My+Glossary


 * Adobe : a term widely used in the southwestern United States and Spanish speaking countries. Although the word is often used to describe an architectural style, adobe is actually a building material. **

**Antebellum**: means "before war" in Latin. The term Antebellum architecture refers to elegant plantation homes built in the American South in the 30 years or so preceding the Civil War. e.g.: Gorgeous tree-lined avenues add to the charm of the antebellum architecture. e.g.: A central atrium floods daylight through a space deep in the building.
 * Arch**: A curved structure that supports the weight of the material above it.e.g.: The bricks were needed to turn the arches of the viaduct and line Blea Moor Tunnel.
 * Atrium**: In an ancient Roman structure, a central room open to the sky, usually having a pool for the collection of rainwater. In Christian churches, a courtyard flanked by porticos.

**Bargeboards** -- also called vergeboards --: hang from the projecting end of a roof. Bargeboards are often elaborately carved and ornamented. Homes in the __[|Carpenter Gothic]__ style have highly ornamented bargeboards. e.g.: The greater number of bargeboards in this district are moulded.



**Bungalows:** California Bungalows, Craftsman Bungalows, and Chicago Bugalows were variations of an affordable housing type that swept across America. e.g.: Mark's family soon found a suitable 3 bedroom detached bungalow very close to where they lived.

Originally, the word clerestory referred to the upper level of a church or cathedral.
 * Clerestory:** a high wall with a band of narrow windows along the very top. The clerestory wall usually rises above adjoining roofs.

e.g.: In the fifteenth century the walls of the nave were raised to form a clerestory and the nave covered with a new low-pitched roof.

**Column**: A column is an upright pillar or post. Columns may support a roof or a beam, or they may be purely decorative. The lower portion of a column is called the //base.// The upper portion of a column is called the //capital//. The area which the column supports is called the //entablature// e.g.: //Classical columns// are built according to the //Classic Orders of Architecture//

e.g.: Original and elegant features have been lovingly restored with ornate cornices and stained glass windows.
 * Cornice**: The upper part of an entablature, extending beyond the frieze.



**Battlement or crenellation:** a __[|parapet]__ with open spaces for shooting. The raised portions of a battlement ("A" in illustration) are called merlons, and the openings ("B") are called embrasures. Masonry buildings in the __[|Gothic Revival]__style may have architectural decoration which resembles battlements.

e.g.: These were used by the defenders of the castle to access the battlements and provide a line of defense around the castle.

**Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction:** is an approach to building design that attempts to view architecture in bits and pieces. The basic elements of architecture are dismantled. Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have no visual logic. They may appear to be made up of unrelated, disharmonious abstract forms. Deconstructive ideas are borrowed from the French philosopher Jacques Derrida.

e.g.: Deconstructivism in [|contemporary architecture] stands in opposition to the ordered rationality of [|Modernism].

e.g.: The entrance to the hotel has a glass facade allowing lots of natural daylight into the lobby area.
 * Facade**: Any important face of a building, usually the principal front with the main entrance.

e.g.: A popular variant of the colonial revival style was the //four square//
 * Foursquare**: The American Foursquare, or the Prairie Box, was a post-Victorian style that shared many features with the __[|Prairie]__ architecture pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright. The boxy foursquare shape provided roomy interiors for homes on small city lots. The simple, square shape also made the Foursquare style especially practical for __[|mail order house kits]__ from Sears and other catalog companies.

**Gable**: A gable is the triangle formed by a sloping roof.

e.g.: when the Americans built the levees, they exchanged a large risk of small floods for a small risk of large floods.
 * Leeve**: a type of dam that runs along the banks of a river or canal. Levees reinforce the banks and help prevent flooding. By confining the flow, levees can also increase the speed of the water.

e.g.: A manufactured home can come in many different sizes and shapes.
 * Manufactured home:** A manufactured home is one that is constructed almost entirely in a factory. The house is placed on a steel chassis and transported to the building site. The wheels can be removed but the chassis stays in place.

e.g.: It had an aisled nave with eleven bays, which extended over ninety meters.
 * Module**: The measurement that architects use to determine the proportions of a structure, for example, the diameter of a column.e.g:This building have a 6 mts module
 * Nave:** The principal area of a church, extending from the main area to the transept.

**Neoclassical**, or "new" classical: architecture describes buildings that are inspired by the classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. A Neoclassical building is likely to have some (but not necessarily all) of these features: e.g.: Many //Neoclassical buildings have// windows grouped in twos or threes.
 * Symmetrical shape
 * Tall columns that rise the full height of the building
 * Triangular __[|pediment]__
 * Domed roof


 * Organic Architecture**: is a term [|Frank Lloyd Wright] used to describe his approach to architectural design. The philosophy grew from the ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright's mentor, [|Louis Sullivan], who believed that "form follows function." Wright argued that "form and function are one."

e.g.: Organic architecture strives to integrate space into a unified whole.

**Parapet:** a low wall projecting from the edge of a platform, terrace, or roof. Parapets may rise above the cornice of a building or form the upper portion of a defensive wall on a castle. In __[|Mission style]__ homes, rounded parapets are often used as decorative features. e.g.: "Mr. Kaufmann was out Sunday (December 20) and found a new fracture in the southparapet wall over center bolster beam. This is another proof that the southeast corner has gone down." - Correspondence from contractor Walter Hall to architect Frank Lloyd Wright in December, 1936, concerning the problematic construction of __[|Fallingwater]__.
 * Portico**: A structure usually attached to a building, such as a porch, consisting of a roof supported by piers or columns.e.g.: The center six bays have a portico with iconic columns.

**Postmodern** **architecture:** evolved from the __[|modernist movement]__, yet contradicts many of the modernist ideas. Combining new ideas with traditional forms, postmodernist buildings may startle, surprise, and even amuse. Familiar shapes and details are used in unexpected ways. Buildings may incorporate symbols to make a statement or simply to delight the viewer. e.g.:The Glass House is a nice example of postmodern architecture


 * Pyramid**: In ancient Egypt, a quadrilateral masonry mass with steeply sloping sides meeting at an apex, used as a tomb.e.g.: The glass pyramid entrance is a bold, highly successful modern addition to the Louver.

The quatrefoil pattern is common in Moorish and Gothic architecture. Also, many __[|Mission style]__ homes have quatrefoil windows. e.g.: A rood loft was also added, approached by a stair on the north side lit by a quatrefoil window.
 * Q****uatrefoi****l** window is a round window that is composed of four equal lobes, like a four-petaled flower.

e.g.: Yesterday I buy a new sketchbook for my design class.
 * Sketchbook:** A volume of drawings, watercolors, or works in other media applied directly to bound supports or pages.

**Traditional stucco** is a cement mixture used for siding. The cement is combined with water and inert materials such as sand and lime. Usually, wooden walls are covered with tar paper and chicken wire or galvanized metal screening. This framework is then covered with the stucco mixture. Sometimes, the cement mix is applied directly to specially prepared masonry surfaces. e.g.: Right, near the Church is North Burton Hall, a white stucco house with 7 bays, built early 1800's.