Architecture Terminology

Abacus At the top of a capital, a thick rectangular slab of stone Architrave that serves as the flat, broad surface on which the architrave A square beam that is the lowest of the three horizontal rests. components of a Classical entablature.

Ambulatory Ashlar A semicircular or polygonal passageway around the apse of Building stone that has been squared and finished, and the a church. masonry constructed of such blocks.

Arcade A series of arches supported on piers or columns. A "blind" BALUSTRADE: a railing of small posts or balusters topped arcade is a row of arches applied to the wall as an ornamental by a coping usually at the edge of stairs or on a roof. feature.

Barrel Vault A half-cylindrical vault, semicircular or pointed in cross Arch section; also called tunnel vault. A structural devise, curved in shape, to span an opening by means of wedge-shaped bricks or stones (voussoirs) that support each other by exerting mutual pressure and that are buttressed at the sides.

BRACKET: a supporting feature under an eave line or raincap, Clerestory usually decorative. A part of a building that rises above adjoining roof-tops and is pierced by window openings to admit light to the interior.

Buttress A projecting mass of masonry serving to provide additional strength for the wall as it resists the lateral thrust exerted by an arch or vault. Plying Buttress: in a church, a buttress in the form of an arch, or set of arches, that carries the thrust of a nave vault over the side aisle roofs down to a massive external pier.

Cloister An open square court surrounded by a covered ambulatory, often arcaded. It is generally attached to a church or monastery and is distinguished from a secular courtyard by its function as a lace of seclusion and repose.

Capital The uppermost part of a column, usually shaped to articulate the joint with the lintel or arch supported; in Classical types, comprising an abacus, echinus, and other carved detail.

Coffering Recessed panels, square or polygonal, that ornament a vault,

ceiling, or the underside (soffit) of an arch. Caryatid A sculpted female figure used as a support in place of a column or pier.

Column Corinthian Order A vertical, usually cylindrical, support, commonly consisting of The most richly embellished of the three orders (Doric, a base, shaft, and capital; in Classical architecture, its parts are Ionic, and Corinthian) developed by the Greeks, with a governed by proportional rules. tall capital composed of a bell-shaped core (kalathoss) enveloped by layers of acanthus leaves terminating in the corner volutes, surmounted by concave-sided abacus.

Cornice The uppermost, projecting portion of an entablature; also Composite Order the crowing horizontal molding of a building or wall. One of the five Classical orders; favored in late Roman architecture. On the capital, large conjoined Ionic volutes are combined with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.

CUPOLA: a small structure situated on top of a roof, often domed with solid walls or four arches and covering a circular or polygonal area.

Compound Pier A pier with columns, shafts, and pilasters attached, sometimes in clusters, to its faces.

DENTILS: small tooth like projections adorning an area under an overhang; square blocks in series under a cornice.

Corbel Diaphragm Arch A masonry block projecting from a wall to support a A transverse arch across the nave of a church partitioning superincumbent element. the roof into sections.

Dome Echinus A curved vault that is erected on a circular base and that A convex, cushion like molding between the shaft and is semicircular, pointed, or bulbous in section. If raised the abacus in the Doric or Tuscan order; in an Ionic over a square or polygonal base transitional squinches capital, found beneath the volutes, generally in or pendentives must be inserted at the corners of the decorated form. base to transform it into a near circle.

Engaged Column Doric Order A column attached to or appearing to be partly embedded The column and entablature developed on mainland within a wall. Greece; the fluted columnar shaft is without a base; its capital is an abacus above a simple cushion like molding (echinus). The entablature has a plain architrave, a frieze composed of metopes and triglyphs, and a cornice with projecting blocks (mutules). In Roman Doric, the column is slimmer than the Greek prototype, is unfluted, and stands on a low base; the capital is smaller.

Entablature The upper part of a Classical order comprising architrave, frieze, and cornice.

Drum The cylindrical or polygonal wall supporting a dome.

Entasis The slight swelling of the vertical profile of a Classical column as it tapers toward the top to counteract the illusion of concavity that accompanies straight-sided One of the cylindrical sections comprising the shaft of a columns. (orange lines exaggerated) column.

Frieze Exedra A horizontal band, sometimes painted or decorated A semicircular recess or niche; a large apse. with sculpture or moldings. It may run along the upper portion of a wall just beneath a cornice or it may be that part of a classical entablature that lies between the architrave and cornice. A Doric frieze often has continuous relief sculpture.

