crenellated

en-adj

crenellated (comparative more crenellated, superlative most crenellated)

more crenellated (comparative)
most crenellated (superlative)
crenelated (alternative)

She could see the town below her, nestled on top of a low hill, surrounded by a crenellated wall from the Middle Ages.

2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 52:


brick veneer

Many home buyers like the low maintenance and quality look of a brick veneer home. The veneer will never need painting; it will protect the house from wind (Figure 1); and if the work is done right, the veneer will last the lifetime of the house.

1997, Steven Bliss, Troubleshooting Guide to Residential Construction, page 74:

2003, Ali M. Memari, Mohammad Aliaari, Ahmad A. Hamid, Evaluation of Seismic Performance of Anchored Brick Veneer Walls, Paul G. Johnson, Performance of Exterior Building Walls, page 115,
Brick veneer walls are supported in most cases by shelf angles attached to the floor slab at each story and are supposed to carry only ther own weight and not participate in inplane lateral load resistance […] In this paper, it is discussed how the vertical differential movement between the brick veneer and the frame can close the gap between the underside of the shelf angle and the top course of brick, thus putting the brick veneer under high compressive stresses.

2010, The Complete Guide to Masonry and Stonework, 3rd edition, Black & Decker, page 262,
And because brick veneer does not require mortar, installation is well within the capabilities of interested homeowners.

(architecture) A building construction technique in which an external, non-structural, brick wall conceals a structural wall of another material (such as timber or steel).


casemate

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-casemate.wav

From French casemate, from Italian casamatta. Further origin unclear, could be a compound casa (“house”) + matta (“mat (of straw), roof made of such material”), or borrowed from Greek χάσματα (chásmata) the plural of χάσμα (chásma, “gap”), presumably referring to the loopholes for shooting from.

compound

(architecture) A hollow molding, chiefly in cornices.


fortification curtain

en-noun

fortification curtain (plural fortification curtains)

(architecture) The section of a wall or rampart between two gates, bastions, towers or the like.


arching

(architecture) The arched part of a structure.


dogtrot

From Middle English dogge trot; equivalent to dog + trot.

Old Billy Dill and his ugly wife and son are sitting together in the dogtrot.

The dogtrot was protected from the rain and, because its front and back were open, the Bernoulli principle provided a cooling effect ...

2007, Allen George Noble, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 34:

(architecture, Southern US) A breezeway, open passageway, or open hallway between two sections of a house.

One Appalachian solution to the problem of adding needed living space to an existing small cabin was the dogtrot, sometimes called the dogrun, possum trot, two pens-and-a-passage, double house, or erroneously the double pen.

2007, Allen George Noble, Traditional Buildings: A Global Survey of Structural Forms and Cultural Functions (Architecture), I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 33:

(architecture, Southern US) A type of house with an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house.


dogtrot

If America can claim any significant development in log construction, it might be the dogtrot cabin, … Henry Glassie believes that the dogtrot form developed in the southern Tennessee Valley area ...

1977, Charles van Ravenswaay, The Arts and Architecture of German Settlements in Missouri, reprint edition (History), University of Missouri Press, published 2006, →ISBN, page 131:

(architecture, Southern US) Having an open breezeway or hallway between two sections of a house.


stoa

stoa (plural stoae or stoæ or stoai or stoas)

stoae (plural)
stoæ (plural)
stoai (plural)
stoas (plural)

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek στοά (stoá).

lbor

They could not vote, attend the theater, or walk in the stoa talking philosophy.

1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson:

In Ancient Greece, a walkway with a roof supported by colonnades, often with a wall on one side; specifically, the Great Hall in Athens.


tempietto

Trowbridge & Livingston designed a chubby granite tower in the neo-Classical style topped not by a tempietto, a cupola or a spire — all used in previous high buildings — but a steep, massive pyramid of 24 steps.

2007 January 21, Christopher Gray, “Bankers Trust: The Building Known for Its Ziggurat Top”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A small, temple-like building


floor plan

floor plans (plural)
floorplan (alternative)
floor-plan (alternative)

Show visitors use the showguide (with floor-plan and ads) to pre-plan their limited visiting time […]

1985, Walter S. Kelley, Henry G. Lord, Walter Bradford Guild, Textile World, volume 135, page 57:

(architecture) A diagram, usually to scale, showing the layout of a building.


multibay

(architecture, of a structure) Having three or more rigid supports.


piloti

From French pilotis, from Middle French pilot (“stake”). Attested from the 17th century.

(architecture) One of the columns, pillars, or stilts that lift a building above ground or water.


sand trap

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sand trap.wav

(architecture) A basin that prevents the passage of sand etc into a drainage system.


congé

Borrowed from French congé, from Latin commeātus (“a leave; permission for a leave”). As an architectural term, a French calque of ἀποφυγή (apophugḗ, “a leave, an escape; an architectural feature”).

der

(architecture) Synonym of apophyge or cavetto, supports at the top or bottom of pillars, particularly rings or ferrils in the extremities of wooden pillars, added to provide support and prevent splintering, their imitation in stone, or a molding in the form of a quarter round.


gradino

(architecture) A step or raised shelf, as above a sideboard or altar.


cyclostylar

(architecture) Of or pertaining to a cyclostyle (a circular group of columns without a core).


Cyzicene

Derived from the Latin word cyzicenus used by Vitruvius; from the city of Cyzicus.

(architecture) Of or pertaining to, or being, a large north-facing hall with a prospect towards the gardens; the windows of this hall opened down to the ground, so that the green verdure could be seen by those lying on the couches.


metope

metopes (plural)
metopa (alternative obsolete)

From Latin metopa and its source, Koine Greek μετόπη (metópē), from μετά (metá, “between”) + ὀπή (opḗ, “hole”).

af

There's a second plate of that metope that shows the full figures of both Perseus and Medusa and includes the winged horse Pegasus that was born of Medusa's blood.

1996, Russell Hoban, Fremder, Bloomsbury, published 2003, page 117:

Architects working on the recent restoration programme have found clear evidence that in its first design the building featured just a row of metope panels over the east and west entrances, where the frieze now runs […].

2002, Mary Beard, The Parthenon, Profile Books, published 2010, page 128:

(architecture) The architectural element between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze.


plancher

(architecture) The underside of a cornice; a soffit.


chambranle

/ˈʃɒmbɹɒnlə/

(architecture) In architecture, the case or frame used on three sides around a chamber door, large window, or fireplace mantel, and the border decorations.


Catherine wheel

en-noun

Catherine wheel (plural Catherine wheels)

Catherine wheels (plural)
Catharine wheel (alternative)
Catharine-wheel (alternative)
Catherine-wheel (alternative)
catherine wheel (alternative)
catherine-wheel (alternative)

Saint Catherine of Alexandria was said to have been sentenced to execution on such a wheel, which shattered at her touch.


origamic architecture

The three-dimensional reproduction of architecture, geometric patterns, and everyday objects, on various scales, using cut-out and folded paper, usually thin cardboard.


bay window

From Middle English baywyndow, baywyndowe, bay-windowe, equivalent to bay + window where bay refers to an opening between columns.

(architecture) A window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room.


bossing

(architecture) A boss; a projecting element.


clipeus

(architecture) An ornamental disk of marble in this shape.


splayed

a splayed door frame

(architecture) Of a door or a window: bevelled so as to be larger on one side of the wall than on the other.


trussing

1849-1850, John Weale, Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms used in Architecture, Building, and Engineering
Beds (Trussing) were beds which packed into chests , for travelling ; and , considering the frequent removals , these must have been the most convenient kind .

(architecture, engineering) The timbers, etc., that form a truss.


emergency exit

As well as their obvious novelty value, the Class 313s offered fast acceleration, those power-operated sliding doors, non-opening passenger windows, closed ventilators to prevent any body part, head or limbs reaching out, drivers' and guards' doors opening inwards, and end doors for emergency exit.

2023 February 22, Howard Johnston, “Southern '313s': is the end now in sight?”, in RAIL, number 977, page 42:

An exit that is designed to allow rapid evacuation in the case of emergencies such as a fire.


painted lady

An archetypal American streetscape is lined with Aesthetic movement houses: Stick Style cottages with muscular roof trusses and exposed timbering; many-colored painted ladies with gingerbread porches; […]

2006, Karen Zukowski, Creating the Artful Home, Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, page 80:

(US, architecture) A Victorian house repainted with vibrant colors to accentuate the architectural design, especially in San Francisco, California.


air brick

air bricks (plural)
airbrick (alternative)

(architecture) A brick-sized block with holes which is embedded in a wall to allow ventilation through it.


gradin

(architecture) Any of a series of terraced steps or seats, as in an arena or an altar.


cubile

Learned borrowing from Latin cubīle (“bed”).

lbor

(obsolete, architecture) The lowest course of stones in a building.


scape

From Latin scāpus, from Doric Greek σκᾶπος (skâpos). Doublet of native English shaft.


aegicrane

(architecture) The decorative carved head of a ram or goat.


quadra

(architecture) The plinth, or lowest member, of any pedestal, podium, water table, or the like.


poché

en-noun

poché (countable and uncountable, plural pochés)

(architecture) Areas of an architectural plan or section that are filled in, often by cross-hatching or solid black, to show wall thicknesses, floor thicknesses and all other solid areas that intersect the plane of the section cut.


poché

en-verb

poché (third-person singular simple present pochés, present participle pochéing, simple past and past participle pochéed or pochéd)

pochés (present singular third-person)
pochéing (participle present)
pochéed (participle past)
pochéed (past)
pochéd (participle past)
pochéd (past)

(architecture, transitive) To fill (areas of an architectural plan or section) in this manner.


ridgeline

(architecture) The topmost edge along a roof, where its sloping sides meet.


spring line

spring lines (plural)
springing line (alternative)
springline (alternative)

(architecture) A line above which an arch starts curving inward.


cabling

en-noun

cabling (countable and uncountable, plural cablings)

(architecture) The decoration of a fluted shaft of a column or of a pilaster with reeds, or rounded mouldings, which seem to be laid in the hollows of the fluting.


zoophorous

(architecture) Alternative spelling of zoophorus.


arc-boutant

arc-boutants (plural)
arc boutant (alternative)

Unadapted borrowing from French arc-boutant.

ubor

(architecture) Synonym of flying buttress.


rose window

From the resemblance to the petals of a rose.

Any circular window, especially one of those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery.


scagliola

en-noun

scagliola (usually uncountable, plural scagliolas)

scagliolas (plural)
scaliola (alternative archaic)

Borrowed from Italian scagliola, a diminutive of scaglia.

‘I must work the garden—I must work the garden,’ I said to myself, five minutes later, as I waited, upstairs, in the long, dusty sala, where the bare scagliola floor gleamed vaguely in a chink of the closed shutters.

1888 September 29, Henry James, “[The Aspern Papers.]”, in The Aspern Papers; Louisa Pallant; The Modern Warning, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 13:

Plasterwork imitating marble, granite, etc.


slype

Then he ventures down the slypes which lead between pavilions into the cloister yards.

