in the cup of a flower, which came into use in the latter part of the 13th, and was in great vogue in the early part of the 14th century.

• Baluster - small moulded shaft, square or circular, in stone or wood, sometimes metal, supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase; a series of balusters supporting a handrail or coping.

File:Orna138-Docken-Baluster.png

A page of fanciful balusters

• Balustrade - Railing at a stairway, porch or roof

• Bargeboard - Decorative boards located at the end of a gable

• Barrel vault - an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance

• Basement - lowest, subordinate storey of building often either entirely or partially below ground level; the lowest part of classical elevation, below the piano nobile.

• Basilica - originally a Roman, large roofed hall erected for transacting business and disposing of legal matters.; later the term came to describe an aisled building with a clerestory. Medieval cathedral plans were a development of the basilica plan type.

• Bas Relief - Shallow carving of figures and landscapes

• Batter - upwardly receding slope of a wall or column.

• Bays - internal compartments of a building; each divided from the other by subtle means such as the boundaries implied by divisions marked in the side walls (columns, pilasters, etc.) or the ceiling (beams, etc.). Also external divisions of a building by fenestration (windows).

• Bay window - window of one or more storeys projecting from the face of a building. Canted: with a straight front and angled sides. Bow window: curved. Oriel: rests on corbels or brackets and starts above ground level; also the bay window at the dais end of a medieval great hall.

• Belfry Chamber or stage in a tower where bells are hung. The term is also used to describe the manner in which bricks are laid in a wall so that they interlock.

• Belt Course - Narrow horizontal band projecting from exterior walls, usually defining interior floor levels

• Belvedere - Projection from top of roof; also called cupola

• Bond - brickwork with overlapping bricks. Types of bond include stretcher, English, header, Flemish, garden wall, herringbone, basket, American, and Chinese.

• Boss - roughly cut stone set in place for later carving.

Also, an ornamental projection, a carved keystone of a ribbed vault at the intersection of the ogives.

• Bossage - uncut stone that is laid in place in a building, projecting outward from the building, to later be carved into decorative moldings, capitals, arms, etc.

• Boutant - type of support. An arc-boutant, or flying buttress, serves to sustain a vault, and is self-sustained by some strong wall or massive work. A pillar boutant is a large chain or jamb of stone, made to support a wall, terrace, or vault. The word is French, and comes from the verb bouter, "to butt" or "abut". Template:Ref label

• Bracket (see also "corbel") - load-bearing member made of wood, stone, or metal that overhangs a wall

• Breezeway - a roofed often open passage connecting two buildings (as a house and garage) or halves of a building.

• Bressummer - (literally "breast- beam") - large, horizontal beam supporting the wall above, especially in a jettied building.

• Brise soleil - projecting fins or canopies which shade windows from direct sunlight.

• Broken Pediment - Pediment with cornices ending before they meet at the top; finial often placed in the center

• Bulkhead - Horizontal or inclined door over exterior stairway to cellar

• Bullseye window - small oval window, set horizontally.

• Bulwark - barricade of beams and soil used in 15th and 16th century fortifications designed to mount artillery. On board ships the term refers to the woodwork running round the ship above the level of the deck. Figuratively it means anything serving as a defence. Dutch loanword; Bolwerk

• Buttress - vertical member projecting from a wall to stabilize it or to resist the lateral thrust of an arch, roof, or vault. A flying buttress transmits the thrust to a heavy abutment by means of an arch or half-arch.

C

• Cancellus - (plural: Cancelli) Barriers which correspond to the modern balustrade or railing, especially the screen dividing the body of a church from the part occupied by the ministers hence chancel. The Romans employed cancelli to partition off portions of the courts of law.

• Cantilever - An unsupported overhang acting as a lever, like a flagpole sticking out of the side of a wall.

• Capitorium

• Casement window - window hung vertically, hinged one side, so that it swings inward or outward.