Facade The principal exterior face of a building, usually the front.

Gable A triangular element. It may be the end of a pitched roof framed by the sloping sides. It also refers to the top of a Gothic panel, or to the triangular area above the portals of a Gothic building.

FANLIGHTS: an arched window with radiating glazing bars that imitate a fan, placed over a door; loosely any over-door window.

FINIAL: a formal ornamentation fixed to the top of a peak, arch, gable, etc. Groin Vault A vault formed when two barrel vaults of identical size intersect at right angles (also called a cross vault).

Fluting The shallow concave channels cut vertically into the shaft of a column or pilaster. In Doric columns, they meet in a sharp edge (arris); in Ionic, Corinthian, and

Composite columns, they are separated by a narrow strip.

Ionic Order Lunette One of the five Classical Orders, the Ionic is characterized A semicircular wall area, or opening, above a door or by a scroll-shaped (voluted) capital element, the presence window; when above the portal of a church, often called of dentils in the cornice, and a frieze that might contain a tympanum. continuous relief ornament.

Melon Dome/Umbrella Dome A dome subdivided into individual concave webs; Keystone sometimes called an umbrella dome. The central voussoir at the top of a completed arch.

Molding A sculpted, ornamental band, carved with a distinctive profile or pattern; highly developed in Classical architecture.

Lantern A cylindrical or polygonal structure that crowns a dome, its base usually open to allow light to enter the area below.

Mullion A slender upright dividing an opening, usually a window, into two or more sections. Loggia An arcade supported by piers or columns, open on one side at least; either part of a building (as a porch) or a separate structure.

Oculus Pediment A round window. A triangular space formed by the raking cornices (sloping sides) and horizontal cornice of a gabled temple; also used above a door or window. If the apex or base is split, the pediment is described as broken.

Palladian Motif A triple opening formed by a central semicircular arch s pringing from the entablature of narrower flanking square-headed bays, used by architect Andrea Palladio. Piano Nobile The principal reception and living area in an Italian palace, the first floor above the ground.

Parapet A low wall for protection at the edge of a balcony, terrace, roof, bridge, etc.

Piazza The Italian term for a city square.

Pedestal

A supporting substructure for a column or statue. Pilaster A column is flattened, rectangular shape, projecting slightly form the face of the wall.

Plinth RAINCAP: feature over an opening such as a window or door, A generally square block forming the bottommost element a wide trim developed to shed water away from the opening. of a column base; or the projecting lowest portion of a wall. Can be heavy and decorated or light and plain.

Rib Portico A slender, projecting arched member of a vault, used to An open, colonnaded, roofed space serving as a porch facilitate its construction, reinforce its structure, or articulate before the entrance to a building. its form in varying ways in Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic, Gothic, and Baroque architecture.

Post and Lintel

A system of construction in which two or more uprights Rib Vault support a horizontal beam; also called trabeated. An arched ceiling or roof supported or reinforced by ribs.

Quoin Large stone or block laid at the corner of a building ROUNDEL: a circular moulding. (or at an opening) used either for reinforcement of the angle or for ornament.

Rustication Stringcourse Masonry with massive, strongly textured or rough-hew blocks and sharply sunk joints, distinguished form A continuous, projecting horizontal course of masonry, smooth ashlar. usually molded, running along, the surface of a wall, to mark an architectural subdivision.

Shaft Tracery The cylindrical body of a column between capital and base. Ornamental intersecting stonework in Gothic windows, panels, and screen of Gothic buildings; also used on the surface of late Gothic vaults. Varied techniques and patterns are given names such as plate tracery (built up in coursed layers like the framing walls), bar tracery (constructed of complex fragments of the total pattern), flowing tracery (seemingly freehand, curvilinear design, though compass drawn), etc.

Spandrel The triangular area between adjoining arches, or the triangular area next to a single arch.

Spire A tall pointed termination of a tower or roof.

Vault An arched ceiling or roof made of stone, brick, or concrete (cf. barrel vault, fan vault).

Terms with images containing orange highlights are from Trachtenberg, Marvin and Isabell Hyman, Architecture, From Prehistory to Postmodernity: the Western tradition, 2nd Ed., Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall; New York: H.N. Abrams, 2002