2022, Jim Crace, eden, Picador, page 62:

(architecture) A covered passageway, especially one connecting the transept of a cathedral or monastery to the chapter house.


counterscarp

(architecture) The outer slope of a defensive or fortified ditch


ad hocism

ad hocism (countable and uncountable, plural ad hocisms)

ad hocisms (plural)
ad-hocism (alternative)

(architecture) An eclectic style in which various separately designed elements are combined.


rood screen

rood screens (plural)
rood-screen (alternative)

The church at Randworth is without aisles, and consists of a chancel and nave only. The rood-screen proper, i.e., the arcade with panels below, is placed, as usual, between the piers of the chancel arch.

1867, Illustrations of the Rood-screen at Randworth: Published under the Direction of the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society. Drawn and Lithographed by C[ornelius] J[ansen] W[alter] Winter, Norwich: Printed for the Society by Miller and Leavins, →OCLC, page 4:

An ancient rood screen usually, probably always, consisted of a loft from twelve to twenty feet high, and five to ten feet broad, protected by two parapets, the one towards the chancel the other towards the nave, running its entire length, sometimes quite across the church. […] The space below the loft was filled up by carved work called the rood screen, to screen off the chancel from the nave. This rood screen [in St Edmund's Church, Southwold] is all that ruthless iconoclasts have suffered to remain.

1874, “Halesworth Meeting, August 11, 1870. The Lord John Hervey, President.”, in Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archæology, and Natural History. Established March, 1848, for the Collection and Publication of Information on the Ancient Arts and Monuments of the County of Suffolk, volume IV, Bury St. Edmund's: George Thompson, bookseller, Abbeygate Street, →OCLC, page 451:

Exhibited in the treasury of Durham Cathedral are two stone relief panels, dated 1155–60, whose damaged appearance belies their significance for our understanding of the liturgical division of space in twelfth-century cathedrals[…]. Although easily overlooked, these panels belonged to what was perhaps the single most important piece of ecclesiastical furniture in the Romanesque cathedral of Durham: the rood screen. Like all Romanesque sculpture in our museums and treasuries today, these panels have been uprooted from their original, medieval context. […] The scarcity of evidence for the decorative elaboration of rood screens in the twelfth century makes the Durham panels important vestiges of a type of ecclesiastical furniture whose origin is still obscure to us.

1994, Thomas E. Russo, “The Romanesque Rood Screen of Durham Cathedral: Context and Form”, in David Rollason, Margaret Harvey, Michael Prestwich, editors, Anglo-Norman Durham, 1093–1193, Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, →ISBN, page 251:

There are about eighty rood screens in Norfolk, which divide the chancel from the nave, most of them dating from 1450–1530, and generally made of wood and adorned with painted saints. […] Rood screens were perceived as aids to devotional meditation.

2000, Susan Signe Morrison, “The Milky Way: Women Pilgrims and Visual Art”, in Women Pilgrims in Late Medieval England: Private Piety as Public Performance (Routledge Research in Medieval Studies; 3), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 27:

The rood-screen was normally a stone or wooden partition, solid to waist-height and then pierced with openings to allow sight of the high altar, and a doorway to permit access to the officiating ministers. A great crucifix, usually supported by a heavy beam, stretched across the top of the screen.

2012, Eamon Duffy, “The Parish, Piety and Patronage: The Evidence of Rood-screens”, in Saints, Sacrilege and Sedition: Religion and Conflict in the Tudor Reformations, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 58:

(architecture, Christianity) A carved screen that separated the chancel and nave in a medieval church; it originally carried a large crucifix; an altar screen.


tsuridono

Borrowed from Japanese 釣殿, literally "fishing pavilion".

(architecture) One of a set of small pavilions connected to a tainoya by watadonos in the Japanese Court architecture of the Heian Period; used for concerts or garden viewing.


Doric order

The least ornate of the three styles of classical Greek architecture.

ordre dòric

one of the three styles of classical Greek architecture


critical angle

(architecture) The angle beyond which a ramp or a set of stairs is considered uncomfortable or unsafe.


skewback

The avalanche shelter itself consists of a series of heavily reinforced arches, supported by substantial piers on the cliff-side, and on skewbacks cut deep into the rock on the other.

1943 March and April, “A British Avalanche Shelter”, in Railway Magazine, page 80:

(architecture) The side of an arch; the course of masonry on the top of an abutment with a slope for the base of the arch to rest against.


traverse

From Middle English traversen, from Old French traverser, from Latin trans (“across”) + versus (“turned”), perfect passive participle of Latin vertere (“to turn”).

(architecture) A gallery or loft of communication from side to side of a church or other large building.


lucarne

Borrowed from French lucarne, from Germanic. See below.

(architecture) A window or opening in an industrial building that supports a hoist above doors on a lower floor.


bargeboard

Not that one would realise that now, when looking at the quality of its restoration, and of the timber work, panelling, bargeboards, spandrels and cast-iron columns [...].

2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honouur the best restoration projects: The Chairman's Special Award: Cholsey & Wallingford Railway”, in RAIL, number 946, page 54:

(architecture) Alternative spelling of barge board.


coussinet

The intrados of a simple vault is generally formed of the portion of the surface of a cylinder, cylindroid, or sphere, never greater than that of half the solid; and the springing lines of the coussinet, which terminate the walls from which the vault rises, are generally straight lines, parallel to the axis of the cylinder or cylindroid.

1830, Sir David Brewster, The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, page 523:

It is to be observed that in most of , if not in all , their bridges , the ancients did not increase the dimensions of their voussoirs from the crown towards the springing or coussinet, but made them of an equal thickness throughout; in this they were followed by Palladio, and all the Italian architects.

1839, Joseph Gwilt, A Treatise on the Equilibrium of Arches, page 79:

Investigation by analysis of the pressures and resistances of an arch, 1st . Hypothesis of a plat-band; stability at the springing charge necessary on the coussinet; stability of the plat-band on its piers; thickness of the piers.

1862, The American Journal of Education - Volume 12, page 212:

(architecture) A stone placed on the impost of a pier for receiving the first stone of an arch or vault.

The term balteus is also used by Vitruvius to denote the strap which seems to bind up the coussinet or cushion of the Ionic capital.

1842, Joseph Gwilt, An Encyclopædia of Architecture, page 929:

Many details merely painted on in the Doric order, like the leaves on the molding, the coussinet, etc., are presented plastically in the Ionic.

2013, Jacob Burckhardt, History of Greek Culture, page 152:

It has not only a carved coussinet, little ledge and plinth, but receives both to the right and left a spiral winding, and at the sides a decorative kind of cushion, wfrom which is derivedi ts title of the pulvinated capital.

2020, G.W.F Hegel, The Philosophy of Fine Art: Volume 3, page 64:

(architecture) Part of the Ionic capital between the abacus and quarter round, which forms the volute.


echinus

From Latin echīnus (“hedgehog; sea urchin”), from Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος (ekhînos).

(architecture) The rounded moulding forming the bell of the capital of the Grecian Doric style, which is of a peculiar elastic curve.

(architecture) The quarter-round moulding (ovolo) of the Roman Doric style.

(architecture) The egg-and-anchor or egg-and-dart moulding, because often identified with the Roman Doric capital.


bifora

(architecture) A window divided vertically into two openings by a small column or a mullion or pilaster; the openings are topped by round or pointed arches.


Cyclopean architecture

(architecture) Ancient masonry where walls are fitted together of huge irregular stones; architecture that is ancient and roughly composed.


cyma

head

cyma (plural cymas or cymae or cymæ or cymata)

cymas (plural)
cymae (plural)
cymæ (plural)
cymata (plural)
sima (alternative)
syma (alternative)
cima (alternative)
scima (alternative)

From New Latin cȳma (“young sprout or shoot of cabbage”) (whence the botanic usage of cyme), from Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “swell, wave”, “cyma”, “sprout of a plant”), from κύω (kúō, “I conceive, I become pregnant”).
For more information, click to expand this box.
Most English coinages on this root are formed on its short stem, κῡμ- (kūm-). The fact that the Ancient Greek etymon only inflects as a third-declension neuter noun has led some writers to prescribe forms that preserve the root’s long stem, κῡματ- (kūmat-), for philological reasons (see, for example, the 1903 and 1908 citations of cymatoscope), but such forms are rare.
Latinate phrases that include cyma, namely cyma inversa, cyma recta, and cyma reversa, show that, when employed as a Latin word, cȳma is treated as a first-declension feminine noun rather than as third-declension neuter consonant-stem noun.
There are several Classical precedents, both from Latin and from Ancient Greek, for formations on the short stem (κῡμ- (kūm-)) of this root, although formations on the long stem (κῡματ- (kūmat-)) are more common in Ancient Greek; consequently, whereas formations on the long stem may be preferable, especially when combined with other Ancient Greek elements, formations on the short stem are by no means incorrect.

col-top

[…] while the double-cyma or classical curve of his mouth was not without a looseness in its close.

1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

(architecture) A moulding of the cornice, wavelike in form, whose outline consists of a concave and a convex line.

Kyma

architecture: wavelike moulding of the cornice


cycloidal arch

en-noun

cycloidal arch (plural cycloidal arches)

(architecture) An arch that has a cycloidal shape, wherein the span of the arch is some factor of pi*rise.


calotte

(architecture) A round cavity or depression, in the form of a cup or cap, lathed and plastered; used to diminish the rise or elevation of a moderate chapel, alcove, etc. which would otherwise be too high for other pieces of the apartment.


awning window

A window that is hung horizontally, hinged on top, so that it swings outward.


acropodium

(architecture) A plinth or pedestal bearing a statue


antefix

antefixes (plural)
antefixa (alternative)
antefixum (alternative)

(architecture) The vertical blocks which terminate the covering tiles of the roof of a Roman, Etruscan, or Greek temple.

(architecture) Any decoration serving to cover the ends of roofing tiles.


flanging

flanging (countable and uncountable, plural flangings)


cyme

]
Borrowed from French cime, cyme (“top, summit”), from Vulgar Latin *cima, from Latin cȳma (“young sprout of a cabbage”, “spring shoots of cabbage”), from Ancient Greek κῦμα (kûma, “anything swollen, such as a wave or billow”; “fetus”, “embryo”, “sprout of a plant”), from κύω (kúō, “I conceive”, “I become pregnant”; in the aorist “I impregnate”). For considerably more information, see cyma, which is an etymological doublet. Compare also Frankish *kīmō (“sprout”), from Proto-Germanic *kīmô, whence German Keim (“sprout”).


amphiprostyle

From Latin amphiprostȳlos, from Ancient Greek ἀμφι- (amphi-) + πρόστῡλος (próstūlos, “having pillars”).

This much being sufficiently proved; before I draw the inference in contemplation, I have next to prove, the original temple was amphiprostyle, and hexastyle.