• Cauliculus, or caulicole - stalks (eight in number) with two leaves from which rise the helices or spiral scrolls of the Corinthian capital to support the abacus.

• Cavetto - a hollow concave molding sometimes employed in the place of the cymatium of a cornice, as in that of the Doric order of the theatre of Marcellus. Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation

• Cella - the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture

• Chalcidicum - in Roman architecture, the vestibule or portico of a public building opening on to the forum, as in the basilica of Eumactria at Pompeii, and the basilica of Constantine at Rome, where it was placed at one end. See: Lacunar.

• Chancel - In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.

• Chandrashala - the circular or horseshoe arch that decorates many Indian cave temples and shrines

• Choir - In a church in which part of the body of the church extends beyond the transept, then this extension is architecturally termed the "choir". This architectural form is common in Norman and Gothic architecture. The choir, where it exists, normally contains the choir stalls,

Choir

• Chresmographion - chamber between the pronaos and the cella in Greek temples where oracles were delivered.

• Cincture - ring, list, or fillet at the top and bottom of a column, which divides the shaft from the capital and base.Template:Ref label

• Cinque cento - style which became prevalent in Italy in the century following 1500, now usually called 16th-century work. It was the result of the revival of classic architecture known as Renaissance, but the change had commenced already a century earlier, in the works of Ghiberti and Donatello in sculpture, and of Brunelleschi and Alberti in architecture.

• Cippus - low pedestal, either round or rectangular, set up by the Romans for various purposes such as military or milestones, boundary posts. The inscriptions on some in the British Museum show that they were occasionally funeral memorials.

• Circulation - describes the flow of people throughout a building.

• Cleithral - term applied to a covered Greek temple, in contradistinction to hypaethral, which designates one that is uncovered; the roof of a cleithral temple completely covers it.

• Clerestory (or clear storey, also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows above eye level. In either case, the purpose is to bring outside light, fresh air, or both into the inner space

Clerestory

• Cleaving - To split a stone by hitting it with a sharp instrument

• Coffer - a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon that serves as a decorative device, usually in a ceiling or vault. Also called caissons, or lacunar.

• Colarin - (also colarino, collarino, or hypotrachelium) The little frieze of the capital of the Tuscan and Doric column placed between the astragal, and the annulets. It was called hypotrachelium by Vitruvius.

• Compluvium - Latin term for the open space left in the roof of the atrium of a Roman house (domus) for lighting it and the rooms round.

• Conch - the semi-dome of an apse or niche, or the whole apse.

• Concourse - a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.

• Coping - the capping or covering of a wall.

• Corbel (or console) is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic times.

• Cornice - upper section of an entablature, a projecting shelf along the top of a wall often supported by brackets.

• Corona - the part of a cornice that has a vertical face and horizontal soffit.

• Coving - a concave surface forming the decorative molding of a ceiling at its edge so as to eliminate the usual interior angle between the wall and ceiling.

• Cross springer - block from which the diagonal ribs of a vault spring or start. The top of the springer is known as the skewback.

• Crossing - The crossing is the point in a large church at which the transept intersects the nave. This point is often marked externally by a tower or dome and internally by the piers and arches that are required to bear the weight of such a structure. The interior of the dome or tower may be one of the major architectural features of the interior of the church. In a centrally planned church such as Hagia Sophia, and typical of many Orthodox churches, the major interior space of the building is roofed by the dome.

Crossing

• Cryptoporticus - concealed or covered passage, generally underground, though lighted and ventilated from the open air. One of the best-known examples is the crypto-porticus under the palaces of the Caesars in Rome. In Hadrian's villa in Rome they formed the principal private intercommunication between the several buildings.

• Cushion - the sides of the Ionic capital. It is also applied to an early and simple form of the Romanesque capitals of Germany and England, which consist of cubical masses, square at the top and rounded off at the four corners, so as to reduce the lower diameter to a circle of the same size as the shaft. Template:Cite EB1911

• Cusp - the point where the foliations of tracery intersect. The earliest example of a plain cusp is Ely Cathedral, where a small roll, with a rosette at the end, is formed at the termination of a cusp. In the later styles, the terminations of the cusps were more richly decorated. Template:Cite EB1911

• Cutaway View a drawing with parts of the exterior or surface omitted to show the interior, or internal construction.

