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.


doorknocker

doorknockers (plural)
door knocker (alternative)
door-knocker (alternative)

(architecture) A knocker mounted on a door.


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.


denticle

From Latin denticulus, from dens (“tooth”).


reglet

the cone of light pans over […] the two rag throw-rugs' ovals on the hardwood floor, black lines of baseboards' reglets […]

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

(architecture) A flat, narrow moulding, used chiefly to separate the parts or members of compartments or panels from one another, or doubled, turned, and interlaced so as to form knots, frets, or other ornaments.


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.


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.


MVC

software architecture
software architecture

architectural pattern
architectural pattern

(software architecture) Initialism of model-view-controller, an architectural pattern used in software development.


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.


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.


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.


muntin

From Middle English mountaunt, from Old French montant, present participle of monter (“to put up”).

He looked for a bell but there were just the wires hanging from a hole so he tapped on the glass of the sidelights. They gave soft and soundless in their lead muntins.

1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 174:

(architecture) One of the separators between panes of glass in a composite window.


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.


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.


crocket

From Middle English croket, from Anglo-Norman croquet (“curl of hair”), from Old Northern French, variant of Old French crochet, diminutive of croc (“hook”), which is also present in English archaically in the architectural sense as crochet, crotchet. Doublet of crochet, croquet, and crotchet.

doublet

(architecture) Any of a series of hook-shaped decorative floral elements used in Gothic architecture.

krab

(architecture) any of a series of hook-shaped decorative floral elements used in Gothic architecture


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.


cauliculus

Borrowed from Latin cauliculus (“little stalk”). Doublet of caulicle.

bor+

(architecture) In the Corinthian capital, any of the eight stalks rising out of the lower leafage and terminating in leaves which seem to support the volutes.


cullis

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


geison

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

bor

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


mutule

(architecture) Any of the rectangular blocks under the soffit of the cornice of the Greek Doric temple, which are studded with guttae.


cymatium

From the Latin cȳmatium (“an ogee”, “an Ionic volute”), from the Ancient Greek κῡμάτιον (kūmátion), the diminutive form of κῦμα (kûma, “wave”, “billow”), whence cyma.

uder

(architecture) A molding on the cornice.

(architecture) A type of molding that is wavelike in form.


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:


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.


gablet

The Pinnacles are numerous, and very fine. They are in general square, and not on diagonally; the sides are frequently panelled, and terminate in crocketed canopies, or gablets, from which rises the spire, which is also crocketed at the angles, and terminates in a finial.

1865, John Cassell, Cassell's Illustrated History of England, volume I, chapter 68:

Almost opposite Clarence House, and immediately adjoining the Swan Hotel, is a lofty and somewhat narrow structure of four storeys, whose twin gablets overhang and overbend the street in quite a serious manner.

1914, Francis B. Andrews, “The Old Houses of Tewkesbury”, in Transactions and Proceedings of the Birmingham Archaeological Society, volume 40, page 24:

(architecture) A small gable, or gable-shaped canopy, formed over a tabernacle, niche, etc.


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.


semicolumn

A half column; a column bisected longitudinally, or along its axis.


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

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

(architecture) An ornament produced by notching or carving a rounded moulding.


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)

(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.


interdentil

the interdentil, or space which separates them [the dentils]

1833, John Billington, The Architectural Director:

(architecture) The space between two dentils.


killesse

killesses (plural)
killese (alternative)

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


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

en-adj

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.


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.


shikumen

(architecture) An architectural style found in Shanghai, China, consisting of two or three floors and a front yard protected by high walls.


carolitic

(architecture, rare) foliated with sculptured leaves and branches


anteportico

(ecclesiastical architecture)An outer porch or vestibule.


superaltar

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

(architecture) A raised shelf or stand on the back of an altar, suitable for holding objects; a predella or gradino.


interaxis

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

The doors, windows, niches, and the like, are then placed centrally in the interaxes.

1842, Joseph Gwilt, Encyclopaedia of Architecture:

The small order is 16½ braccia high, i.e. eleven times the diameter of the base of the columns (which is 1½ braccia) and one and a half times the interaxis.

2002, Leonardo Benevolo, The Architecture of the Renaissance - Volume 1, page 72:

The analyses performed have shown the importance of the longitudinal distance (interaxis) for in-series applications.

2009, Alberto Lamberti, Leopoldo Franco, Giuseppe Roberto Tomasicchio, Coastal Structures 2007, page 1319:

Indeed, when the light-frame elements and the timber-frame ones are of different widths (the studs/mullions with respect to the posts and the rafters with respect to the sloped beams), and when there is a constant interaxis from center to center between them, the span between them cannot be constant; and vice versa, when the span is kept constant, the interaxis from center to center cannot be constant.

2023, Gian Luca Brunetti, Design and Construction of Bioclimatic Wooden Greenhouses, page 51:

(architecture) The space between two axes.


andron

Latin andron, from Ancient Greek ἀνδρών (andrṓn).