1806, Thomas Gabb, Finis Pyramidis, page 19:

Another characteristic of amphiprostyle temples was that of their porticoes, consisting of four columns only.

1854, Robert Stuart, “Amphiprostylos”, in Cyclopedia of Architecture, volume 1, page 136:

"The Ilissos Temple is the first attested amphiprostyle temple in Greek architecture."

1993, Ira S. Mark, The Sanctuary of Athena Nike in Athens:

(architecture, chiefly historical, of a temple or edifice) Having columns at either end but not along the sides.

amfipròstil

having columns at either end but not along the sides


amphiprostyle

1819, Periptere, Abraham Rees, The Cyclopædia: Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Volume 26, unnumbered page,
Peripteres were properly temples which had columns on all the four ſides; by which they were distinguished from proſtyles, and amphiproſtyles, the one of which had no columns before, and the other none on the sides.

(architecture, historical) An amphiprostyle temple or edifice.


hemicycle

(architecture) A semicircular structure.


master plan

(architecture) A small-scale graphic outline that shows all the major elements of a project.

yleissuunnitelma

a graphic outline that shows all the major elements of a building project


blocage

(architecture) The roughest and cheapest sort of rubblework, in masonry.


GSF

(architecture) Initialism of gross square footage: the total sum of the floorspace over every level of a building.


hench

(architecture) The narrow side of chimney stack, a haunch.

(architecture) The side of an arch from the topmost part (crown) to the bottommost part (impost).


great hall

Even in castles and manor houses space was limited, and rooms including the great hall were used for other functions beyond dining.

2004, Melitta Weiss Adamson, Food in Medieval Times, →ISBN, page 156:

(history, architecture) The main room of a palace, castle or large manor house in the Middle Ages, or in a country house of the 16th and early 17th centuries.

"Now this" — he indicated the great building facing them, with a handsome flight of steps up to the open door — "this is the great hall."

2005, Philippa Gregory, The Constant Princess, →ISBN:

(history, architecture) The principal building of a manor or castle compound.


Mudéjar

en-noun

Mudéjar (countable and uncountable, plural Mudéjars or Mudéjares)

Mudéjars (plural)
Mudéjares (plural)
Mudejar (alternative)

From Spanish mudéjar, from Arabic مُدَجَّن (mudajjan, “domesticated”), from the verb دَجَّنَ (dajjana, “to tame”), from دَجَنَ (dajana, “to become accustomed”).

uder

(uncountable, architecture) A style of Iberian architecture and decoration of the 12th to 16th centuries.


cantoned

a cantoned pier or pilaster

(architecture) Having the angles marked by, or decorated with, projecting mouldings or small columns.


dripstone

(architecture) A protective moulding over a door or window that allows rain to drip away from the structure.


bioclimatic

From bio- + climatic or bioclimate + -ic.

bioclimatic housing

(architecture) Focused on providing a comfortable microclimate.

βιοκλιματικός

focused on providing a comfortable microclimate


oillet

Borrowed from French œillet, from œil (“eye”), from Latin oculum, accusative singular of oculus.

Entertaining myself with such reflections as these, I had walked perhaps half a league (halting from time to time to spy out both public halls and private apartments through the oillets the place provided) when I stumbled over the body of an assassin.

1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter XLI, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 244:

(medieval architecture) A round hole or circle with which an opening for an arrowslit terminates.


bow window

The three of us stood in the bow window and occupied ourselves in admiring the magnificent view.

1913, Arthur Conan Doyle, “(please specify the page)”, in The Poison Belt […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

(architecture) A curved, bow-shaped window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building; a bay window that is curved.


apsidally

en-adv

apsidally (comparative more apsidally, superlative most apsidally)

more apsidally (comparative)
most apsidally (superlative)

The roof was terminated apsidally.

(architecture) With regard to or by means of an apse or apses


agraff

(architecture) The conical stone located in the middle of a round arch.


meros

From Ancient Greek μέρος (méros, “part”).

A triglyph consists of six parts , two and a half of which are on each side, and the meros is in the centre and constitutes one part

1882, Frederick Thomas Hodgson, The Builder's Guide, and Estimator's Price Book:

(architecture) the plain surface between the channels of a triglyph


lancet arch

(architecture) A sharp pointed arch used in doors and windows, etc. This type of architecture was peculiar to England in the 13th century.

arc apuntat

a sharp pointed arch used in doors and windows, etc.


pontine

(architecture) Of or relating to a bridge or bridges.


intervallum

en-noun

intervallum (plural intervallums or intervalla)

intervallums (plural)
intervalla (plural)

(architecture) The gap between an outer rampart and the fortress it surrounds.


Gothic arch

(architecture) An arch in the shape of ogive.


ribbed vault

(architecture) A building structure created by an intersection of two or three vaults.

volta apuntada

structure created by intersection of vaults


telamon

From Latin telamon, from Ancient Greek τελαμών (telamṓn, “pillar shaped as a male figure, strap used for carrying”).

der

(architecture) A figure of a man (often Atlas) used as a pillar for support.


remuddle

en-verb

remuddle (third-person singular simple present remuddles, present participle remuddling, simple past and past participle remuddled)

remuddles (present singular third-person)
remuddling (participle present)
remuddled (participle past)
remuddled (past)

Many survivors were badly remuddled, but several have been restored.

2004, Alice Sinkevitch et al., AIA Guide to Chicago, →ISBN, page 176:

(architecture, derogatory) To remodel a building or room in a way that obscures or destroys key aspects of the original design.


midrise

mid-rise (alternative)
mid rise (alternative)

The neighborhood is full of midrise apartment blocks.

(architecture, of a building) Neither high-rise nor low-rise; typically consisting of four to ten stories.


midrise

midrises (plural)
mid-rise (alternative)
mid rise (alternative)

A lot of new midrises have been built in this area.

(architecture) A building which is neither low-rise or high-rise.


dec.

(architecture) Clipping of decorated, a style of English Gothic architecture.


airshaft

airshafts (plural)
air shaft (alternative)
air-shaft (alternative)

There was a warren of big cabins instead, many levels opening onto walkways around a common airshaft.

1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter III, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 18:

Howard turned left and walked to the end of the building. Here was a narrow alleyway, which gave on the airshaft at the rear of the building.

(architecture) A vertical (or near vertical) opening (shaft) running from a courtyard to the sky, thus allowing air to circulate to high-rise apartments or offices.


bilevel

bilevels (plural)
bi-level (alternative)

They live in a little bilevel on the edge of town.

(architecture) A house with two adjacent levels that are less than a story apart.


arris

From Old French areste, from Latin arista (“beard (of grain), fishbone”). Doublet of arista.

der

(architecture) A sharp edge or ridge formed by the intersection of two curved surfaces


creasing

(architecture) A layer of tiles forming a corona for a wall.


shearwall

Lake Point Tower, world's tallest apartment building, concrete shearwall.

1988 January 22, Robert B. Johnson, “Great Moments in Structural Engineering”, in Chicago Reader:

(architecture) An element of a wall that resists lateral shear on a building


transenna

en-noun

transenna (plural transennas or transenne)

By this reversed direction of the high altars in the two churches each altar was, through the transenna, in view of the other.

1881, George Gilbert Scott, An Essay on the History of English Church Architecture:

Very pertinent relationships between these grisailles of the vegetal type and Islamic transennas have been established by Eva Frodl-Kraft, between that of Obazine with palmettes enchâssées, and a transenna from the Umayyad castle of Qasr-el Heir al Gharbi (about 727-750), today reconstructed at the National Museum in Damascus, and with a plaque, probably of Syrian origin, reused over a tomb in San Marco in Venice.

1982, Meredith P. Lillich, Studies in Cistercian art and architecture, page 134:

The transenne have simple geometrical designs—a common one consists of arching shapes suggestive of waves of water—and wherever these stone screens survive they give dim rippling or starlike lighting effects to church interiors.

2015, Margaret Visse, The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church:


zoophorus

/zəʊˈɒf.əɹ.əs/

Learned borrowing from Latin zōophorus, from Ancient Greek ζωοφόρος (zōophóros).

(architecture) The frieze of a column, especially one decorated with animals.


sarking

sarking (usually uncountable, plural sarkings)

Much housing work lies within this area, and to avoid high maintenance costs the Department is building many houses with plaster exteriors upon diagonal sarkings.

1947, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Jounals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, volume 3, page 18:

1997, Ann Ross, Jonathan Hetreed, Architect′s Pocket Book, 2011, 4th Edition, Elsevier, UK, page 248,
Sarkings are weatherproof membranes laid over rafters and below battens to draught-proof and weatherproof the roof against driving rain or powder snow that may penetrate the tiles or slates.
Traditional sarkings of reinforced bitumen felt have been largely superseded by lighter, breathable sarkings that can be laid to form an effectively draught-proof roof but still allow free dispersal of water vapour to avoid roof space condensation; such mterials generally avoid the need for eaves, ridge and roof slope ventilators. Where they are laid directly over insulation between rafters, or over a permeable sarking board, tiling battens are raised clear of the sarking by 25 x 50 counter battens nailed down to the tops of the rafters.

A house in Moorabbin listed for sale with Better House Removers would cost its buyer "about $75,000-$90,000" to move, including the house, restumping, rejoining, new roof, sarking and metal batons, and council permits, Mr Bernardo estimated.

2009 January 25, Caroline James, “Traps to avoid when relocating a home”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 2009-06-29:

(chiefly Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, architecture) Wood, felt, or other material placed under the shingles of a roof in order to provide support or insulation; the practice of furnishing roofs with such material; an installation of such material.


subbasement

subbasements (plural)
sub-basement (alternative)

Joan H. Geismar is trying to unravel the mystery of old stone walls in the subbasement of Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street.

2007 February 8, David W. Dunlap, “What May Have Made Good Neighbors Now Present a Puzzle”, in New York Times:

A basement located beneath another basement


enneastyle

(architecture, of a Classical temple or other structure) Having nine columns.


heptastyle

(architecture, of a Classical temple or other structure) having seven columns


monumentalism

(architecture) A style characterized by massive, monumental buildings


megastructure

megastructures (plural)
mega-structure (alternative)
mega structure (alternative)

A fusion of architecture and city planning, megastructures were supposed to bring together mixed uses -- like housing, shopping, transportation and public space -- within a single building.

1993 April 26, Herbert Muschamp, “Pritzker Prize for Japanese Architect”, in The New York Times, page C18:

(architecture) A specific type of structure characterized by very large buildings with strictly artificial forms.


skylit

And many must applaud the design of airport terminals, also of such buildings as the one that houses the Milwaukee Repertory, according to the skylit, bared-girder doming of pre-20th-century French train stations.

1988 December 23, Gary Houston, “The Beginning of the End”, in Chicago Reader:

(architecture) Receiving all or most light from the sky


pedimented

Set on a high base, with rich marble trim, it has leaded-glass windows on either side of the door, and a sophisticated arch above the central second-floor window. Mr. Palliser gave the Brush house a complex massing, with a rounded extension on the left and pedimented gables.