• Cymatium - a molding on the cornice of some classical buildings.

• cyrto-style - circular projecting portico with columns, like those of the transept entrances of St Paul's cathedral and the western entrance of St Mary-le-Strand, London.

D

• Dado - the lower part of a wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board; mid section of a pedestal, between base and cornice

• Dentil - Molding made up of rows of small square blocks like teeth.

• Diastyle - term used to designate an intercolumniation of three or four diameters.

• Diaulos - peristyle round the great court of the palaestra, described by Vitruvius, which measured two stadia (1,200 ft.) in length, on the south side this peristyle had two rows of columns, so that in stormy weather the rain might not be driven into the inner part. The word was also used in ancient Greece for a foot race of twice the usual length.

• Diazoma - a horizontal aisle in an ancient Greek theater that separates the lower and upper tiers of semi-circular seating and intersects with the vertical aisles

• Dikka - Islamic architectural term for the tribune raised upon columns, from which the Koran is recited and the prayers intoned by the Imam of the mosque.

• Dimension Stone - Large blocks of stone used in foundations

• Dipteral - temples which have a double range of columns in the peristyle, as in the temple of Diana at Ephesus.

• Distyle - portico which has two columns between antae, known as distyle-in-antis.

• Dodecastyle - temple where the portico has twelve columns in front, as in the portico added to the Temple of Demeter at Eleusis, designed by Philo, the architect of the arsenal at the Peiraeus.

File:Classical orders from the Encyclopedie.png

• Doric order - one of the three orders or organisational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture characterised by columns which stood on the flat pavement of a temple without a base, their vertical shafts fluted with parallel concave grooves topped by a smooth capital that flared from the column to meet a square abacus at the intersection with the horizontal beam that they carried.

• Dormer - a structural element of a building that protrudes from the plane of a sloping roof surface. Dormers are used, either in original construction or as later additions, to create usable space in the roof of a building by adding headroom and usually also by enabling addition of windows.

• Dosseret, or impost block - the cubical block of stone above the capitals in a Byzantine church, used to carry the arches and vault, the springing of which had a superficial area greatly in excess of the column which carried them. Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation A supplementary capital or thickened abacus, as in Byzantine architecture.

• Double-Hung Windows - Windows with two sashes sliding up and down.

• Drawing- one of several types of technical drawings of a building, project, or landscape

• Dripstone - a projecting moulding weathered on the upper surface and throated underneath so as to deflect rain water. When carried round an arch it is called a hood. It is sometimes employed inside a building for a decorative purpose only. Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation

• Dromos - entrance passage or avenue leading to a building, tomb or passageway. Those leading to beehive tombs are enclosed between stone walls and sometimes in-filled between successive uses of the tomb.[1] In ancient Egypt the dromos was straight, paved avenue flanked by sphinxes.[2]

E

• Eaves - Lowest projecting part of a sloped roof

• Egg & Dart - Molding in which an egg shape alternates with a dart shape

• Elephantine Columns - Tapered; used as porch supports on Bungalows.

• Elevation - a drawing defined as a horizontal orthographic projection of a building on to a vertical plane, the vertical plane normally being parallel to one side of the building; the most common view used to describe the external appearance of a building, being a view of (or simply a synonym for) a façade.

• Entablature - Horizontal detailing above a classical column and below a pediment, consisting of cornice, frieze and architrave.

• Ephebeum - large hall in the ancient Palaestra furnished with seats, the length of which should be a third larger than the width. It served for the exercises of youths of from sixteen to eighteen years of age.

• Épi - French term for a light finial, generally of metal, but sometimes of terra-cotta, forming the termination of a spire or the angle of a roof.