(architecture, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome), the room reserved for males and their activities, often in the lower part of the house.


watershoot

(obsolete, architecture) That which serves to guard from falling water; a drip or dripstone.


treadboard

(architecture) A board to take a person's weight; a tread of a staircase.


surbase

(architecture) the uppermost part of the moulding of a baseboard, a pedestal or a similar construct


surbase

en-verb

surbase (third-person singular simple present surbases, present participle surbasing, simple past and past participle surbased)

surbases (present singular third-person)
surbasing (participle present)
surbased (participle past)
surbased (past)

(architecture) to lower the rise of an arch


stringboard

(architecture, carpentry) A stringpiece.


backjoint

(architecture) A rebate or chase in masonry left to receive a permanent slab or other filling.


intertie

(construction, architecture) In any framed work, a horizontal tie other than sill and plate or other principal ties, securing uprights to one another.


polystyle

a polystyle hall

(archaic, architecture) Having many columns; said of a building, especially of an interior part or court.


gradatory

(architecture) A series of steps from a cloister into a church.


in antis

(architecture) Between antae; said of a portico in classical style, where columns are set between two antae, forming the angles of the building.


epistyle

Latin epistylium, Ancient Greek: compare French épistyle.

(architecture, historical) A massive piece of stone or wood laid immediately on the abacus of the capital of a column or pillar; an architrave.


bridle iron

(architecture) A strong flat bar of iron, bent so as to support, as in a stirrup, one end of a floor timber, etc. where no sufficient bearing can be had.


luffer

These luffer boards are either fixed, or turn on pivots in the styles of their frames; their action, in the latter case, being like that of the common Venetian blinds.

1833, An Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture and Furniture, page 269:

In the section, the third luffer is supposed to be open; when the lower luffer plate is taken out, the apparatus is to all intents and purposes a Staffordshire grate.

1845, Robert Stuart, On the History and Art of Warming and Ventilating Rooms and Buildings, page 151:

Functional and symbolic values coincide; if there rises a column of smoke to the luffer above, this is not merely a convenience, but also a representation of the axis of the universe that pillars-apart heaven and earth, essence and nature, and is itself although without dimensions or consistency the adamantine principle and exemplary form of temporal and spatial extension and of all things situated in time or space.

2017, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art:

We meet again with a pair of annular symbols, of which the one is a perforated disk representing the Earth (Holmberg, "Der Baum des Lebens," fig 13), and the other the luffer above the central hearth of the yurt, which is also the opening in the roof of a hypaethral temple, through which passes the stem of the Worldtree to branch above.

2020, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, Rama P. Coomaraswamy, The Door in the Sky: Coomaraswamy on Myth and Meaning, page 18:

(architecture) Alternative form of louver.


blocking course

en-noun

blocking course (plural blocking courses)

(architecture) The finishing course of a wall showing above a cornice.


verticalism

verticalism (usually uncountable, plural verticalisms)

(architecture) The building of tall, vertical buildings, especially exceptionally tall skyscrapers


ledgement

(architecture) Alternative form of ledgment.


canephora

canephoras (plural)
canephor (alternative)
canephore (alternative)

Borrowed from Ancient Greek κανηφόρος (kanēphóros).

(architecture) A caryatid supporting a basket on her head.


theatral

en-adj

theatral (comparative more theatral, superlative most theatral)

more theatral (comparative)
most theatral (superlative)

theatral area of Knossos

(obsolete or Ancient Greek architecture) theatrical


dogtooth

From Middle English dogge tothe; equivalent to dog + tooth.

This arch is the side of a niche from the tomb of Can Signorio della Scala, at Verona; and the value, as well as the distant expression of its dogtooth, may be seen by referring to Prout's beautiful drawing of this tomb in his "Sketches in France and Italy."

1851, John Ruskin, “The Edge and Fillet”, in The Stones of Venice, volume I (The Foundations), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § IV, page 260:

(architecture) An ornament common in Gothic architecture, consisting of pointed projections resembling teeth.


stackback

A larger stackback allows more light into the room during the day.

(architecture) The amount of wall space at either side of a window where the curtains are drawn back when fully open.


puteal

From Latin puteal, from puteālis, from puteus (“well”) + -ālis (“-al: forming adjs”).

(architecture) An enclosure around a well to prevent people from falling into it.


substruction

From Latin substructio, from substruere, substructum (“to build beneath”), from sub (“under”) + struere (“to build”).

It is a magnificent strong building, with a substruction very remarkable.

1644 November 18 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 8 November 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:


frize

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909


frize

en-verb

frize (third-person singular simple present frizes, present participle frizing, simple past and past participle frized)

frizes (present singular third-person)
frizing (participle present)
frized (participle past)
frized (past)


luthern

From French lucarne (“a dormer, dormer window, garret window”), Latin lucerna (“lamp”), from lucere (“to be light or clear”), from lux (“light”).


pseudoperipteral

A temple is pseudoperipteral if it has the columns at the sides attached to the walls, and an ambulatory only at the ends or at one end.