2007 September 23, Christopher Gray, “Kissing Cousins at 100: Only One Shows Its Age”, in New York Times:

(architecture) Furnished with a pediment


platband

(architecture) A flat fascia on an architrave, or forming a border round a window, or a horizontal band along a wall.

(architecture) A fillet on a column, between the flutings.


quoining

quoining (usually uncountable, plural quoinings)

Instead of inserting a straight vertical gap all the way up, he has staggered it so it looks like old-fashioned quoining.

2007 June 24, Christopher Gray, “A Preservation Handbook in a Few Short Blocks”, in New York Times:

(architecture) The architectural elements, such as stone or brick, that form a quoin.


barrel vault

(architecture) A simple roof having a curved, often semicircular cross section; used to span large distances in railway stations, churches, etc. Usually supported on columns.


piano nobile

piano nobile (plural piano nobiles or piani nobili)

piano nobiles (plural)
piani nobili (plural)

From Italian piano nobile (“noble floor”).

(architecture) The floor of a building where the principal bedrooms and main reception rooms are found, very often on the first or second floor in older buildings.


bossage

bossage (countable and uncountable, plural bossages)

(architecture) A rough, unfinished stone block, which is left projecting from the wall of a building to be later sculpted.


brise soleil

Borrowed from French brise-soleil, from briser (“to break”) + soleil (“sun”).

(architecture) A type of structural sunshade with slats, holes, etc, to keep sunlight from striking fully on a building.


bressummer

bressummers (plural)
breastsummer (alternative)
bressemer (alternative)
bressumer (alternative)
brestsummer (alternative)
breastsommer (alternative)
bressomer (alternative)

Alteration of breastsummer, from breast (“front or forward part”) + summer (“beam”).

af

Once the floor joists were in position, the framing of the next storey could continue, with a bressummer laid along their ends.

1986, R. J. Brown, Timber-Framed Buildings of England, London: R. Hale, →ISBN, page 63:

East Lodge at Queen's Park, Crewe, dates from 1887-1888. Its bressummer inscription commemorates the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Grand Junction Railway.

2022 September 7, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railway towns and a social revolution”, in RAIL, number 965, page 56, photo caption:

(architecture) A large, horizontal supporting beam which bears the weight of a wall starting on a first or higher floor, particularly when exposed or used to support a jetty (timber-frame overhang construction).


breastsummer

[…] warehouses and dwellings of solid brick and carved stone, with doors, window-frames, and breastsummers of stout oak, replaced irregular though not unpicturesque habitations; […

1885, Jospeh Fitzgerald Molloy, chapter XIX, in of Royalty Restored; Or, London Under Charles II:

(architecture) Alternative spelling of bressummer.


half-timbering

en-noun

half-timbering (countable and uncountable, plural half-timberings)

(architecture) A method of construction using heavy timber beams, usually joined by tenon and mortice joints pegged together. The spaces between the posts and beams is infilled with material such as wattle and daub, bricks or stones.


timber framing

(architecture) A method of construction using heavy timber beams, usually joined by tenon and mortice joints pegged together.


half-timbered

From half- (prefix meaning ‘half, partial; not complete’) + timbered.

prefix

Having ideally supposed that the County Town must be superior to all others in point of beauty and extent, we were disappointed to find it a small place, consisting of about a hundred half-timbered houses forming a miserable street.

1800, J[ohn] Evans, “Letter II”, in A Tour through Part of North Wales, in the Year 1798, and at Other Times; […], London: […] J. White, […], →OCLC, page 26:

The construction here described, is exactly similar to that followed in the old half timbered houses of England.

1820, James Loch, An Account of the Improvements on the Estates of the Marquess of Stafford, in the Counties of Stafford and Salop, and on the Estate of Sutherland. […], London: […] Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], footnote *, page 87:

Some of the streets are very narrow, with old half timbered houses on each side; Crown-street is a specimen of the early style of its street architecture.

1837, Thomas Moule, “The West Riding”, in The English Counties Delineated; or, A Topographical Description of England. […], volume II, London: George Virtue, […], →OCLC, page 469, column 2:

The Tullivers had lived on this spot for generations, and he had sat listening on a low stool on winter evenings while his father talked of the old half-timbered mill that had been there before the last great floods which damaged it so that his grandfather pulled it down and built the new one.

1860, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “An Item Added to the Family Register”, in The Mill on the Floss […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book III (The Downfall), pages 135–136:

The old houses, however, were left until the great fire of 1666 swept them away: it was these charming half-timbered dwellings which afforded the chief fuel for that huge bonfire.

1901, J[ohn] Alfred Gotch, “Miscellaneous Work— […]”, in Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500–1625 […], London: B. T. Batsford, […], →OCLC, page 203:

Modeled upon a style popular in England in the middle of the seventeenth century, the many-gabled, half-timbered house still stands, testimony to the skill of its builder.

1980, Gerald H. Clarfield, “For Loyalist to Whig”, in Timothy Pickering and the American Republic, Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, page 3:

This half-timbered building is the birthplace of William Shakespeare. In this house, he and his brothers and sisters were born and raised.

2005, David Hilliam, “Shakespeare in the Twenty-first Century”, in William Shakespeare: England’s Greatest Playwright and Poet (Rulers, Scholars, and Artists of the Renaissance), New York, N.Y.: Rosen Publishing, →ISBN, page 92:

We pass Much and Little Marcle, and Dymock, all ancient sounding and through the waking up heart of the half-timbered market town of Ledbury, dating to the Doomsday Book.

2014, Colin Rees, Derek Thomas, “4th April: Elgar”, in Birth of a Feather: Seasonal Changes on both Sides of the Atlantic, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page 97:

(architecture) Of a building: constructed using a load-bearing timber frame with the spaces (panels) between the timbers filled with bricks, stone, or wattle and daub, etc. (the infill), especially if the timber frame is visible on the outside of the building.

bindingsværks-

constructed using a load-bearing timber frame with the spaces between the timbers filled with bricks, etc.


cancellus

Unadapted borrowing from Latin cancellus (“little crab”). Doublet of chancel.

ubor

(architecture) A barrier, balustrade or railing, or screen, dividing the main body of a church from the chancel.


superblock

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-superblock.wav

All are blots on the urban environment, as blandly homogenous in their own way as the Modernist superblocks they were intended to improve on.

2008 March 21, Nicolai Ouroussoff, “What Will Be Left of Gehry’s Vision for Brooklyn?”, in New York Times:

Conceived as part of a 1950s-era slum-clearance program, the immense superblock required the demolition of an entire neighborhood of dilapidated tenements and brownstones.

2009 February 20, Nicolai Ouroussoff, “Boxy to Bold: A Concert Hall Busts Out”, in New York Times:

Superblocks are a relatively new urban planning concept that has been pioneered in Barcelona, Spain. The basic idea is to identify a 3 x 3 grid of 9 city blocks and restrict vehicle traffic to the streets on the perimeter. The interior streets then become available for walking, biking, and expanded green space.

2022 March 8, Sarah DeWeerdt, “Barcelona-style “superblocks” could make a surprising number of cities greener and less car-centric”, in Anthropocene Magazine:

Barcelona’s flagship policy, which has attracted interest from around the world, is its superblocks, where groups of nine city blocks are transformed into people-friendly spaces, with benches, play areas and gardens. Cars may enter but cannot transit the superblock.

2022 July 29, Rory Carroll, Stephen Burgen, “Fare deal: Ireland joins Europe-wide efforts to coax people out of cars”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

(architecture, urban studies) A very large block of buildings.


multiuse

The new stadium and park would be lined on three sides with multiuse row house buildings containing commercial, office, and loft residential space.

1988 June 3, Paul Botts, “A New Old Ballpark”, in Chicago Reader:

A computer is a programmable, multiuse machine that accepts data — raw facts and figures — and processes, or manipulates, it into information we can use […]

2010, Dr. Mukesh Dhunna, J. B. Dixit, Information Technology in Business Management, page 168:

(chiefly architecture) Able to accommodate multiple uses.


sensualism

en-noun

sensualism (countable and uncountable, plural sensualisms)

(art, architecture) A sensual style or aesthetic.


clock tower

An astronomical clock tower, built at K'ai-feng in the eleventh century under imperial orders, relied on a highly sophisticated combination of water-driven gears (seen at right center in the cutaway diagram above) to rotate an armillary sphere (under the thatched roof) and a celestial globe (located within the tower on the second floor).

1969, C. P. Fitzgerald, “The Spirit of Invention”, in The Horizon History of China, New York: American Heritage Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 155:

This one is surmounted by a clock-tower with a bent weather-vane - the latter being the only disorderly object in sight.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 164:

However, the Victorian platform buildings all survive, and the station's iconic clock tower (built in 1899) was dismantled and rebuilt alongside the current frontage.

2022 November 16, Paul Stephen, “Stations earn a deserved NRA ovation: Medium: Bolton”, in RAIL, number 970, page 48:

(architecture) A tower, usually in a prominent position, having a large clock in a high position, often with several faces.


pluteus

(architecture) A low screen between columns, especially one that surrounds the choir of a church


trumeau

(architecture) The pillar or center post supporting the lintel in the middle of a doorway or window opening, especially in a church.


kilopound

(US, engineering, architecture) A non-SI unit of force equal to 1000 pounds-force.


ambry

ambries (plural)
almery (alternative)
aumbrie (alternative)
aumbry (alternative)
ambery (alternative)

From Middle English almerie, from Anglo-Norman almarie, aumer, etc., from Old French almarie, from Latin armārium. Doublet of armarium, armoire, and almirah.

doublet

At the end of the bench adjoining to the Frater-house door, was a fine almery fixed to the wall, and another on the other side of the door[…].

1787, William Hutchinson, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, volume II, page 64:

Nothing else should be kept in the tabernacle or aumbry where the Sacrament is reserved, but a small container of water and a cloth may be kept on the shelf for cleansing one's fingers.

1983, Dennis G. Michno, A Priest's Handbook, Morehouse, published 1998, page 75:

Portions of the consecrated bread from the Eucharist were stored or reserved in an ambry or tabernacle to be taken to the sick.

2003, Wm. B. Eerdmans, translating Erwin Fahlbusch et al., The Encylopedia of Christianity, vol.III, p.321

(architecture) A cupboard or storage area in a church to hold books, communion vessels, vestments, etc.; an armarium.


triglyph

PIE word
 *tréyes
From Ancient Greek τρίγλυφος (trígluphos, “triglyph”).

der

An interesting architectural point is raised by some stone carvings, with a vertical triple-grooved design. So often is this design found that Mr. Fyfe, when discussing its occurrence on a miniature fresco at Knossos, calls it the most distinctive architectural ornament of the age. There is every probability that we may see in it the prototype of the "Triglyphs" that alternate with Metopes on the entablature of the Doric Temple.

1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 28:

(architecture) A vertically channeled tablet of the Doric frieze.