• Epinaos - open vestibule (architecture) behind the nave. The term is not found in any classic author, but is a modern coinage, originating in Germany, to differentiate the feature from the opisthodomos, which in the Parthenon was an enclosed chamber.

• Estrade - French term for a raised platform or dais. In the Levant, the estrade of a divan is called a Sopha, from which comes our word 'sofa'.

• Escutcheon - An ornamental design normally wood or metal around a key hole

• Eustyle - intercolumniation defined by Vitruvius as being of the best proportion, i.e. two and a quarter diameters.

• Exedra - Wall alcove with bench space

• Exploded View a drawing showing component parts dis-assembled in some way, so that each can be seen on its own.

• Eyebrow Window - Roof dormer having low sides; formed by raising small section of roof

F

• Facade or façade - one side of the exterior of a building, especially the front, but also sometimes the sides or rear.

• Fanlight - window, semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan.

• Feathering - the junction of the foliated cusps in window tracery, but is usually restricted to those cases where it is ornamented. Template:Cite EB1911

• Feretory - enclosure or chapel within which the ferreter shrine, or tomb (as in Henry VII.'s chapel), was placed.

• Finial - Decorative vertical roof ornament

• Floor Plan - a horizontal section plan view drawing showing walls, window and door openings and other features at a particular horizontal level of a building, conventionally three feet / one metre above floor level.

• Flushwork - the decorative combination on the same flat plane of flint and ashlar stone. It is characteristic of medieval buildings, most of the survivors churches, in several areas of Southern England, but especially East Anglia. If the stone projects from a flat flint wall, the term is proudwork - as the stone stands "proud" rather than being "flush" with the wall.

• Fluting - Narrow vertical grooves on shafts of columns and pilasters

• Flying buttress - a specific type of buttress usually found on a religious building such as a cathedral.

• Foot-stall - literally translation of “pedestal”, the lower part of a pier in architecture.

• Formeret - French term for the wall-rib carrying the web or filling-in of a vault.

• Foyer - An area just inside the main exterior door for the removal of wraps, overshoes, etc.

• Frieze - Band (often decorative) below cornice

G

• gable - a triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof
• Gablets - triangular terminations to buttresses, much in use in the Early English and Decorated periods, after which the buttresses generally terminated in pinnacles. The Early English gablets are generally plain, and very sharp in pitch. In the Decorated period they are often enriched with paneling and crockets. They are sometimes finished with small crosses, but more often with finials.

• Gadrooning - carved or curved molding used in architecture and interior design as decorative motif, often consisting of flutes which are inverted and curved. Popular during the Italian Renaissance.

• Gambrel - a symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side

• Garretting, properly Galletting - the process in which the gallets or small splinters of stone are inserted in the joints of coarse masonry to protect the mortar joints. They are stuck in while the mortar is wet.

• Gazebo - a freestanding pavilion structure often found in parks, gardens and public areas

• Gargoyle - An often ugly water spout commonly used on Gothic churches. Different from Grosteques (See below)

• Geison - (Greek: γεῖσον - often interchangeable with cornice) the part of the entablature that projects outward from the top of the frieze in the Doric order and from the top of the frieze course of the Ionic and Corinthan orders; it forms the outer edge of the roof on the sides of a structure with a sloped roof.

• Grotesque - Strange. ugly protuberances on Gothic buildings, especially Churches. The grotesque forms, when not used as drain-spouts, should not be called gargoyles, but rather referred to simply as grotesques

H

• Hip roof - a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls
• Hyphen - possibly from an older term "heifunon" - a structural section connecting the main portion of a building with its projecting "dependencies" or wings.

I

Impluvium - the sunken part of the atrium in a Greek or Roman house (domus). Designed to carry away the rainwater coming through the compluvium of the roof, it is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium.

J

• Jagati - a raised surface, platform or terrace upon which an Indian temple is placed

K

• Keystone (architecture) - the architectural piece at the crown of a vault or arch and marks its apex, locking the other pieces into position.