(architecture) Falsely or imperfectly peripteral


supercolumniation

en-noun

supercolumniation (usually uncountable, plural supercolumniations)

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

An example of supercolumniation would be the putting of the Doric order in the ground story, Ionic above it, and Corinthian or Composite above that.

(architecture) The putting of one order above another.

(architecture) An architectural work produced by this method.


cyma recta

cyma recta (plural cymae rectae or cymæ rectæ)

cymae rectae (plural)
cymæ rectæ (plural)

sīʹmə rĕkʹtə

/ˈsaɪmə ˈɹɛktə/

(architecture) A cyma (moulding) concave in its upper part, and convex in its lower part.


cyma reversa

cyma reversa (plural cymae reversae or cymæ reversæ)

cymae reversae (plural)
cymæ reversæ (plural)

sīʹmə rĭvûrʹsə

/ˈsaɪmə ɹɪˈvɜːsə/

(architecture) A cyma (moulding) convex in its upper part, and concave in its lower part.


tiebeam

tiebeams (plural)
tie-beam (alternative)

by being connected with the strap which unites the principal and tiebeam, it cannot move from its place at the extremity

1853, Thomas Tredgold, Elementary Principles of Carpentry:

(architecture) A beam acting as a tie, as at the bottom of a pair of principal rafters, to prevent them from thrusting out the wall.

entrait

beam acting as a tie at the bottom of a pair of principal rafters


trabeated

(architecture) Built with horizontal beams; furnished with an entablature


halpace

(archaic, architecture) A haut-pas; a dais.


eustyle

(architecture) An intercolumniation of two-and-a-quarter column diameters.


acroter

/ˈækɹətə(ɹ)/

From French acrotère. Doublet of acroterium.

It is a very elegant building, with four supporting Tuscan columns on pedestals, a cornice with a carved wooden valance, and an acroter with square pear-shaped balusters continuing round to the outer wall

2007, Galila El Kadi, Alain Bonnamy, Architecture for the Dead : Cairo's Medieval Necropolis, page 191:


larmier

From French larme (“tear, drop”), from Latin lacrima. See lachrymose.

(architecture) A horizontal stringcourse for preventing rain from trickling down a wall.


semitransept

the north semitransept of a church

(architecture, rare) One half of a transept.


fusarole

From French fusarolle, from Italian fusaruolo, from fuso (“spindle, shaft of a column”). See fusee (“a conical wheel”).

(architecture) A moulding generally placed under the echinus or quarter round of capitals in the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders of architecture.


facadectomy

(architecture) The retention of a building's facade for use in a new construction after the rest of the original building is demolished.

(architecture) The removal and replacement of a building's facade.


crocketing

crocketing (countable and uncountable, plural crocketings)

There is no lace work , no crocketing , no tracery , no construction to speak of

1869, John Ruskin, Flamboyant Architecture in the Valley of the Somme:

And there, in the centre of the picture, with its carved back scarcely three feet below the soil, is the throne of the ancient king, with the lines of its strange crocketing fresh and unchipped.

1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 2:

(architecture) ornamentation with crockets


hyperstructure

With historical landscapes erased, with megastructures and superblocks as primary components, and with an increasingly dense and self-contained circulation system, the new financial district is best conceived as a single, demonically self-referential hyperstructure, a Miesian skyscape raised to dementia.

2011, Richard T. LeGates, Frederic Stout, The City Reader, →ISBN:

(architecture) A very densely populated habitat, as in arcology.


bandelet

From French bandelette, diminutive of bande. See band and bendlet.

The Tænia on the Doric Architrave is called its Bandelet

1825, William Chambers, A Treatise on the Decorative Part of Civil Architecture:

(architecture) A small band or fillet; any little band or flat moulding, compassing a column, like a ring.


sciagraph

From Ancient Greek σκιά (skiá, “shadow”) + -graph.

(architecture, archaic) A vertical section of a building; a sciagraphy.


butment

(architecture) A buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier.


paraclose

(architecture) Alternative form of parclose.


scamillus

From Latin [Term?] (“a little bench”), from scamnum (“bench, stool”).

(architecture) A sort of second plinth or block, below the bases of Ionic and Corinthian columns, generally without mouldings and of smaller size horizontally than the pedestal.


peridrome

From Ancient Greek περίδρομος (perídromos), meaning "running around, that which surrounds": compare French péridrome.

(architecture) The space between the columns and the wall of the cella in an Ancient Greek or Roman temple


tablement

From Middle English tablement, from Anglo-Norman tablement; equivalent to table + -ment.

When we had fetched therefore a circuit about, we ſat us downe upon the tablements on the South ſide of the temple, nere unto the chappell of Tellus, that is to ſay, the Earth, where we beheld the waters of the Fountain Caſtilius, and the temple of the Muſes, with admiration, […]

1603, Plutarch, “Why the Prophetesse Pythia Giveth No Answers Now from the Oracle in Verse or Meeter”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, Commonlie Called, The Morals […], London: […] Arnold Hatfield, →OCLC, page 1196:


lychnoscope

From Ancient Greek λύχνος (lúkhnos) + -scope.