Moresque

en-adj

Moresque (comparative more Moresque, superlative most Moresque)

more Moresque (comparative)
most Moresque (superlative)


Bauhaus

Borrowed from German Bauhaus (“house of architecture”), from Bau (“building, construction”) + Haus (“house”). The word is derived from the Staatliches Bauhaus (State School of Construction), an art school in Weimar, Germany, founded in 1919 by German architect Walter Gropius (1883–1969).

bor

[J]une 22 unanimous approval of the projected bauhaus building, the first of the bauhaus books appears.

1968, 50 Years Bauhaus: German Exhibition; Royal Academy of Arts, September 21 – October 27 1968, Stuttgart: Württembergischer Kunstverein; Cambridge, Mass.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, →OCLC, page 26:

Not until the 1930's was the American public aware of the significance of the Bauhaus. Several factors contributed to this: American Bauhaus students were returning from Germany; Bauhaus design, as tubular steel chairs and lighting fixtures, were being imported from Germany; […]

1974, Barbara Ann Henriksen, The Bauhaus and American Art Education (unpublished M.A. dissertation), Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin, →OCLC, page 17:

While the direct impact of the iconoclastic Bauhaus typography on bookwork is limited, its indirect influence, encouraging designers such as Jan Tschichold to re-examine the whole tradition of typography and its relationship to twentieth-century life, is difficult to overestimate.

2004, Alan Bartram, Bauhaus, Modernism and the Illustrated Book, London: British Library, →ISBN, page 49, column 2:

The Bauhaus has long been celebrated as the most influential art school of the twentieth century. The word Bauhaus means many things to many people: some are inspired by so-called ‘Bauhaus style’ – from tubular-steel furniture to the strict geometry of primary-coloured triangles, circles and squares; others worship its position as one of the greatest emblems of the Modern movement’s ambitious desire to change the world.

2012 May 3, “Exhibition in focus: Bauhaus: Art as Life, Barbican Art Gallery”, in The Daily Telegraph, London:

Two sites with cultural treasures separated by more than 40,000 years – caves with art dating to the Ice Age and buildings designed by a Bauhaus master less than 100 years ago – highlight Germany's submissions for the prestigious World Heritage Site designation by the U.N.'s cultural agency, UNESCO. […] The Bauhaus buildings in northeastern Germany were designed by the school's second director, Hannes Meyer.

2017 July 3, Michael Faulhaber, David Rising, “Ice Age Art, Bauhaus Buildings Highlight German UNESCO Hopes”, in U.S. News & World Report, [Washington, D.C.]:

(architecture, design, also attributively) A modernist style characterized by the absence of ornamentation and by harmony between the function of a building or an object and its design.

Fritz Lang
Isokon
Isokon Long Chair
Marcel Breuer
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Thea von Harbou
Walter Gropius


hypostyle

(architecture) Having a roof supported on a row of columns.

hipòstil

architecture: having a roof supported on a row of columns


hypostyle

(architecture) A building or chamber whose roof is supported on a row of columns.

hypostyyli

architecture: a building or chamber whose roof is supported on a row of columns


papyriform

(architecture) Having the form of, or decorated with papyrus flowers

papiriforme

having the form of, or decorated with papyrus flowers


demilune

demi-lune (alternative)
demi lune (alternative)

A handsome pair of tall, walnut-veneered Biedermeier bookcases from Austria, circa 1835, can be had from Iliad Antik of New York for $95,000, while Clinton Howell of New York has a rare pair of marquetry inlaid demilune consoles that he attributes to the workshop of John Linnell of England, circa 1755.

2007 February 9, Wendy Moonan, “Relics of the 19th Century, in a Sentimental Mood”, in New York Times:

(architecture, furniture) In the shape of a half-moon, i.e. semicircular.


demilune

demilunes (plural)
demi-lune (alternative)
demi lune (alternative)

(military, architecture) A fortification constructed beyond the main ditch of a fortress, and in front of the curtain between two bastions, intended to defend the curtain; a ravelin.


semielliptical

(architecture, botany) Having the form of half an ellipse (divided along the major axis).


imaret

From Ottoman Turkish عمارت (ʼimaret), from Arabic عِمَارَة (ʕimāra).

Yıldırım Bayezid had located his imaret in the opposite direction, some two kilometers to the east of the city. Mehmed I chose a site closer to the center, between the imarets of Orhan Gazi and Yıldırım Bayezid.

1996, Aptulla Kuran, “A Spatial Study of Three Ottoman Capitals: Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul”, in Gülru Necipoğlu, editor, Muqarnas: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islam World, volume XIII, Harvard University, page 118:

It was originally built as a zaviye, or hostel, for members of the Ahi Brotherhood of Virtue; later it became an imaret, serving free food to the poor of Iznik.

2000, John Freely, The Companion Guide to Istanbul and Around the Marmara, page 383:

He lived in an elegant stone house, a part of the Imaret of Haseki Sultan.

2006, T. Byram Karasu, Of God and Madness, page 217:

(historical or architecture) An Ottoman soup kitchen built between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries, often part of a larger complex or waqf.


town walls

en-noun

town walls pl (normally plural, singular town wall)

(UK, plural only) A large historic line of walls encircling a town that normally dates back at least to the Middle Ages.


compluvium

In the centre of the floor of the atrium a portion was sunk for the reception of rain water; this was termed the impluvium; and above it an opening of similar dimensions was left in the ceiling or roof, termed the compluvium.

1881, William Audsley, Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts: Aquila to Baptisterium:

(architecture) A space left unroofed over the court of a dwelling in Ancient Rome, through which the rain fell into the impluvium or cistern.


megaron

The megara faced north (“notebook north” equals true northeast) in the first court behind the archaic East Gate, similar in layout to their predecessors Megara 1 and 2 in the pre-Kimmerian East Court. Megaron C had gone through a period of use and a complete reconstruction before the Painted House was built.

1980, Machteld J. Mellink, “VII. Archaic Wall Paintings from Gordion”, in Keith DeVries, editor, From Athens to Gordion: The Papers of a Memorial Symposium for Rodney S. Young, page 91:

The megaron is a hall building with an open-fronted porch, but this porch is not just any laterally confined space.

1985, G. R. H. Wright, Ancient Building in South Syria and Palestine, page 141:

Probably he points out that the east room, used as oikos, is wider and shorter than the classical narrow and long megaron form. Although this house is interpreted as two megarons side by side, Akurgal [4] also states that the east wall of the space XIV is added later to the building, which means that the east part is not a megaron, but a rectangular room at the first construction phase.

2011, H. Gönül, “Main topics and discussions on ancient Greek Architecture on West Anatolia”, in C. A. Brebbia, L. Binda, editors, Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture XII, WIT Press, page 64:

(architecture, historical) The rectangular great hall in a Mycenaean building, usually supported with pillars.


deconstructivism

As an artist I have to ask: How much God is there in art theories like appropriation, deconstructivism, simulation and consumerism, which from the mid-1970s on have dominated the syllabus of many institutions that teach, critique and exhibit art?

2007 February 18, “English Renaissance; ‘Not for Sale’; Abu Dhabi Arts District; Robert Moses”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A development of postmodern architecture that began in the late 1980s, characterized by ideas of fragmentation, an interest in manipulating ideas of a structure's surface or skin, and non-rectilinear shapes which serve to distort and dislocate.


rejoint

en-verb

rejoint (third-person singular simple present rejoints, present participle rejointing, simple past and past participle rejointed)

rejoints (present singular third-person)
rejointing (participle present)
rejointed (participle past)
rejointed (past)

(architecture, masonry) to fill up the joints of, as stones in buildings when the mortar has been dislodged by age and the action of the weather.


chevet

French [Term?], head of the bed, diminutive from chef (“head”).

(architecture) The extreme end of the chancel or choir; properly the round or polygonal part.


onion dome

an onion dome may have a shape that is somewhat more than a half sphere and may be pointed at the top

1993, Leland M. Roth, Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning, page 523:

The characteristic bulging onion dome, which is a signature of Russian [church] architecture, came into being to shed heavy snow.

2001, Carol Strickland, Amy Handy, Patty Brown, The Annotated Arch: A Crash Course in the History of Architecture, page 36:

(architecture) An onion-shaped dome, characteristic of august buildings in Moghul and Russian architecture


entablement

From French entablement, Late Latin intabulamentum.


latrated

A large wooden frame, composed of a series of mouldings, which are one foot seven inches and seven tenths wide, encloses six (not five as represented by Messrs. Taylor and Cresy), bronze “latrated” panels, thus admitting air into the interior of the building and keeping up a ventilation, even when the doors are closed. […] These impressions lead to the conclusion, that the restorers of the Pantheon, guided by some example now no longer in existence, adopted the doors and latrated panels over them from some ancient monument, and filled up the vacant space by an arrangement, such as we now see it.

1833, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, A Collection of the Most Approved Examples of Doorways, from Ancient Buildings in Greece and Italy, Expressly Measured and Delineated for This Work, page 43:

The intercolumnar lateral space next the antæ or pilasters, is latrated or filled in with open lattice-work, of which examples are to be found in several bassi-relievi.

1859, Thomas Leverton Donaldson, Architectura Numismatica: Or, Architectural Medals of Classic Antiquity, page 54:

(architecture, obsolete, rare) Filled in with open lattice-work (?).


tensegrity

en-noun

tensegrity (countable and uncountable, plural tensegrities)

Coined by Buckminster Fuller, blend of tensional + integrity.

(architecture, physics) tensional integrity (of a structure)


terminal figure

terminal figure (plural terminal figures)

(architecture) a statue with a head or bust carved out of the top of a square tapering pillar, originally used as a boundary marker in ancient Rome.


areaway

“I have three rooms here, and the back one opens into a kind of areaway from which I get into an abandoned storeroom, or I guess it’s an attic. […]”

1922, Zane Grey, chapter 7, in The Day of the Beast, New York: Harper, page 116:

At the basement door, which as in all these houses led out into the areaway below the front stoop, Krupong said, “Is there a toilet down here?”

1969, Hortense Calisher, chapter 11, in The New Yorkers, Boston: Little, Brown, page 307:

(Canada, US) An outdoor passage offering access to a basement.


neogothic

en-adj

neogothic (comparative more neogothic, superlative most neogothic)

more neogothic (comparative)
most neogothic (superlative)
neo-Gothic (alternative)
Neogothic (alternative)

(architecture, literature) Alternative form of neo-Gothic.


Gothicness

(architecture, literature) The state or condition of being Gothic.


multifoil

(architecture) A symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of a set of partially-overlapping circles of the same diameter.


Brutalist

Brutalist (comparative more Brutalist, superlative most Brutalist)

more Brutalist (comparative)
most Brutalist (superlative)

[...] after the original Victorian station was demolished and then entombed in concrete in the 1960s, Birmingham New Street became a byword for the worst excesses of the much-loathed Brutalist architecture so widely used to reconstruct inner-city post-war Britain.

