History Of Architecture Terms

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vernacular architecture

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Folk buildings, those built based on local traditions and untrained builders

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it exists. It has often been dismissed as crude and unrefined, but also has proponents who highlight its importance in current design.

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high-style architecture

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that is designed by trained architects, aware of building traditions

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polis

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In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."

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In current terms, what is an order?

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An order is basically a column. A classical order is one of the ancient styles of classical architecture.

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Describe the three Roman orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.

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The Doric order is the oldest and simplest of the classical orders. It is composed of a vertical cylinder that is wider at the bottom. It generally has neither a base nor a detailed capital. It is instead often topped with an inverted frustum of a shallow cone or a cylindrical band of carvings.

The Ionic column is considerably more complex than the Doric. It usually has a base and the shaft is often fluted (it has grooves carved up its length). On the top is a capital in the characteristic shape of a scroll, called a volute, or scroll, at the four corners. The height-to-thickness ratio is around 9:1. Due to the more refined proportions and scroll capitals, the Ionic column is sometimes associated with academic buildings.

The Corinthian, with its offshoot the Composite, is the most ornate of the orders, characterized by slender fluted columns and an elaborate capitals decorated with acanthus leaves and scrolls. It is sometimes called the feminine order because it is on the top level of the Colosseum and holding up the least weight, and also has the slenderest ratio of thickness to height. Height to width ratio is about 10:1.

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What are the following terms and how do they relate to each other: column, capital, and entablature?

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In architecture, "column" refers to such a structural element that also has certain proportional and decorative features.

The capital forms the crowning member of a column. The bulk of the capital may either be convex, as in the Doric order; concave, as in the inverted bell of the Corinthian order; or scrolling out, as in the Ionic order.

An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals.

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What is a temple (Greek)?

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Greek temples were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in Greek religion. They are the most important and most widespread building type in Greek architecture.

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What is a temple-front?

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Element of a façade resembling the front of a Classical temple, with columns or pilasters carrying an entablature and pediment, applied to an elevation, as in a Palladian composition with portico.

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What is trabeation?

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In architecture, a trabeated system or order refers to the use of horizontal beams or lintels which are borne up by columns or posts. It is the opposite of the arcuated system, which involves the use of arches.

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What is a pediment?

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point at the top of temples, end of gable roof.

In classic architecture the triangular-shaped portion of the wali above the cornice which formed the termination of the roof behind it.

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What are the following terms and how do they relate to each other: arch, vault, and dome?

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An arch is a curved structure capable of spanning a space while supporting significant weight.A Vault is an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof.

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere.

The arch, the vault, and the dome are all applications of the same concept. The vault, or open-ended tunnel, is only an exceptionally deep arch. The dome is in effect a collection of arches all sharing the same center. In each case the pressure of gravity on the material forming the arch will hold it together as long as the outward thrust is contained by buttresses. (A buttress is an architectural structure built against a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall.)

The Roman achievement in all these forms is greatly assisted by their development of concrete.

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What is entasis?

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In architecture, entasis is the application of a convex curve to a surface for aesthetic purposes. Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical columns that curve slightly as their diameter is decreased from the bottom upwards.

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What are peripteral columns?

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Columns that go all the way around the sides.

a temple or other structure where the columns of the front portico are returned along its sides as wings at the distance of one or two intercolumniations from the walls of the naos or cella. Almost all the Greek temples were peripteral, whether Doric, Ionic, or Corinthian.

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What does prostyle mean?

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Prostyle is an architectural term defining free standing columns that are widely spaced apart in a row. The term is often used as an adjective when referring to the portico of a classical building which projects from the main structure.

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Who is Cleisthenes and who is Pericles?

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Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of Athens during the city's Golden Age—specifically, the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society he was called "the first citizen of Athens".

Cleisthenes was a noble Athenian. He is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a democratic footing. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as "the father of Athenian democracy."

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What is an oculus?

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An Oculus or circular window is a feature of Classical architecture since the 16th century.

Oculus is the name of the round opening in the top of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, and in reference to other round windows, openings, and skylights.

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What is a pediment?

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A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure (entablature), typically supported by columns.

point at the top of temples, end of gable roof

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What is a basilica?

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Basilica was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. The term also applies to buildings for religious purposes. After the Roman Empire became officially Christian, the term, by extension, came to refer specifically to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rites by the Pope. Thus the word retains two senses today, one architectural and the other ecclesiastical.

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What is a major achievement of Romans?

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Concrete. ts widespread use in many Roman structures, a key event in the history of architecture termed the Roman Architectural Revolution, freed Roman construction from the restrictions of stone and brick material and allowed for revolutionary new designs in terms of both structural complexity and dimension.

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What is a palazzo?

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A palazzo is a grand building of some architectural ambition that is the headquarters of a family of some renown or of an institution, or even what is called in English a “block of flats” or a tenement in multiple occupancy.

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What does jetty mean?