(architecture, archaic) A low side window in a church.


pseudogothic

en-adj

pseudogothic (comparative more pseudogothic, superlative most pseudogothic)

more pseudogothic (comparative)
most pseudogothic (superlative)

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

Obviously, the style of romantic pseudogothic architecture was not invented by Isabel - the building at Puławy was preceded by several similar creations abroad and in Poland.

1980, Marek Rostworowski, The National Museum in Cracow, the Czartoryski Collection:

Even a regular reader of the most dreadful pseudogothic periodicals must have felt a frisson of horror.

1997, Jan Bondeson, A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities, page 97:

The pseudogothic trappings that disfigure the first two cantos of Childe Harold are absent in Childe Harold III and IV, which we may discuss here as a unit even though the last canto was completed two years later in Italy.

2004, Harold Bloom, English Romantic Poetry, page 295:


pentastyle

(architecture) A portico with five columns.


encarpus

encarpuses (plural)
encarpi (plural)
encarpa (alternative)

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek ἔγκαρπος (énkarpos, “containing fruit”) (ἐν- (en-) + καρπός (karpós)).

der

(architecture) An ornament on a frieze or capital, consisting of festoons of fruit, flowers, leaves, etc.


Neogothic

en-adj

Neogothic (comparative more Neogothic, superlative most Neogothic)

more Neogothic (comparative)
most Neogothic (superlative)

The travelling engineer Frencesco Senweignoter designed the church at Falzes (1851) and also the front of the mausoleaum for Archduke Reiner in the principal church in Bolzano. The latter is a pleasing and correct example of the Neogothic style.

1979, Sandro Gattei, Sandro Pirovano, Robert Mainardi, Trentino Alto Adige, page 464:

The earlier periods, the original and ideas-phases of German Neogothic, have been well written up in English; now Lewis's work fills an important gap in English-language works on the later period; indeed, so far, there is no comparable work in German either.

1992, Newsletter - Issues 47-65, page 90:

The Neogothic Revival style of the early 1900s sought to tame the excesses of the flamboyant High Victorian Gothic by turning to English Gothic architecture for inspiration.

1993, East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, City of Berlin intensive architectural/historical survey: final report:

His interest in architecture was always strongly linked to his sense of responsibility for the care and preservation of the built environment. In 1973 he published an article on Early Neogothic in Finland.

1995, Icon to Cartoon: A Tribute to Sixten Ringbom, page 22:

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, he made a series of designs in the Neogothic idiom of Martorell.

2000, Juan Bassegoda Nonell, Antonio Gaudi: Master Architect:

(architecture, literature) Alternative form of neogothic.


cour d'honneur

(architecture) A three-sided ceremonial courtyard, created by flanking the main central block, or corps de logis, with symmetrical advancing secondary wings containing minor rooms.


bull's nose

(architecture) An external angle when obtuse or rounded.


apteral

There may, however, be entablature without columns, —where the latter are suppressed, as on the flanks of an apteral temple; or omitted entirely, as in astylar building

1852, William Henry Leeds, Rudimentary architecture for the use of beginners and students. The orders, and their æsthetic principles,:

(architecture) Without lateral columns; applied to buildings which have no series of columns along their sides, but are either prostyle or amphiprostyle.


MFT

Managed file transfer
w:Managed file transfer

(computing, architecture) Initialism of Managed file transfer.


screwback

The main arch abutments are 25 feet wide by 75 feet long and approximately 60 feet deep from the top of the screwback to the bottom of the footings.

1941, Association of Ontario Land Surveyors, Annual Report, page 72:

(architecture) A masonry abutment on an arch that is wedge-shaped in order to transmit the thrust downward.


tail-bay

(architecture) One of the joists which rest one end on the wall and the other on a girder.

(architecture) The space between a wall and the nearest girder of a floor.


hypotrachelium

Latin [Term?], from Ancient Greek [Term?] under + neck.


dentel

(architecture) Alternative form of dentil.


propylon

From Ancient Greek προπύλαιος [πρός (prós, “before”) + πύλη (púlē, “gate”)].

(architecture, historical) Alternative spelling of propylaeum.


mashrabiyya

en-noun

mashrabiyya (plural mashrabiyyas or mashrabiyya)

mashrabiyyas (plural)
mashrabiyya (plural)
mashrabiya (alternative)
moucharabieh (alternative)
moucharaby (alternative)
mouchrabieh (alternative)
mushrebiyeh (alternative)

/məʃɹəˈbi.ə/

From French moucharaby, later reborrowed from its source, Arabic مَشْرَبِيَّة (mašrabiyya), from مِشْرَبَة (mišraba, “small jug”), from the water jars placed in it to provide evaporative cooling.

bor

مَشْرَبِيَّة

The upper floors of the buildings bordering the street leading to the mosque feature mashrabiyya, intricate wooden lattice window screens. […] In contrast to the modest mashrabiyya overlooking the alley, on the side facing the main street, the buildings feature inviting open balconies accessed by louvered doors.