2020 July 29, Paul Stephen, “A new collaboration centred on New Street”, in Rail, page 54:

(architecture) Pertaining to Brutalism, a style of modernist architecture characterized by the use of board-marked concrete


flying bridge

(architecture) An overhead walkway built across a courtyard or atrium space within a building.


scotia

From Latin scotia, from Ancient Greek σκοτία (skotía, “dark, shadowy”).

der

(architecture) A concave molding with a lower edge projecting beyond the top.


dragon beam

A type of jetty that runs diagonally from one corner to another and supports the corner posts above, while being supported by corner posts below.


brutalism

en-noun

brutalism (countable and uncountable, plural brutalisms)

Art deco is one of the first truly modern styles and a precursor to the more streamlined and simpler lines of later styles, such as the international style, art moderne, and even brutalism.

2010, Donna M. DeBlasio, Martha I. Pallante, Images of America: Amherst, Arcadia Publishing, page 75:

On the face of it the pair also seemed to plunder much of their muscular brutalism in the building of the church from late Le Corbusier but they have consistently, and independently, rejected any Corbusian or even post-Corbusian label.

2011, Steve Redhead, We Have Never Been Postmodern: Theory at the Speed of Light, Edinburgh University Press, page 48:

2015, Johnny Rogan, Ray Davies: A Complicated Life, Vintage (The Bodley Head), page 375,
A founder of the Victorian Society in 1958, Betjeman was a celebrated critic of architectural brutalism and an active campaigner against the march of modernism.

(architecture) Alternative letter-case form of Brutalism.


Brutalism

From brutal + -ism. Popularized in 1954 by the English architects Alison and Peter Smithson, from earlier Swedish nybrutalism (“New Brutalism”), after French béton brut (“raw concrete”), the material favored by Le Corbusier.

In similar spirit, Nigel Henderson, a member of the Independent Group's Brutalist core, exhibited black and white photographs of the East End at the 1953 ICA show Parallel of Life and Art which stressed the unsanitised reality of everyday life: Peter Smithson's defence of Brutalism through the categorical rhetoric of objectivity and truth, quoted above, echoes Anderson.

2000, Katherine Shonfield, Walls Have Feelings: architecture, film and the city, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), page 20:

2004, B. M. Boyle, Brutalism, R. Stephen Sennott (editor), Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture, Volume 1: A-F, Taylor & Francis (Fitzroy Dearborn), page 181,
Nonetheless, despite its radical appearance, Brutalism could claim, if not legitimacy, at least ancestry in pre-World War II modernism.

The trend towards Brutalism - an austere style that had its origins in the Bauhaus and is characterized by its emphasis on the building materials (especially bare concrete) and unconcealed service pipes - did little to improve the situation.

2005, Rodney Bolt, Bavaria, Cadogan Guides, page 26:

(architecture) A style of modernist architecture characterized by angular geometry and overt signs of the construction process.


stylobate

stylobates (plural)
stylobata (alternative)

Borrowed from Latin stylobata, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek στυλοβάτης (stulobátēs), from στῦλος (stûlos, “pillar”) + βαίνω (baínō, “to go, to walk”).

The bases of the columns and the plinths below them appear to be standing on pedestals, but this is only an illusion, for the stylobate [translating Sockel] has been cut through in five places, and through each gap five steps lead up between the columns.

1962, JW Goethe, translated by WH Auden and Elizabeth Mayer, Italian Journey, Penguin, published 1970, page 121:

(Classical Greek architecture) The top step of the crepidoma, i.e. the platform upon which the superstructure of the building is erected.


euthynteria

(architecture) In classical Greek architecture, the uppermost course of a building's foundations, partly emerging from the groundline.


ovolo

ovolos (plural)
ovoli (plural)
ovulo (alternative)

From Italian ovolo, from Latin ōvum (“egg”). Doublet of ovule.

Decoration inside: six linked palmettes with 9 petals around a band of ovolos between incised lines, surrounded by 13 palmettes linked around a band of ovolos.

2001, Adolfo J. Domínguez, Carmen Sánchez, edited by Gocha R. Tsetskhladze, Greek Pottery from the Iberian Peninsula: Archaic and Classical Periods, page 196:

Each of the pairs is connected by a kind of web, and each pair stands clear of the ovolo and astragal mouldings which form a kind of extension to the column shaft and complete the essential construction of the capital. Ovolo and astragal are enriched with egg and dart and bead and reel respectively, the setting out related to a fluting pattern of twenty-four flutes to the column shaft circumference, as shown on the plan.

2005, Robert Chitham, The Classical Orders Of Architecture, 2nd edition, page 76:

Using a template or a good eye to guide the paring chisel, slice off the corners of the tenon ovolos at 45 degrees.

2008, Roy Underhill, Eleanor Underhill, The Woodwright′s Guide: Working Wood With Wedge and Edge, page 112:

(architecture) A classical convex moulding carved with an egg and dart ornament.


quadriportico

quadriportico (plural quadriporticos or quadriporticoes)

quadriporticos (plural)
quadriporticoes (plural)


cavetto

From Italian cavetto, from cavo (“hollow”), Latin cavus.

(architecture) A concave moulding with a regular curved profile that is part of a circle.


subbase

(architecture) The lowest projecting part of a baseboard, a pedestal or a similar construct.


systyle

From Latin systȳlos, from Ancient Greek σύστῡλος (sústūlos, “with columns standing close”) from σύν (sún, “with”) + στῦλος (stûlos, “column”): compare French systyle.

der

(architecture) Having a space equal to two diameters or four modules between two columns; said of a portico or building.


systyle

(architecture) A systyle temple or other edifice.


hocket

en-noun

hocket (countable and uncountable, plural hockets)

(architecture) A narrow passageway or opening between buildings, typically designed to facilitate access or movement between separate architectural structures.


arcosolium

From Latin arcus (“arc, arch”) and solium (“sill, place of state”).

(architecture) A tomb in an arched recess in a wall.


splanch

We barely see the world at such a level, for we are surburbing in our splanches, looking for ledges to set down our plastic menorahs for all the gentiles to see.

2005, Mathias B. Freese, The i Tetralogy, page 213:

(US, architecture) A house with three levels inside a two-level skin.


gorgerin

/ˈɡɔɹ.d͡ʒəɹ.ɪn/

(architecture) In some columns, that part of the capital between the termination of the shaft and the annulet of the echinus, or the space between two neck moldings.


biforate

(architecture) Having two doors or windows


calefactory

* Borrowed from Medieval Latin calefactorium.

bor+

(architecture) The room or building in a monastery holding its communal fire, kept warm and used as a sitting room.


arcature

(architecture) A small arched passageway.


bressemer

(architecture) Alternative spelling of bressummer.


diastyle

(architecture) An intercolumnation of three column diameters.


intercolumnation

en-noun

intercolumnation (countable and uncountable, plural intercolumnations)

(architecture) The regular spaces (or system of spacing) between the columns of a colonnade.


balconette

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-balconette.wav

(architecture) A false balcony, or railing at the outer plane of a window-opening reaching to the floor, and resembling a balcony when the window is open.


pseudarthrosis

pseudarthroses (plural)
pseudoarthrosis (alternative)

(architecture) A groove in a block of stone that simulates a joint


weatherboarding

weatherboarding (countable and uncountable, plural weatherboardings)

He stayed with him some time talking about the three-roomed house for Mario, and arranged for him to come and measure up for the timber and weatherboarding required.

1952, Neville Shute, chapter 1, in The Far Country, London: Heinemann:

Upstream from the house is a watermill, cased in gleaming white weather-boarding, which has been restored to working order. Near by is the water-driven turbine which [Rudyard] Kipling had installed in 1902 to light his mansion with electricity.

1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 98:

(architecture) A type of wooden siding in which a house is sided with long, thin, overlapping boards.


net-zero

→ Welsh: sero net

Heath's home is defined as net-zero, which means it produces as much energy as it consumes throughout the year.

2010, Julianna Cummins and Edmonton Journal, Sun shines on Belgravia eco home, Calgary Herald

(architecture, electricity, environmentalism) Of a building or system, generating as much energy through solar, wind, and other renewable resources as it uses from the electricity network.


lacunar

(architecture) A sunken panel or coffer in a ceiling or a soffit.

(architecture) A ceiling containing panels of this kind.


gradine

the gradines of the amphitheatre

1853, Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon:

(architecture) Any member like a step, such as the raised back of an altar; a gradin.


tailpiece

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-tailpiece.wav

(architecture) A short joist between a header and a wall.


patera

(architecture) A circular ornament, resembling a dish, often worked in relief on friezes etc.


astylar

en-adj

astylar (comparative more astylar, superlative most astylar)

more astylar (comparative)
most astylar (superlative)

(architecture) Lacking columns or pilasters


daggerboard

daggerboards (plural)
dagger-board (alternative)
dagger board (alternative)

It will also have examples of its composite canopy daggerboards, which use CNC technology to produce replicas of historic designs - and which have been deployed as modern alternatives to traditional daggerboards in sensitive surroundings such as at Bath Spa.

2024 May 29, Tony Streeter, “Network News: Railway Children charity partners with Rail Live 2024”, in RAIL, number 1010, page 19:

(architecture) One of many decorative boards that form a valance for a canopy, particularly on older railway stations.


bolection

[…] your disk of white light trembling like the moon on water as it plays over the identical bureaus, the recessions of closet and room's front door, door's frame's bolections […]

1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 62:

(architecture) A moulding that covers a joint, especially between joints between surfaces on different levels.


severy

A handsome flight of steps, extending across the whole from wall to wall, occupied nearly the whole of the eastern severy, and led up from the pavement of this building to the great west door of the church, which terminates the interior eastward, and was designed and built in connection with it.

1866, Robert Willis, The Architectural History of Glastonbury Abbey, page 56:

Cylindrical severies would have no place between these arches.

1968, Paul Frankl, James Francis O'Gorman, Principles of Architectural History: The Four Phases of Architectural Style, 1420-1900, page 64:

Because the two wall arches of each chapel are not centrally located in relation to the vault severies above them (27), these severies are asymmetrical (Illustrations 16 and 21).