L

• Lacunar - Latin name in architecture for paneled or coffered ceiling, soffit, or vault adorned with a pattern of recessed paneled.

• Lancet window - Window with a pointed arch

• Latticework - an ornamental, lattice framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern

• Lesene - a pilaster without a base or a capital

• Lintel (architecture) - a horizontal block that spans the space between two supports

• Loggia - a gallery formed by a colonnade open on one or more sides. The space is often located on an upper floor of a building overlooking an open court or garden.

• Lunette - a half-moon shaped space, either masonry or void

M

• Maksoora - Islamic architectural term given to the sanctuary or praying-chamber in a mosque, which was sometimes enclosed with a screen of lattice-work the word is occasionally used for a similar enclosure round a tomb.

• Mandapa - in Indian architecture is a pillared outdoor hall or pavilion for public rituals

• Mansard roof - a curb roof in which each face has two slopes, the lower one steeper than the upper. [f. F mansarde (F. M~, architect, d. 1666)]

• Marriage stone - a stone lintel, usually carved, with a marriage date

• Modillion - enriched block or horizontal bracket generally found under the cornice and above the bedmold of the Corinthian entablature. It is probably so called because of its arrangement in regulated distances.

• Monotriglyph - interval of the intercolumniation of the Doric column, which is observed by the intervention of one triglyph only between the triglyphs which come over the axes of the columns. This is the usual arrangement, but in the Propylaea at Athens there are two triglyphs over the central intercolumniation, in order to give increased width to the roadway, up which chariots and beasts of sacrifice ascended.

• molding (molding) - decorative finishing strip.

• Mullion - vertical bar of wood, metal or stone which divides a window into two or more parts (cf. transom).

• Muqarna - type of decorative corbel used in Islamic architecture that in some circumstances, resembles stalactites.

• Mutule - rectangular block under the soffit of the cornice of the Greek Doric temple, which is studded with guttae. It is supposed to represent the piece of timber through which the wooden pegs were driven in order to hold the rafter in position, and it follows the sloping rake of the roof. In the Roman Doric order the mutule was horizontal, with sometimes a crowning fillet, so that it virtually fulfilled the purpose of the modillion in the Corinthian cornice.

N

Nave - In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church.

O

• Ogee - Molding with both concave and convex curves

• Oillets - arrow slits in the walls of medieval fortifications, but more strictly applied to the round hole or circle with which the openings terminate. The same term is applied to the small circles inserted in the tracery-head of the windows of the Decorated and Perpendicular periods, sometimes varied with trefoils and quatrefoils.

• Orthostatae (Greek: ὀρθοστάτης, standing upright) - Greek architecture term for the lowest course of masonry of the external walls of the naos or cella, consisting of vertical slabs of stone or marble equal in height to two or three of the horizontal courses which constitute the inner part of the wall. Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation

• Orthostyle (Greek: ὃρθος, straight, and στῦλος, a column) - a range of columns placed in a straight row, as for instance those of the portico or flanks of a classic temple. Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation
• Overhang:a protruding structure which may provide protection for lower levels.

P

• Parapet - a low wall built upon a platform, terrace, or roof usually located at or slightly back from the outer edge. Historically, parapets were used as a form of protection for soldiers such as atop castles. Parapets are often used as a decorative element and/or as a solid railing for rooftops and terraces. Common uses of parapets include non-structural height extension for a building such as for a decorative cornice, concealment of rooftop surfaces or equipment, or horizontal alignment or emphasis of building masses.

• Parclose - screen or railing used to enclose a chantry, tomb or chapel, in a church, and for the space thus enclosed.

File:Walcourt - Parclose - Satire d'une nourice.JPG

Parclose of de Saint Materne Basilica in Walcourt.