2009, Deborah Starr, Remembering Cosmopolitan Egypt, Routledge, →ISBN, page 1:

(architecture) A balcony in North Africa enclosed with carved wooden latticework.


pycnostyle

From Ancient Greek πυκνόστυλος (puknóstulos, “close-pillared”). By surface analysis, pycno- + -style.

der

(architecture) Having an intercolumniation of 1.5 times the diameter of the shaft of a column.


pycnostyle

(architecture) A colonnade of this kind.


araeostyle

From Latin araeostylos, from Ancient Greek ἀραιόστυλος (araióstulos). By surface analysis, Ancient Greek ἀραιός (araiós, “widely spaced”) + -style.

surf

(architecture) A type of intercolumniation


clavy

Compare French claveau (“centrepiece of an arch”).


cross-springer

(architecture) Alternative form of cross springer.


crossette

Borrowed from French crossette, diminutive of crosse. See crosier.

(architecture) A return in one of the corners of the architrave of a door or window.


lying panel

(architecture) A panel in which the grain of the wood is horizontal.


service-oriented architecture

en-noun

service-oriented architecture (plural service-oriented architectures)

software architectural
software architecture

(computing, architecture) A software architectural concept that defines the use of services to support the requirements of software users.


search-oriented architecture

search-oriented architecture (plural search-oriented architectures)

(computing, architecture, rare) A software-architectural approach that is focused on a search engine.


scarcement

(architecture, engineering) An offset where a wall or bank of earth, etc., retreats, leaving a shelf or footing.


cimbia

(architecture) A fillet or band placed around the shaft of a column as if to strengthen it.


Morisco

Moriscos (plural)
Moriscoes (plural)
Moresco (alternative)

Borrowed from Spanish morisco (“Moorish”), from moro (“Moor”).

Ambrosio de Letinez, a fictitious hero of the early nineteenth century, accurately described the typical architecture of northern Mexico: “The style of building is the Morisco … throughout … Mexico; that is to say, the houses are almost universally one story high, with flat terrace roofs and few windows to the street. […]”

2008, W. Eugene George, Lost Architecture of the Rio Grande Borderlands, Texas A&M University Press, →ISBN, page 28:

(architecture) The Moorish style of architecture.


apothesis

From Ancient Greek ἀπόθεσις (apóthesis, “a putting back or away”). See apothecary.

der

(architecture) A place on the south side of the chancel in primitive churches, furnished with shelves, for books, vestments, etc.


chimney breast

(architecture) The horizontal projection of a chimney from the wall in which it is built (usually inside a building)


intercolumniated

Let us go on to the Rotunda, a hall of fifty feet diameter, with ten windows, richly intercolumniated, and a vaulted roof ornamented with stucco.

1808, Joseph Sansom, Travels from Paris through Switzerland and Italy, page 82:


CDI

en-noun

CDI (countable and uncountable, plural CDIs)

Moreover, the CDI concept rationalizes the application structure by making the wiring points of one class with others explicit.

2022, Giuseppe Bonocore, Arunee Singhchawla, Hands-On Software Architecture with Java, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 185:

dependency injection
dependency injection#English

(software architecture) Initialism of context(s) and dependency injection.


model-view-controller

model–view–controller (canonical)
model-view-controllers (plural)

(software architecture) A type of computer user interface that separates the representation of information from the user's interaction.


rudenture

From French rudenture, from Latin rudens (“rope”).


neckmould

neckmoulds (plural)
neckmold (alternative)

(architecture) A small convex moulding surrounding a column at the junction of the shaft and capital.


boultel

boultels (plural)
bowtel (alternative)
bowtell (alternative)
boltel (alternative)
boultin (alternative)
boutell (alternative)

(architecture) A moulding with quarter-circle convexity, found just below the abacus in the Tuscan and Roman Doric capital; a torus; an ovolo.

(architecture) One of the shafts of a clustered column.


hanse

Compare French anse (“handle”), anse de panier (“surbased arch, flat arch, vault”), and English haunch (“hip”).

Now Workmen call each End of these Arches the Hanse, which Hanses are always the Arches of smaller Circles than the Scheme, which is the middle Part of these Arches, and consists of a Part of a larger Circle […]

1736, Richard Neve, Neve's The city and country purchaser and builder's dictionary:

The building, from the tenor of the whole description, was in the style of the Renaissance, and the pillars (spiral or wreathed) probably supported the hanses, or spring of the arch.