1982, Thomas E. Polk, Saint-Denis, Noyon and the Early Gothic Choir: Methodological Considerations for the History of Early Gothic Architecture, volume 1, page 42:

(architecture) A compartment of a vaulted ceiling.


columniation

(architecture) An arrangement or grouping of columns


octastyle

(architecture) Having eight columns in the front row (of a portico etc.)


biotecture

en-noun

biotecture (countable and uncountable, plural biotectures)

(architecture) Any of several types of architecture that use forms influenced by biological structures.


mirador

(architecture) A tower that offers a panoramic view.


trabeation

trabeation (countable and uncountable, plural trabeations)

(architecture) Beams used instead of arches or vaulting.


fillister

(architecture) A rabbet/rebate for holding a sash window


sash window

(architecture) A window consisting of two sliding panels (sashes).


monial

From Anglo-Norman, from Old French moinel, noun use of moienel (“middle”), from moien.


cantoris

/kænˈtɔːɹɪs/

Borrowed from Latin cantōris (“of the cantor”).

the cantoris side of a choir; a cantoris stall

one accompanyist, let us suppose him seated on the Cantoris side, facing the Decani Organ[…]

1858, William St. George Patterson, Chants, services, anthems:

(church architecture) Of the side of the chancel, apse, altar or choir on which the cantor's (later precentor's) stall is placed (the left hand side to a person facing the altar);


necessarium

necessarium (plural necessariums or necessaria)

necessariums (plural)
necessaria (plural)
Necessarium (alternative)

/ˌnɛsɪˈsɛəɹɪəm/

/ˌnɛsɪˈsɑːɹɪəm/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-necessarium.wav

From Latin necessarium (“reredorter; outhouse”), from necesse (“unavoidable or necessary [thing]”) + -ārium (“-arium, -ium: forming locations”).

bor

The other outlet from the pisalis […] leads to the necessarium, in the corner of which a light […] is kept burning.

1848, The Archaeological Journal, volume V, page 101:

A passage at the other end [of the dormitory from the passage to the south transept of St Gall's church leads to the “necessarium” (I), a portion of the monastic buildings always planned with extreme care.

1878, "Abbey" in Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. I, p. 13

(architecture) Synonym of reredorter: a monastery's latrine, outhouse, or lavatory, typically located behind the dormitory.


tetrastyle

(architecture) A building (especially a portico) that has four columns


tofall

tofalls (plural)
to-fall (alternative)
two-fall (alternative)
toofall (alternative)
tuefall (alternative)
teefall (alternative)
toofal (alternative)

From Middle English tofal, equivalent to to- + fall. Compare Dutch toeval, German Zufall, Danish tilfælde, Swedish tillfälle, Icelandic tilfelli. More at to, fall.

(archaic, architecture) A shed or building annexed to the wall of a larger one, having its roof formed in a single slope with the top resting against the wall; lean-to.


cullis

(architecture) A channel or groove, as for a side-scene in a theatre.


geison

From Ancient Greek γεῖσον (geîson, “cornice”).

(architecture) The part of the entablature that projects outward from the top of the frieze, frieze course, or architrave.


presbyterium

Borrowed from Latin presbyterium. Doublet of presbytery.

Many stuccos and paintings were also found on the mosaic floor of the presbyterium and choir; most of these are now in the Bardo Museum in Tunis.

1976, A. Ennabli, “MACOMADES MINORES”, in Richard Stillwell, William L[loyd] MacDonald, Marian Holland McAllister, editors, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN, page 540, column 1:


septfoil

(architecture) A symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of seven partially overlapping circles of the same diameter.


antepagmentum

(architecture) In ancient architecture, a doorpost, or garnishing in a post or door, wrought in stone or timber, or lintel of a window.


star vault

(architecture) A vault whose ribs radiate to form patterns reminiscent of stars

tähtiholvi

architecture: a vault whose ribs radiate


emissarium

/ˌɛmɪˈsɛəɹi.əm/

/ˌɛmɪˈsɛɹi.əm/


TMD

en-noun

TMD (countable and uncountable, plural TMDs)

TMDs (plural)
temporomandibular joint disorder (alternative)
temporomandibular disorder (alternative)
TMJD (alternative)

tuned-mass damper
tuned-mass damper#English

(engineering, architecture) Initialism of tuned-mass damper.


peribolos

From Ancient Greek περίβολος (períbolos).

(architecture, historical) An enclosed court, especially one surrounding a temple.


munting

(architecture) Alternative form of muntin.


Tudorbethan

This same essay, much of which is explicitly directed against the Tudorbethan ‘aesthetic’ of the Prince of Wales, concludes with Ballard saying: ‘I look forward to … the transformation of Britain into the ultimate departure lounge.’

2011, Will Self, “The frowniest spot on Earth”, in London Review of Books, XXXIII.9:

[...] on what John Betjeman called 'these mild home county acres' the Metropolitan would create Metroland, a series of Tudorbethan havens for the office toilers of London, destroying the mildness of those acres in the process, of course.

2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 169:

(architecture) Mock-Tudor; designed to resemble a Tudor or Elizabethan architectural style.


gloriette

(architecture) A pavilion or similar structure in an elevated position in parkland.


stringcourse

stringcourses (plural)
string course (alternative)

Seismic improvements and strengthening interventions like inserting tie-rods or adding upper stringcourses, or horizontal bands, to the masonry can be designed case by case to meet specific weaknesses.

2007 September 4, Elisabetta Povoledo, “Italy, a Land of Earthquakes, Works to Protect the Priceless From the Unexpected”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A thin projecting course of brickwork or stone that runs horizontally around a building, typically to emphasize the junction between floors.


colonette

What is now revealed, in a limestone several shades blonder than the rest of the cathedral, are crisp buttresses, gables, colonettes, gargoyles, pinnacles, crockets and ornaments known as trefoils (three cusps), quatrefoils (four cusps) and cinquefoils (five cusps).

2007 November 6, David W. Dunlap, “A Blossoming Cathedral Tower Sheds Its Scaffolding”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A narrow decorative column supporting a beam or lintel.


skyspace

(architecture) An architectural design in which a room has a large hole in its ceiling, open to the sky.


up and down

(Philippines, architecture, of a building) having two stories


acroterium

acroteria (plural)
acroterion (alternative)
acroter (alternative)

/ˌækɹəˈtɪəɹi.əm/

From Latin acrōtērium, from Ancient Greek ἀκρωτήριον (akrōtḗrion); related to ἄκρος (ákros, “highest, at the extremity”). Doublet of acroter.

(architecture) One of the small pedestals, for statues or other ornaments, placed on the apex and at the basal angles of a pediment, or upon the gables in Gothic architecture.


lesene

From French lisse, from Latin licium (“thread, loop”).

(architecture) A low-relief, vertical pillar or pilaster in a wall, usually without a base or capital; used in architecture to divide a facade or other wall surface visually.


zoophoric

a zoophoric column

(architecture) Bearing or supporting the figure of an animal.


quarterpace

(archaic, architecture) A platform of a staircase where the stair turns at a right angle only.


quadrivalve

(architecture) A door, shutter, etc. with four folds.


queen truss

(architecture) A truss framed with queen posts.


screenwork

screenwork (countable and uncountable, plural screenworks)

Between the tower and the north aisle is a piece of screenwork much altered in the eighteenth century[…]

1938, Somersetshire Archaeological, Natural History Society, Proceedings: Volume 83:

(architecture) Work in the form of a screen.


water wing

water wings (plural)
waterwing (alternative)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-water wing.wav

From water + wing. Compare German Schwimmflügel (“water wing”, literally “swim-wing”).

noncog

(architecture, archaic) One of two walls built on either side of the junction of a bridge with the bank of a river, to protect the abutment of the bridge and the bank from the action of the current.


Manueline

Borrowed from Portuguese manuelino, after King Manuel I of Portugal.

(architecture) Describing a Portuguese form of Gothic style


bell-gable

bell-gables (plural)
bell gable (alternative)

(architecture) An element crowning the upper end of the wall of a church and in which a bell is hung, usually in lieu of a campanile or bell tower.


neomodern

en-adj

neomodern (comparative more neomodern, superlative most neomodern)

more neomodern (comparative)
most neomodern (superlative)

Under Hartmut Warkuss, its design director until 2003, Volkswagen styling celebrated its Teutonic origins and the spare modernist tradition expressed in Braun radios and coffee makers, reference points for the neomodern simplicity of the iPod. Freeman Thomas and J Mays, now both with Ford, worked under Mr. Warkuss.

2009 April 12, Phil Patton, “At VW, the Italian Accent Gets Stronger”, in New York Times:

(art, architecture) Of or pertaining to a "new simplicity" in reaction to the complexity of postmodern architecture and eclecticism.

néomoderne

of or pertaining to a "new simplicity" in reaction to the complexity of postmodern architecture and eclecticism


semidome

At Holy Cross Catholic Church on West 42nd Street, opposite the Port Authority Bus Terminal, the uninviting Romanesque exterior is in stark contrast to the airy sanctuary, with its great open space and a main altar set in a lovely semidome and illuminated by nine stained-glass panels.

2009 April 12, Tanya Mohn, “Blessings Over Broadway”, in New York Times:

(architecture) Half of a dome ("cut" vertically), used to cover a semicircular area.


crocketed

He leaned back on this support with his face to the tower of the cathedral, now admirably commanded by their standpoint, the high red-brown mass, square and subordinately spired and crocketted, retouched and restored, but charming to his long-sealed eyes, and with the first swallows of the year weaving their flight all round it.

1903 September 28, Henry James, The Ambassadors, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC:

A brief intermission of an Eighteenth Century Barnsdale Forest brought into view the high crocketed tower of Darfield Church on its rugged scarp, beneath whose graveyard gushes out what in the old days was the main water-supply of the village, the Bank Well.

1949 March and April, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–2”, in Railway Magazine, pages 82–83:

For Woolworth, Gilbert designed a house that was similar, but lacier at the roof line, with intricate copper roof cresting and crocketed chimneys, and elaborately decorated dormers.

2009 May 17, Christopher Gray, “The Dime Store Tycoon’s Kingdom”, in New York Times:


Jacobethan

Jacobethan (comparative more Jacobethan, superlative most Jacobethan)

more Jacobethan (comparative)
most Jacobethan (superlative)

Blend of Jacobean + Elizabethan, coined by John Betjeman in 1933.

In the latter case [Helsby], in 1849, a rock-faced red sandstone waiting space in the Jacobethan style was erected on an island platform for the Birkenhead, Lancashire & Cheshire Junction Railway.

2022 June 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Wonderful waiting rooms on the waiting list”, in RAIL, number 960, page 56:

(often of architecture) Of a style incorporating elements of Elizabethan and Jacobean.


archivolt

From French archivolte, from Italian archivolto, from Latin arcus (“arch”), volta (“vault”).

(architecture) An ornamental molding or band following the curve on the underside of an arch.

arkivolto

an ornamental molding or band following the underside of an arch


splocket

1898, Frank William Macey, Specifications in Detail, pages 162⁽¹⁾ and 175⁽²⁾
⁽¹⁾ Common and jack rafters…with cut wrought ends at overhanging eaves, and wrought splocket (cock) pieces.
⁽²⁾ See clauses Nos. 75, 77 to 89, and 91 to 99, for any other parts to the roof which may be required, such as tilting fillets, splockets, boarding, fascia, eaves soffits and other items.

Sprocket, Splocket. A triangular piece of timber.

1904, Augustine C. Passmore, Handbook of Technical Terms Used in Architecture and Building and Their Allied Trades and Subjects, page 328:

At the base of the ribs splockets (“coiaux”) were attached to complete the curve and carry off the water. The ribs were checked out for the top of the splockets, which were also held together by liernes and keys.

