Architectural Vocabulary

ABACUS A plain square slab forming the topmost member of a capital.

ACANTHUS A plant with thick, fleshy leaves used as a model for carved ornament on Corinthian capitals.

AESTHETICS The study of what is beautiful; in architecture, beauty as perceived by the senses and emotions.

AGORA An open-air market or meeting place in a Greek town.

APSE A semi-circular area at the east end of a church, which originally contained an altar.

APTERAL A classical style building with columns on the end, but not on the sides.

AQUEDUCT A structure, in the form of a channel or bridge, used by the Romans to transport water.

ARABESQUE Surface decorations using intricate flowing lines and geometric patterns.

ARCADE A group of arches on columns or pillars, which are either free- standing or attached to a wall.

ARCH A curved structure composed of wedge-shaped elements, used to span an opening.

ARCHITRAVE The lowest member of the entablature, which, as a beam, extends from column to column.

ARCUATED Construction employing the arch form.

ASTYLAR A term used to describe a facade without columns.

ATRIUM An inner court open to the sky, but surrounded by a roof.

BALDACCHINO A free-standing canopy supported by columns symbolically sheltering an altar, throne, or tomb.

BAPTISTERY A building used for baptismal services.

BASE The lowest part of a structure.

BASILICA In Roman architecture, an oblong building used for public administration, from which Early Christian churches evolved.

BATTER The inclined face of a wall.

BAY The unit of space between the supporting columns of a building.

BEMA The raised stage used by the clergy in Early Christian churches.

BOSS An ornamental knob covering the intersection of ribs in a vault or ceiling.

BRACKET A small projecting member used to support a weight.

BRISE-SOLEIL A permanent sun shield covering the windows of a building.

BUTTRESS A mass of masonry built against a wall to provide additional strength.

CAMPANILE The bell tower of a church, usually detached from the rest of the building.

CAPITAL The topmost feature of a column.

CARYATID Sculptured female figure used as a column or support.

CELLA The main body of a Greek or Roman temple. (See Naos)

CENTERING The temporary scaffoldin' used to support an arch or vault.

CHANCEL The eastern part of a church, reserved for the choir and clergy.

CHAPELS Separate places of worship in churches, usually in honor of particular saints.

CHEVET The east end of a church containing the apse and ambulatory.

CIBORIUM Same as Baldacchino

CLERESTORY That part of a building which rises above adjacent portions of the building below and contains windows.

CLOISTERS Roofed or vaulted passages connecting a church with the other parts of a monastery.

COFFERS Sunken or recessed square or octagonal panels of a ceiling.

COLONNADE A row of columns carrying an entablature or arches.

COLUMN A circular upright support, consisting of a base, shaft and capital

COMPOSITE A Roman order with a capital combining elements of the Ionic and Corinthian orders.

CORBEL A small projecting element used for the support of horizontal members.

CORNICE The topmost section of an entablature.

CORTILE A courtyard surrounded by arcades.

CRENELATION The notched battlement of a palace or fortification that shielded the warrior while allowing space for his weapon to be fired.

CROCKET A decoratively carved piece of stone projecting at regular inter vats from the angles of spires and pinnacles.

CUPOLA A small dome and its support that crowns a structure.

CROSSING The space formed where the transept crosses the nave and chance of a church.

DENTILS Small square blocks used in Ionic and Corinthian cornices.

DIPTEROS A building with a double row of columns on each side.

DOSSERET A block or slab set on top of a capital for additional support of the arch above.

DRUM A cylindrical shell that supports a dome or a cupola.

ECHINUS The curved moulding supporting the abacus in Doric capitals.

ECLECTIC The freedom to select and assemble parts from varied historic periods and styles.

ENGAGED COLUMN A column attached to, or partly built into, a wall or pier. (Also called applied column or attached column)

ENTABLATURE The upper part of a Greek or Roman Order, comprising architrave, frieze, and cornice.

ENTASIS The swelling or outward curve of a column shaft, designed to counteract the optical illusion that would occur if the column were straight.

FAN VAULT Vaulting in which all tbe ribs radiate from one point, in the shape of a fan.

FINIAL The small, ornamental feature at the top of a pinnacle or gable.

FLAMBOYANT A late French Gothic term used to describe window tracery carved in the shape of flames.

FLECHE A slender spire rising from the ridge of a roof, often over the crossing.

FLUTE The vertical grooving on the shaft of a column.

FLYING BUTTRESS A stone arch that transmits the thrust of a vault or roof across the intervening space to a buttress.

FRIEZE The part of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice.

GABLE The triangular portion of a wall formed at the end of a pitched roof.

GARGOYLE A projecting water spout, carved in the form of a grotesque figure, human or animal.

GREEK CROSS A cross with four arms of equal length.

GROIN The curved edge formed by the intersection of two vaults or two surfaces of a vault.

HYPAETHRAL Used to describe a building without a roof and open to the sky.

HYPOSTYLE A large space over which the roof is supported by massed rows of columns. Applied to the forest like halls of Egyptian temples.