• Pavilion (structure) - a free standing structure near the main building or an ending structure on building wings

• Pediment - (Gr. ἀετός, Lat. fastigium, Fr. ponton), in classic architecture the triangular-shaped portion of the wali above the cornice which formed the termination of the roof behind it. The projecting mouldings of the cornice which surround it enclose the tympanum, which is sometimes decorated with sculpture.

• Peripteral - a temple or other structure where the columns of the front portico are returned along its sides as wings at the distance of one or two intercolumniations from the walls of the naos or cella. Almost all the Greek temples were peripteral, whether Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian

• Perspective - a drawing representing the building or site as it would be perceived by the eye, utilizing either One-point, Two-point, or Three-point perspective drawing technique.

• Phiale - in Ancient Roman and Byzantine architecture, a fountain surrounded by a domed and (usually) open portico.

• Piano nobile - the principal floor of a large house, built in the style of renaissance architecture

• Plan View - a drawing defined as a vertical orthographic projection on to a horizontal plane, with the horizontal plane cutting through the building.

• Planceer or Planchier - building element sometimes used in the same sense as a soffit, but more correctly applied to the soffit (horizontal element) of the corona in a cornice.

• Podium - a raised platform with seats for privileged attendees.

• Poppy heads - finials or other ornaments which terminate the tops of bench ends, either to pews or stalls. They are sometimes small human heads, sometimes richly carved images, knots of foliage or finials, and sometimes fleurs-de-lis simply cut out of the thickness of the bench end and chamfered. The term is probably derived from the French poupee doll or puppet used also in this sense, or from the flower, from a resemblance in shape.

• Portatête - The distance from the top of a door frame to the ceiling. Used predominantly in classical architecture were the door frames are often wider than contemporary counterparts.

• Porte Cochere - Porch roof projecting over a driveway

File:BO-portico.jpg

Portico

• Portico - a series of columns or arches in front of a building, generally as a covered walkway.

• Prick post - old architectural name given sometimes to the queen posts of a roof, and sometimes to the filling in quarters in framing.Template:Wikisource1911Enc Citation

• Prodigy Houses - The term "prodigy houses" has been applied to notable English Tudor and Elizabethan houses, usually built with a view to housing Elizabeth I and her entourage as they travelled around her realm. One such house would be Burghley

• Prostyle - free standing columns that are widely spaced apart in a row. The term is often used as an adjective when referring to a portico which projects from the main structure.

• Pseudodipteral - a temple which is like the dipteral temple except for omitting the inner row of columns.

• Pseudo-peripteral - temple in which the columns surrounding the naos have had walls built between them, so that they become engaged columns, as in the great temple at Agrigentum. In Roman temples, in order to increase the size of the celia, the columns on either side and at the rear became engaged columns, the portico only having isolated columns.

• Pteroma - in Classical architecture, the enclosed space of a portico, peristyle, or stoa, generally behind a screen of columns.

• Purlin - a horizontal structural member in a roof that supports the loads generated from the roof deck

• Pycnostyle - term given by Vitruvius to the intercolumniation between the columns of a temple, when this was equal to 11/2 diameters.

Q

• Quadriporticus - also known as a quadriportico - a four-sided portico. The closest modern parallel would be a colonnaded quadrangle.

• Quatrefoil - Four-lobed motif; usually in block shape

• Quoins - Units of cut stone or brick used to accentuate the vertical corners of building

R

• Rear vault - vault of the internal hood of a doorway or window to which a splay has been given on the reveal, sometimes the vaulting surface is terminated by a small rib known as the scoinson rib, and a further development is given by angle shafts carrying this rib, known as scoinson shafts.

• Reeding - Opposite of fluting; protruding half-round molding

• Recessed entryway - A door that recesses into the side of a building to form two walls on either side. Common of Victorian and colonial style designs

• Return - receding edge of a flat face. On a flat signboard, for example, the return is the edge which makes up the board's depth.

• Revolving Door - an entrance door for excluding drafts from an interior of a building. A revolving door typically consists of three or four doors that hang on a center shaft and rotate around a vertical axis within a round enclosure.