1846, Cambridge Antiquarian Society, Quarto Publications, volume 1, page 60:

(architecture) That part of an elliptical or many-centred arch which has the shorter radius and immediately adjoins the impost.


pattern language

pattern language (plural pattern languages)

(architecture, design, software) A structured method of describing good design practices within a field of expertise.


protodoric

en-adj

protodoric (comparative more protodoric, superlative most protodoric)

more protodoric (comparative)
most protodoric (superlative)

(architecture) Of or relating to a style in which the beginnings of the Doric style are supposed to be found.


pulvinate

pulvinate (comparative more pulvinate, superlative most pulvinate)

more pulvinate (comparative)
most pulvinate (superlative)

Latin pulvinatus, from pulvinus (“a cushion, an elevation”).

a pulvinated frieze

(architecture) Curved convexly or swelled.


atlantid

(architecture) A figure of a man used as a column.


corbel out

en-verb

corbel out (third-person singular simple present corbels out, present participle corbelling out or corbeling out, simple past and past participle corbelled out or corbeled out)

corbels out (present singular third-person)
corbelling out (participle present)
corbeling out (participle present)
corbelled out (participle past)
corbelled out (past)
corbeled out (participle past)
corbeled out (past)

(transitive, architecture) To furnish with a corbel of courses, each projecting beyond the one below it.


opus incertum

From Latin opus (“work”) + incertus (“uncertain, irregular”).

com

(architecture, historical) An Ancient Roman construction technique, using irregular-shaped and randomly placed uncut stones or fist-sized tuff blocks inserted in a core of opus caementicium (Roman concrete).


model-view-presenter

model–view–presenter (canonical)
model-view-presenters (plural)

(software architecture) A derivative of the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern, where the presenter assumes the functionality of the "middle-man".


transom window

(architecture) A window above a door or another window.


corbel table

(architecture) A horizontal row of corbels, with the panels or filling between them.


peripterous

From peri- + Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “wing”) + -ous.

(architecture) Surrounded by a single row of columns.


pteron

From Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “feather, wing”).

uder

(architecture) A peristyle raised on a podium, differing from an ordinary peristyle raised only on a stylobate.


bed moulding

bed mouldings (plural)
bed molding (alternative)

(architecture) The moulding of a cornice immediately below the corona.


monopteros

From Latin monopteros, from Ancient Greek μονόπτερος (monópteros), from μονο- (mono-, “mono-”) + πτερόν (pterón, “wing; circle of columns”).

I leafed through the various boxes and drawers, staring sometimes for minutes on end at a star-shaped vault or diamond frieze, a hermitage, a monopteros or a mausoleum, without knowing what I was looking at or why.

2001, WG Sebald, translated by Anthea Bell, Austerlitz, Penguin, published 2011, page 199:

(architecture) A classical temple made up of one circle of columns supporting a roof.


ledgment

ledgments (plural)
ledgement (alternative)
legement (alternative)
ligement (alternative)

From Middle English legement; equivalent to ledge + -ment.

(architecture) A stringcourse or horizontal suit of mouldings, such as the base mouldings of a building.


peristasis

en-noun

peristasis (countable and uncountable, plural peristases)

(countable, architecture) A four-sided porch or hall of columns surrounding the cella in an Ancient Greek peripteros temple.


piend

…the hip-rafters being termed piend rafters.

1868, Villa and Cottage Architecture: Select Examples of Country and Suburban Residence Recently Erected. With a Full Descriptive Notice of Each Bulding …, Blackie & Son, page xii:

Figs. 119 to 135 illustrate various types of couples, ordinary, end, hip, and piend, used in the roof…

1900 February 23, “The Waverly Station at Edinburgh of the North British Railway.”, in Engineering: An Illustrated Weekly Journal, volumes LXIX — FROM JANUARY TO JUNE 1900, page 248:

Small but smart two-storey piend-roofed mansion-house built for the Robertsons of Auchleeks c. 1820.

2007, John Gifford, Perth and Kinross (The Buildings of Scotland; 10), Yale University Press, page 164:

(Scotland, architecture) The angle or edge formed where two surfaces meet. More specifically, the sloped edges of a pavilion or hip roof.


gable end

(architecture) The side of a building which is topped by a gable


hammer beam

hammer beams (plural)
hammer-beam (alternative)
hammerbeam (alternative)

(architecture) A (short) member of a kind of roof truss (a hammer-beam truss), so framed as not to have a tiebeam at the top of the wall. Each principal has two hammer beams, which occupy the situation, and to some extent serve the purpose, of a tiebeam.


muqarnas

muqarnas (plural muqarnases or muqarnas)

From Arabic مُقَرْنَص (muqarnaṣ) (passive participle of قَرْنِيص (qarnīṣ), from Ancient Greek κορωνίς (korōnís, “curved”)), or Persian مقرنس (moqarnas).

uder

(architecture) A type of corbel used for decoration in Islamic and Persian architecture.


panellation

(architecture) division of a feature into separate panels.


champe

(architecture) Alternative form of champ.


pricking-up

the First Coat, in plastering of two coat work, is denominated laying when on lath, and rendering when on brick; in three coat work upon lath it is denominated pricking up, and upon brick roughing in

1826, Joseph Gwilt, Rudiments of Architecture:

(architecture) The first coating of plaster in work of three coats upon laths; a scratch coat. Its surface is scratched once to form a better key for the next coat.


trochilus

en-noun

trochilus (plural trochiluses or trochili)

From Latin trochilus (“a kind of small bird”), from Ancient Greek τροχίλος (trokhílos), from τρέχω (trékhō, “to run”).

bor

(architecture) An annular moulding whose section is concave, like the edge of a pulley; a scotia.