1905, Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield, Studies in Architecture, page 218:

The under rafters are quite heavy and cut at right-angles. The upper ones are prolonged and curved up by jointing far-projecting splockets.

1970, Osvald Sirén, A History of Early Chinese Art, III-IV, page 64:

(carpentry, building, , and architecture) A triangular timber frame.

Alternative spelling of sprocket.
A triangular timber frame.


doucine

From French doucine. Doublet of dulzaina.


isovist

The best architects intuitively understand this psychological preference, as they construct spaces that naturally lead us from one expansive isovist to the next.

2009 July 12, Jonah Lehrer, “Where Am I?”, in New York Times:

(architecture) A measurement representing the volume of space visible from a given point of known location.


spindlework

George Landers, a manufacturer from New Britain, Conn., built No. 51, with porch-fence cutouts of horses, rabbits and swans; tiny dragon heads lunge out from the delicate spindlework.

2009 August 23, Christopher Gray, “The President Was Here (Grant, That Is)”, in New York Times:

(architecture) Decorative trim around a porch.


datestone

Judging by the datestone in the lintel, this house was built around 1750.

(architecture) An embedded stone with a date carved into it.


jerkinhead

(architecture) The hipped part of a roof which is hipped only for a part of its height, leaving a truncated gable.


halfpace

(archaic, architecture) A platform of a staircase where the stair turns back in exactly the reverse direction of the lower flight.


putlog

A common type of scaffold for smaller jobs is a single pole or putlog scaffold which consists of a platform resting on horizontal putlogs (called transoms in independent scaffolds) fixed at 90° to the face of the building (figure 15).

1995, International Labour Office, Safety, Health and Welfare on Construction Sites: A Training Manual, page 21:

The platform in this type of scaffold is supported by putlogs and not transoms.

2005, Malcolm Thorpe, Brickwork, Level 3, page 85:

Where putlogs are not required to support boards, a putlog must occur within 300mm of each standard. / When bracing is connected to a putlog, the putlog must be connected to a ledger.

2008, Construction Confederation, House Builders Health & Safety Manual 2008 (Construction), →ISBN, page 7-15:

(architecture) One of the pieces of timber, or metal, on which the planks forming the platform of scaffolding are supported, one end resting on the ledger of the scaffold, and the other in a hole made in the wall (a putlog hole) for that purpose.


ectype

From Ancient Greek ἔκτυπος (éktupos, “worked in relief”), from ἐκ- (ek-) + τύπος (túpos).

der

(architecture) An object in relievo or embossed.


zellige

zelliges (plural)
zellij (alternative)
zillij (alternative)

(architecture) A form of terracotta tilework covered with enamel in the form of chips set into plaster, characteristic of Moroccan architecture.


shear wall

(architecture) Alternative form of shearwall.


cathedral ceiling

en-noun

cathedral ceiling (plural cathedral ceilings)

Big deck, high open-beam cathedral ceiling. A real charmer

1993 Feb. 12, "Real Estate: Twain Harte Chalet $129,500, Union Democrat (USA), p. 1C (retrieved 27 Oct 2011)

(architecture) A vaulted ceiling that slopes upward from the walls, following the slope of the underside of the roof.


fenestral

(architecture) Relating to a window or windows.


formeret

(architecture) One of the half-ribs against the walls in a ceiling vaulted with ribs.


water feature

(architecture) An architectural design element involving water, such as a fountain, a pond or a waterfall.


antetemple

(architecture) The portico or narthex in an ancient temple or church.


water joint

(architecture) A joint in a stone pavement where the stones are left slightly higher than elsewhere, the rest of the surface being sunken, intended to prevent the settling of water in the joints.


deck roof

(architecture) A nearly flat roof that is not surmounted by parapet walls.


Vitruvian

en-adj

Vitruvian (comparative more Vitruvian, superlative most Vitruvian)

more Vitruvian (comparative)
most Vitruvian (superlative)

(architecture) Of or pertaining to Vitruvius, an Ancient Roman architect.


floriated

floriated capitals of Gothic pillars


godroon

en-verb

godroon (third-person singular simple present godroons, present participle godrooning, simple past and past participle godrooned)

godroons (present singular third-person)
godrooning (participle present)
godrooned (participle past)
godrooned (past)

From French godron (“round plait, godroon”).

(architecture, transitive) To ornament in this style.


straight-joint

(architecture, of a floor) Whose boards are laid so that the joints form a continued line transverse to the length of the boards themselves.

(architecture, US, of flooring or planking) Put together without the tongue and groove, the pieces being laid edge to edge.


balistraria

en-noun

balistraria (plural balistrarias or balistrariae)

balistrarias (plural)
balistrariae (plural)

/ˌbælɪˈstɹɛəɹi.ə/

/ˌbæləˈstɹɛɹi.ə/

From balister (“crossbow”), from Old French balestre, ultimately from Latin balaustium, Ancient Greek βαλαύστιον (balaústion). See also arbalister (“crossbowman”).

(historical) arrowslit (a narrow opening through which arrows can be fired).


killesse

killesses (plural)
killese (alternative)

(architecture, obsolete) A gutter, groove, or channel.


funkis

en-adj

funkis (comparative more funkis, superlative most funkis)

more funkis (comparative)
most funkis (superlative)

Funkis buildings can be identified by their flat roofs, large, flat surfaces, curved walls, geometric shapes, horizontal bands of windows, flexible interiors, and lack of excess decorations.

2010, Margaret Hayford O'Leary, Culture and Customs of Norway, page 191:

It moves on next month to include two further nesting boxes, both fitted out in Scandinavia's trademark Funkis architectural style, where Klann hopes the show's feathered stars will hatch and rear their young.

2014 March 18, Richard Orange, The Guardian:

A two-story house, so strictly funkis that he named it monkish, and earned top points from his girlfriend for it.

2016, Steinumm Sigurðardóttir, translated by Philip Roughton, The Good Lover, World Editions, page 19:

Pertaining to a Scandinavian style of functionalist architecture.


foreshot

(architecture) A portion of a building that protrudes out.


knosp

Compare German knospe (“bud”), English knop, knar.

The gem-knosp'd diadem

1818, Henry Hart Milman, Samor, the Lord of The Bright City:

(architecture) Alternative form of knop (“a knob”).


architraved

1791, William Cowper (translator), The Odyssey of Homer, Book 7, lines 105-108, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, London: J. Johnson, Volume 2, p. 151,
[…] the doors were gold
Which shut the palace fast; silver the posts
Rear’d on a brazen threshold, and above,
The lintels, silver, architraved with gold.

The zone decoration becomes a pattern composed of innumerable groups of architraved and arched divisions, set one within the other, so as to cover the whole surface of the wall.

1914, Gertrude Bell, chapter 5, in Palace and Mosque at Ukhaiḍir, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, page 130:

(architecture) Furnished with an architrave.


hyperthyrion

From Latin hyperthyrion, from Ancient Greek ὑπερθύριον (huperthúrion).

(architecture) That part of the architrave which is over a door or window.


stringpiece

(architecture, carpentry) A long piece of timber, forming a margin or edge of any piece of construction; especially one of the longitudinal pieces supporting a flight or run of stairs.


lierne rib

(architecture) In Gothic vaulting, any rib which does not spring from the impost and is not a ridge rib, but passes from one boss or intersection of the principal ribs to another.


monopteral

(architecture) Round and without a cella; consisting of a single ring of columns supporting a roof; said especially of a temple.


redented

redented (comparative more redented, superlative most redented)

more redented (comparative)
most redented (superlative)

redented corner

redented line

redented tomb

redented stupa

(especially architecture) Shaped like the teeth of a saw; serrated.


bridgeboard

(architecture) A notched board to which the treads and risers of the steps of wooden stairs are fastened.


footstall

(archaic, architecture) The plinth or base of a pillar.


hemiglyph

(architecture) The half channel or groove in the edge of the triglyph in the Doric order.


interaxal

diagonals symmetrically intermediate between the horizontal axes, terminate in the interaxal basal angles

(architecture) Situated in an interaxis.


retrochoir

retrochoirs (plural)
retroquire (alternative)

/ˈɹɛ.tɹəˌkwaɪɚ/

(architecture) Any extension of a church behind the high altar, such as a chapel.

(architecture) In an apsidal church, all the space beyond the line of the back or eastern face of the altar.


ungabled

Unhappily, however, all that remains of Cherhill's claim to an old manor house is a rather cold ungabled building, blue-slated in hard ruled lines, and a porch which might have been transplanted from a late Victorian house.

1941, J. H. Blackford, The Manor and Village of Cherhill, page 188:


interpilaster

(architecture) The interval or space between two pilasters


catabasion

From Ancient Greek καταβάσιον (katabásion, “a way down”), from κατάβασις (katábasis).

der

(architecture, religion) A vault under the altar of a Greek church.


Solomonic

en-adj

Solomonic (comparative more Solomonic, superlative most Solomonic)

more Solomonic (comparative)
most Solomonic (superlative)

a Solomonic column


dodecastyle

(architecture) Having twelve columns in front


dodecastyle

dodecastyles (plural)
duodecastyle (alternative)

(architecture) A portico or building with twelve columns in front.


apadana

From Old Persian 𐎠𐎱𐎭𐎠𐎴 (a-p-d-a-n /apadāna/). Doublet of iwan.

a large hypostyle hall in ancient Persian palaces


monotriglyph

(architecture) A kind of intercolumniation in an entablature, in which only one triglyph and two metopes are introduced


cymoid

cymoid (comparative more cymoid, superlative most cymoid)

more cymoid (comparative)
most cymoid (superlative)
cymatoid (alternative)


oversail

en-verb

oversail (third-person singular simple present oversails, present participle oversailing, simple past and past participle oversailed)

oversails (present singular third-person)
oversailing (participle present)
oversailed (participle past)
oversailed (past)

(transitive, architecture) To project from a structure above (something); to overhang.


oversail

(architecture, law) The projection of something from a structure.


Thomasson

Hyperart Thomasson
Virtual Light
William Gibson

From Japanese, named after attractive but ineffectual baseball player Gary Thomasson (1951–).

named-after

(architecture) An architectural element that no longer serves its purpose but is retained in a structure for aesthetic reasons.


pseudodipteral

From pseudo- + dipteral. Compare French pseudodiptère.

(architecture) Falsely or imperfectly dipteral, like a temple with the inner range of columns surrounding the cella omitted, so that the space between the cella wall and the columns is very great, being equal to two intercolumns and one column


intercolumn

Borrowed from Latin intercolumnium. By surface analysis, inter- + column.


distyle

(architecture) Having two columns in front; said of a temple, portico, etc.


distyle

(architecture) A small temple, portico, etc. that has two columns in front.


opisthodome

Latin opisthodomus, from Ancient Greek ὀπισθόδομος (opisthódomos).

uder

(architecture) Alternative spelling of opisthodomos.


brattishing

(architecture) Carved openwork, as of a shrine, battlement, or parapet.