• Rib vault - The intersection of two or three barrel vaults

• Ridge Roll - Rounded cap covering exterior peak of roof

• Rincleau - Scroll or vines cut in stone

• Roof comb - the structure that tops a pyramid in monumental Mesoamerican architecture

• Rood Screen - The rood screen (also choir screen or chancel screen) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate screen, constructed of wood, stone or wrought iron; which would originally have been surmounted by a rood loft carrying the Great Rood, a sculptural representation of the Crucifixion. The screen divides the chancel from the nave

• Roundel - A curved form, especially a semicircular panel, window, or recess ofter used in the Renaissance period featuring great historical figures

• Rubble - Undressed broken stone used in construction

• Rusticated - Stonework with beveled or angled edges

S

• Semi-dome - a half-dome, in an apse or elsewhere.

• Site Plan - a specific type of plan view drawing, showing the whole context of a building or group of buildings, with boundaries, nearby structures, roads, parking lots, footpaths, hard landscaping, exterior lighting, trees, plantings, and services (such as drainage, water supply lines, and cables).

• Slype - a corridor or covered walkway that connects a cathedral or monastery transept to a chapter house

• Sommer or Summer - girder or main "summer beam" of a floor: if supported on two storey posts and open below, also called a "bress" or "breast-summer". Often found at the centerline of the house to support one end of a joist, and to bear the weight of the structure above.

• Soffit - Underside of an eave, lintel or other horizontal element

• Springer (architecture) - an architectural term for the lowest voussoir on each side of an arch.

• Sunburst (design) - a design or figure commonly used in architectural ornaments and design patterns, including art nouveau

• Systyle - in the classical orders, this describes columns rather thickly set, with an intercolumniation to which two diameters are assigned

• Spandrel - in a building facade, esp. glass, the section covering floor partions.

• String Course - A string course or band course is a thin projecting course of brickwork or stone that runs horizontally around a building, typically to emphasize the junction between floors, or just below the eaves. If you look at the string course at Burghley house you will see is that it is slanted

T

• Tiltyard - is an enclosed courtyard for jousting (also known as "tilting"). Tiltyards were a common feature of late medieval castles and palaces. The Horse Guards Parade in London was formerly the tiltyard constructed by Henry VIII adjacent to Whitehall Palace. Henry VIII also constructed a tiltyard at Hampton Court Palace, where one of the towers is known as the Tiltyard Tower.
• Tracery - Tracery is an architectural term used primarily to describe the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out. Types include Circular, Recticular and Straight Mullions e.g.New College Oxford
• Transcept - The transept forms the arms of the church building. In English cathedrals of monastic foundation there are often two transepts. The intersection where the nave and transept meet is called the crossing and is often surmounted by a small spire called a flèche, a dome or, particularly in England, a large tower with or without a spire
• Transom - horizontal element in a window (cf. mullion) or above a door but within its vertical frame.
• Truss - A framework of linear elements that achieves its stability through the geometric rigidity of triangular formations of these elements. Typically made of wood or steel, and engineered for specific applications with respect to withstanding forces of compression and tension of the members, trusses are used to function as beams or cantilevers to support bridges, roofs, etc.
• Tympanum - the triangular space enclosed between the horizontal cornice of the entablature and the sloping cornice of the pediment. Though sometimes left plain, it is often decorated (Greek τύμπανον, from τύπτειν, to strike).

V

• Veranda - Porch that runs along front or side of a building; supported by pillars or columns
• Vermiculation - Decorative masonry surface with shallow channels
• Vestibule - a passage, hall, or room between the outer door and the interior of a building;lobby
• Volute - Scroll shape found on Ionic capital
• architecture:Vomitorium-a passage situated below or behind a tier of seats in an amphitheatre or a stadium, through which big crowds can exit rapidly at the end of a performance. Most likely to the arched / Romanesque in style
• Voussoir - Wedge-shaped stones forming curved parts of an arch