baguet

(architecture, zoology) Alternative form of baguette.


cinter

(architecture) Alternative form of center.


streetwall

(architecture) One of the long side boundaries of a street, formed by buildings, hedges, etc.


pugging

en-noun

pugging (countable and uncountable, plural puggings)

(architecture) mortar etc. laid between the joists under the boards of a floor, or within a partition, to deaden sound.


mercy chair

(architecture) A small, ornately carved wooden protrusion in a cathedral wall, allowing a person to rest against it without actually sitting during long religious services.


cloister vault

(architecture) A vault resulting from the intersection of two barrel vaults crossing in a right angle. The angles of intersection are groins with projecting angles at the base, which die away at the summit.

kloostergewelf

structure created by intersection of vaults


groin vault

(architecture) A vault resulting from the intersection of two barrel-vaults crossing in a right angle. Its thrusts are concentrated along the groins or arrises and eventually at the four corners


double barrel vault

double barrel vault (plural double barrel vaults)


fanwork

fanwork (countable and uncountable, plural fanworks)

The chapel — a soaring, slender-shafted building, with fanwork upon its roof and an apse deep and pointed — seemed full of light, withal it was hung with black velvet.

1911, Maurice Hewlett, The Song of Renny, Charles Scribner's Son, 's (1911), page 389:

There were bits of a vaulted roof with panelled fanwork and moulded ribs, recalling the Henry VII Chapel at Westminster.

2008, Geoffrey Ashe, King Arthur's Avalon: The Story of Glastonbury, Sutton Press, published 2008, →ISBN, page 289:

Now the Grand High Witch removes her mask and wig: A hideous beak and a decrepit bodice of skin and bones, like the stone ceiling fanwork in a Gothic chamber, her blotchy scalp a moonscape fermenting cobwebs.

2008, Leonard Ginsberg, Rhapsody on a Film by Kurosawa, Trafford Publishing, published 2008, →ISBN, page 48:


planovolumetric

(architecture) Describing a space (or its representation) as a stratification of planes


balustrading

balustrading (countable and uncountable, plural balustradings)

(architecture) work including one or more balustrades


bundle pillar

(architecture) A column or pier with others of smaller dimensions attached to it.


camber arch

(architecture) An arch whose intrados, though apparently straight, has a slightly concave curve upward.


camber beam

(architecture) A beam whose underside has a concave curve upward.


pellet moulding

pellet moulding (plural pellet mouldings)

(architecture) A narrow band ornamented with small flat disks.


Earthship

Earthships (plural)
earthship (alternative)
Earth ship (alternative)
earth-ship (alternative)
Earth-ship (alternative)

Compound of Earth + ship. In the architectural sense, coined by American architect Michael E. Reynolds.

coinage

If you like the idea of building an Earthship, but can't, perhaps because your neighbors would hang you by your toes from a tree, or if you don't like the appearance of an Earthship but like many of its features, don't despair.

2000, Daniel D. Chiras, The Natural House, page 118:

In 1969, Reynolds moved to Taos, New Mexico, where he began building homes out of the junk he could find lying around. He continues to live today in an Earthship community he founded in the outskirts of Taos.

2011, Eric Corey Freed, Green Building & Remodeling For Dummies, page 191:

(architecture) A solar-heated house made of natural and recycled materials, such as earth-filled tyres.


saddletank

saddletanks (plural)
saddle tank (alternative)

(naval architecture) An early style of ballast tank submarine in which the tank sits on top like a saddle.


batement light

(architecture) A window or one division of a window having vertical sides, but with the sill not horizontal, as where it follows the rake of a staircase.


cavaedium

(architecture) The central hall or court within an Ancient Roman house.


archivolted

(architecture) Furnished with archivolts.


counterfacade

counterfacades (plural)
counter-façade (alternative)

(architecture) An inner wall of a church's facade.


tail in

en-verb

tail in (third-person singular simple present tails in, present participle tailing in, simple past and past participle tailed in)

tails in (present singular third-person)
tailing in (participle present)
tailed in (participle past)
tailed in (past)

to tail in a timber

(transitive, architecture) To fasten by one of the ends into a wall or some other support.


corps de logis

Unadapted borrowing from French corps de logis (literally “body of the house”).

ubor

(architecture) The principal mass of a building, excluding the wings.


straining piece

en-noun

straining piece (plural straining pieces)

(architecture) A short piece of timber in a truss, used to maintain the ends of struts or rafters and keep them from slipping; straining beam.


key up

en-verb

key up (third-person singular simple present keys up, present participle keying up, simple past and past participle keyed up)

keys up (present singular third-person)
keying up (participle present)
keyed up (participle past)
keyed up (past)

(architecture, transitive) To raise (the whole ring of an arch) off its centering, by driving in the keystone forcibly.


bench table

(architecture) A projecting course at the base of a building, or round a pillar, sufficient to form a seat.


stump tracery

(architecture) A form of late German Gothic tracery in which the moulded bar seems to pass through itself in its convolutions, and is then cut off short, so that a section of the moulding is seen at the end of each similar stump.


collar beam

(architecture) A horizontal piece of timber connecting and tying together two opposite rafters.


low side window

en-noun

low side window (plural low side windows)

(architecture) A type of window that is generally narrow, near the ground, and not aligned with the rows of windows, commonly found in medieval churches.


e.e.

