Glossary Of Architectural Terms

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Adobe Bricks

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Bricks formed out of mud or clay, and baked in a kiln or under the sun. Adobe bricks are often bonded together with mud- or lime-mortar joints, and coats of lime-and-sand stucco often cover adobe walls to prevent them from eroding in the rain. The use of adobe bricks dates back to prehistoric times, and continues today. Adobe buildings are particularly common in the southwestern United States, where they are indigenous.

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Arcade

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A series of arches supported by columns or other vertical elements.

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Arch

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A curved or pointed structural element that is supported at its sides.

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Architectual Symmetry

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A characteristic (particularly of classical architecture) by which the two sides of a facade or architectural floor plan of a building present mirror images of one another.

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Archway

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An opening with a curved or pointed top.

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Attic Window

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A window lighting an attic story, and often located in a cornice. Attic windows are common to ancient Greek and Greek Revival architecture.

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Bake Oven

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An enclosed brick or stone oven built adjacent to a hearth in early Dutch Colonial houses. As a bake oven’s walls are made of solid, insulating materials, it can maintain an even temperature for many hours.

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Balcony

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A platform that projects from the wall of a building, and which is enclosed on its outer three sides by a balustrade, railing, or parapet.

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Baluster

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A vertical supporting element, similar to a small column.

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Balustrade

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A railing consisting of a row of balusters supporting a rail.

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Bay

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A section of a building distinguished by vertical elements such as columns or pillars. Often, a bay will protrude from the surface of the wall in which it is situated, thus creating a small, nook-like interior space, often of a rectangular or semi-hexagonal outline. See bay window.

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Bay Window

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A projecting bay that is lit on all of its projecting sides by windows. See bay.

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Board-and-batten

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A wooden siding treatment in which wide, vertically oriented boards are separated by narrower strips of wood called “battens,” which form the joints between the boards. This is a technique common to American folk architecture.

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Bow Window

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A curved bay window. See bay window and bay.

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Bell Roof

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A roof shaped like a bell, and typically situated on top of a round tower. The bell roof has origins in Normandy, toured extensively by Stanford White, who incorporated bell roofs into many of his Shingle Style houses and buildings.

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Belvedere

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A small, square cupola that functions as a lookout tower, located at the top of a building. Belvederes are characteristic of Italianate houses.

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Bousillage

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A form of plaster made of mud, clay and moss used in poteaux-en-terre construction in French Colonial architecture, particularly in Louisiana.

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Brace

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A reinforcing and/or stabilizing element of an architectural frame.

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Bracket

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A projection from a vertical surface that provides structural and/or visual support for overhanging elements such as cornices, balconies, and eaves.

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Casement Window

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A window frame that is hinged on one vertical side, and which swings open to either the inside or the outside of the building. Casement windows often occur in pairs.

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Central Hallway

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A passageway that cuts through the center of a building, from front to back, and off of which rooms open to the sides.

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Chalet

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A timber dwelling, cottage, or lodge with a gable roof and wide eaves, indigenous to the Swiss Alps, but now found worldwide.

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Chevron

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A design that incorporates a pointed shape similar to an accent mark, common to Art Deco architecture.

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Chimney Stacks and Bundles

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Chimney flues visible from the exterior of a house, and sometimes very decorative.

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Classical Architecture

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Architecture modeled after the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome.

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Classical Figurative Statuary

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Statues of men and women dressed in ancient Grecian or Roman attire.

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Colonial Kitchen

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In the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, a kitchen inspired by the kitchens of Colonial America. A colonial kitchen is usually large, with a wide, open hearth, and contains no modern conveniences (or else contains modern conveniences contrived to look pre-modern). Colonial revivalists of the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries looked back upon colonial dwellings, especially colonial kitchens, with nostalgia for earlier, pre-industrial times. The colonial kitchen display of the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago was exceedingly popular amongst Colonial Revival enthusiasts.

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Colonnade

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A range of columns that supports a string of continuous arches or a horizontal entablature.

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Column

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A supporting pillar consisting of a base, a cylindrical shaft, and a capital on top of the shaft. Columns may be plain or ornamental.

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Composite Order

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See Corinithian Order.

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Cone-shaped Roof

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A roof shaped like a cone.

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Corinthian Order

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A variation of the Ionic order, and the youngest (dating from the 4th century B.C.E.) of the three basic orders of classical Greek architecture (the others being the Doric and the Ionic orders). The Corinthian column was the showiest of the three basic columns, with a tall acanthus leaf capital, a molded base, and a slender, fluted shaft. The Corinthian order was utilized in ancient Greece almost exclusively for temple interiors, but became very prominent in ancient Rome, due to the ancient Romans’ taste for excessive ornamentation, particularly in architecture. Ever the imitators, but rarely the inventors, the ancient Romans grafted the volute scrolls of the Ionic order onto the capitals of the Corinthian order to result in the Composite Order.
architecture describes a slender architectural column with an ornate capital

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Cornice

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A crowning projection at a roof line, often with molding or other classical detail.

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Cornice Molding

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A decorative strip of wood running just below the eaves of a building. A cornice molding is a cross between a cornice and a molding – a cornice is a crowning projection at a roof line, while a molding is a decorative strip of wood.

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Courtyard

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An open space, usually open to the sky, enclosed by a building, often with an arcade or colonnade.

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Crenellation

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A sequence of alternating raised and lowered wall sections at the top of a high exterior wall or parapet. Crenellations were originally employed for defensive purposes (one could hide behind a raised wall section, while shooting down at enemies from over a lowered wall section), but were later used for decoration. Also known as a battlement.