IMPLUVIUM The rainwater basin in the center of an atrium in a Roman house.

KEYSTONE The central stone of a rib vault or arch.

LANTERN A circular structure of open construction on the roof or dome of a building.

LINTEL A structural member placed over an opening and supporting construction above.

MACHICOLATION A projecting parapet with floor openings through which boiling oil or stones were dropped on the enemy below.

MASTABA An Egyptian tomb, built above ground, with sloping sides and a flat roof.

MEGARON The principal large hall in Mycenaean and Greek architecture.

MODULAR A system composed of standarized units or sections for easy construction or flexible arrangement.

MODULOR Le Corbusier's system of proportioning based on the male human body.

MONOLITH A single block of stone, usually in the form of a column or monument.

MOULDING A narrow projecting band of stone used on walls or columns.

MUTULE A projecting flat block above the triglyphs on the underside of a Doric cornice.

NAPS The principal inner room of a Greek temple containing the statue of the deity.

NARTHEX The open porch of a church or vestibule at the entrance end of a church.

NAVE The central portion of a church used by the congregation.

NICHE A recess set in a wall to hold a statue or decorative object.

OBELISK A tall, tapering shaft of stone, square in section and pyramidal on top.

ORGANIC Architecture having direct form and economy of materials, as is common to natural organisms. Term used by F. L. Wright and followers.

OGEE A double curved shape made up of a convex and concave curve, applied to a molding or an arch.

OGIVALE A term used to describe Gothic architecture in France.

ORDER A classical column arrangement, including the base, shaft, and capital, which support the entablature.

PEDIMENT The triangular gabled end of a temple roof above the entablature.

PENDENTIVE A triangular piece of sphere by means of which a circular dome is supported over a square or polygonal compartment.

PERIPTERAL Descriptive of a building surrounded by a single row of columns.

PERISTYLE An open space or a building surrounded by a range of columns and colonnade.

PIER A solid masonry support, usually fatter than a column.

PILASTER An engaged rectangular pillar projecting slightly from the wall.

PILLAR An upright structure of any shape used as a building support.

PILOTI The French term for the columns that raise a building off the ground, as used by Le Corbusier.

PINNACLE A spherical upright structure crowning a spire or buttress.

PLINTH A flat slab member beneath the base of a column, or the projecting base of any building.

PODIUM A continuous low wall which forms a base for the construction above.

PORTICO A structure covered by a roof and supported by columns on at least one side, usually attached to a building as an entrance porch.

PRONAOS An open vestibule at the front of a temple, enclosed by side walls, with columns in front.

PYLON A masonry tower with a central opening, forming the entrance to an ancient Egyptian temple.

QUOIN Corner stones used at the angles of buildings to visually indicate strength.

RIB A projecting structural member used to carry the -infilled panels of a vault.

ROCOCO An expression evolving from the Baroque style, using a variety of materials to give a lavish, very ornamental effect.

ROSE WINDOW Also, wheel window. A round window in a Gothic church whose mull ions converge like wheel Spokes, between which is stained glass.

RUSTICATION A form of masonry in which roughened blocks are separated from each other by recessed joints to give a rich and contrasting texture to an exterior wall.

SEXPARTITE VAULT A vault containing six compartments.

SHAFT The part of a column between the base and the capital.

SOFFIT The underside of a building part.

SPANDREL The triangular space between the curves of adjacent arches.

SPIRE A tall tapering structure, rising from a tower or roof and ending in a point.

SQUINCH The corner filler of masonry that is placed diagonal 1y at the interior angle of a square structure in order to translate the upper space to an octagon.

STOA A detached portico, used as a meeting place.

STYLOBATE The masonry base on which a colonnade is placed.

TESSERA The small pieces of glass, stone, or marble used in mosaics.

THERMAE Roman public baths.

THOLOS A circular domed building.

TRABEATED Construction employing the post and beam form.

TRACERY The delicate ornamental work forming the upper part of a Gothic window.

TRANSEPT The part of a cruciform church at right angles to the main part of the building.

TRIFORIUM The space in a church which is open to the nave and falls between the sloping roof over the aisle and the aisle vaulting.

TRIGLYPHS Vertically grooved blocks, separated by metopes, which form a distinguishing feature in a Doric frieze.

TUNNEL OR BARREL VAULT Also wagon vault. The simplest form of vault, having the form of a very deep arch.

TYMPANUM The triangular surface bounded by the sloping and horizontal cornices of a pediment. Also, the area between the lintel of a doorway and the arch above it.

VAULT An arched structure, usually made of stone or brick, forming a ceiling over any building.

VESTIBULE A passage or anteroom between the outer door and the interior parts of a building.

VIADUCT A bridge for carrying a road over a valley, usually consisting of several arched spans

VOLUTE The spiral scroll of an Ionic or Corinthian capital.

VOUSSOIRS Wedge shaped blocks use' to form an arch or vault.

WHEEL WINDOW See Rose Window.

ZIGGURAT The mud-brick stepped pyramids in Mesopotamlan sacred architecture.