(architecture) Abbreviation of Early English, a style of English Gothic architecture.


staff angle

(architecture) A square rod of wood standing flush with the wall on each of its sides, at the external angles of plastering, to prevent their being damaged.


jack timber

(architecture) Any timber, such as a rafter, rib, or studding, which, being intercepted, is shorter than the others.


pick dressing

(architecture) In cut stonework, a facing made by a pointed tool, leaving the surface in little pits or depressions.


angle leaf

(architecture) A detail in the form of a leaf, more or less conventionalized, used to decorate and sometimes to strengthen an angle.


angle bead

(architecture) A bead worked on or fixed to the angle of any architectural work, especially for protecting an angle of a wall.


deck floor

(architecture) A floor which also serves as a roof, as of a belfry or balcony.


bell deck

(architecture) The floor of a belfry, made to serve as a roof to the rooms below.


dead wall

(architecture) A blank wall unbroken by windows or other openings.


angle shaft

(architecture) An enriched angle bead, often having a capital or base, or both.


bell cot

bell cots (plural)
bellcot (alternative)
bellcote (alternative)

(architecture) A small or subsidiary construction, frequently corbelled out from the walls of a structure, and used to contain and support one or more bells.


spear closet

(architecture, slang) A small irregular space left by the building of other rooms in a structure.


lierne

(architecture) A cross-shaped rib of an ogival vault.


apsidole

apsidoles (plural)
absidiole (alternative)
apsidiole (alternative)

(architecture) A minor apse at the end of a side aisle in a church.


Scottish Baronial

(architecture) Of a style of architecture with its origins in the 16th century, drawing on the features of medieval castles, tower houses and the châteaux of the French Renaissance.


jharokha

jharokhas (plural)
jharoka (alternative)

The gatehouse survives still as a witness to this grandeur: with its Dholpur sandstone façade, its delicate jharokha balconies and its fine fish-tail mouldings it is still a magnificent sight.

1993, William Dalrymple, City of Djinns, Penguin, published 2004, page 56:

In Dhaka, Islam Khan built a scaled-down replica of Jahangir's imperial court, complete with a jharokhā.

1996, Richard Maxwell Eaton, The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760, page 160:

They watch him from their jharokhas when he leaves the Atithi Palace in smartly tailored white clothes, bottlegreen or pink sash around his waist and a fancy saafa on his head.

1997, Kiran Nagarkar, Cuckold, HarperCollins, published 2013, page 84:

Apart from residential buildings, jharokhas were incorporated into temples, mosques, Jain derasars or temples and step-wells, where they served as ornamentation to a building's elevation, functioned as shaded openings to let in air and light, and provided seating spaces on their ledges for a view of the world outside.

2011, Achyut Yagnik, Ahmedabad: From Royal city to Megacity:

(architecture) A type of enclosed overhanging balcony in Indian architecture.


Dubaization

(architecture) The process of urbanizing a city with futuristic, pioneering architecture.


supermodernism

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

Ibelings has termed the formal vocabulary of these architecturally interesting airports and of other similar large-scale works "supermodernism." Instead of taking an interest in the contextual and historical factors of architecture (as in the 70s and 80s), supermodernism is characterized by a susceptibility to categories like the neutral, the indistinct, or the implicit.

1999, The Urban Condition: Space, Community, and Self in the Contemporary Metropolis:

As Hans lbelings describes in his provocatively titled study Supermodernism, among a small but influential group of contemporary architects what almost amounts to a new form of 'international style' has found renewed validation in the commercial nation of the global brand.

2004, Kevin Nute, Place, Time, and Being in Japanese Architecture, page 4:

Marc Augé and Hans Ibelings are the influential emergent critics of what has come to be called "supermodernism"; see, respectively, Augé, Non-Places: Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodernity (Verso, 1995), and Ibelings, Supermodernism: Architecture in the Age of Globalization (NAI, 1998).

2008, Mark Kingwell, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City:

(architecture) An architectural style following modernism and postmodernism, promoted by Hans Ibelings.


chain tie

(architecture) A tie consisting of a series of connected iron bars or rods.


periptery

From peri- + Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “wing”).

(architecture) A building surrounded by a wing or row of columns.


overslay

From Middle English overslay, oversleie, from Old English ofersleġe, oferslæġe (“lintel”), equivalent to over- + slay.


engaged column

(architecture) A column embedded in a wall and partly projecting from the surface of the wall


cove molding

(architecture) Any molding that has a concave shape.


neo-historicism

neo-historism (alternative)
neo-Historism (alternative)
Neo-Historism (alternative)
neo-Historicism (alternative)
Neo-Historicism (alternative)

(philosophy, art, architecture) A movement that draws inspiration from classical historicism


vimana

(architecture) The tower above the garbhagriha in a Hindu temple.