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Projection of second level of the structure. (from that guy's notes)

A jetty is any of a variety of structures used in river, dock, and maritime works that are generally carried out in pairs from river banks, or in continuation of river channels at their outlets into deep water; or out into docks, and outside their entrances; or for forming basins along the sea-coast for ports in tideless seas. (wikipedia)

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What is the significance of Herculaneum and Pompeii?

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Along with Herculaneum, its sister city, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in 79 AD. The eruption buried Pompeii under 4 to 6 meters of ash and pumice, and it was lost for over 1,500 years before its accidental rediscovery in 1599. Since then, its excavation has provided an extraordinarily detailed insight into the life of a city at the height of the Roman Empire.

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What is the Grand Tour?

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The Grand Tour was the traditional travel of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage.

tour for wealthy around major European centers (London, Paris, Rome) to visit landmarks and buildings; also new archeological digs of Pompeii, etc.

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What is brace-frame construction?

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Heavy timber framed buildings, diagonal braces in corners. (that guy's notes)

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What a Flurkuchenhaus plan?

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A hall-kitchen house plan. German housing structure that has three rooms. The strength is in the floor-plan. The inhabitants live mostly in the hall.

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What is a galerie?

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Gallery (galerie is the French spelling) is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling. Long gallery is an architectural term given to a long, narrow room, often with a high ceiling.

Extended raised porches in the front of houses that run the length of house.

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What is an adobe?

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Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world.

A collection of adobes is a pueblo.

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What is a pueblo?

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"Pueblo" is a term used to describe modern (and ancient) communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish Explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe communities that consisted of apartment-like structures made from stone, adobe mud, and other local material. These structures were usually multi-storied buildings surrounding an open plaza and were occupied by hundreds to thousands of Pueblo People.

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What is Georgianization?

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Buildings go from assymetrical to symmetrical, Renaissance principles of balance, classical architectural elements like arches, pediments

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What is Georgian-plan for a house?

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A floor plan of a Georgian-style house; often two rooms deep, one on each side of a central hall, with a kitchen added at the rear of the house. The chimneys are usually located in the walls on each side of the house.

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What is a central-plan for a house?

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In American Colonial architecture, the floor plan of a house usually having two rooms symmetrically situated on each side of a centrally located hallway; a stair in the hallway leading to the loft space above. Essentially a hall-and-parlor plan with a hallway separating the two rooms.

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What is an I-house?

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The I-house is a vernacular house type, popular in the United States from the colonial period onward.

All I-houses feature gables to the side and are at least two rooms in length, one room deep, and two full stories in height.[3] They also often have a rear wing or ell for a kitchen or additional space. The facade of an I-house tends to be symmetrical, and they were constructed in a variety of materials, including logs, wood frame, brick or stone.

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Who is Andrea Palladio and what is Palladianism?

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Andrea Palladio was an Italian Renaissance architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture.

Palladianism is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of Palladio. Palladio's work was strongly based on the symmetry, perspective and values of the formal classical temple architecture of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.

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What is the Palladian five-part plan?

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House in 5 sections: main block, 2 passages (colonnades) leading to 2 end wings.

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What is Versailles?

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Versailles, is a royal château in Paris, France's metro region (originally a country village).

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What are rond-points?

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A circular or semi-circular roundabouts with a kiosk (statute or fountain) in the middle with streets sprawling out from the center of the kiosk like spokes.

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What is Jefferson's Academical Village?

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Jefferson's original architectural design of the University of Virginia revolves around the "Academical Village", and that name remains in use today to describe both the specific area of The Lawn, a grand, terraced green space surrounded by residential and academic buildings, the gardens, The Range, and the larger University surrounding it. The principal building of the design, The Rotunda (RotundaCam), stands at the north end of the Lawn, and is the most recognizable symbol of the University. It is half the height and width of the Pantheon in Rome, which was the primary inspiration for the building. The Lawn and the Rotunda were the model for many similar designs of "centralized green areas" at universities across the country.

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What does aesthetic mean?

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Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.

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What is a landscape garden?

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The term landscape garden is often used to describe the English garden design style characteristic of the eighteenth century, that swept the Continent replacing the formal Renaissance garden and Garden à la française models.

It usually included a lake, sweeps of gently rolling lawns set against groves of trees, and recreations of classical temples, Gothic ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture, designed to recreate an idyllic pastoral landscape.

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What is a sham ruin?

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A sham ruin is a folly which pretends to be the remains of an old building but which was in fact constructed in that state.

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What is a folly?

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A folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs.

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What is the Picturesque theory of architecture?

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Picturesque theory in architecture, series of towers creating that same profile, alternative to low-slung roofs.

Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal first introduced into English cultural debate in 1782. Picturesque arose as a mediator between the opposed ideals of beauty and quality of greatness or vast magnitude, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic.

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What is a pavilion?

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Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in its intended use. A pavilion built to take advantage of a view is referred to as a gazebo.

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What is a cottage orné?

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A result of the picturesque movement of the late 18th, early 19th century, usually refers to small country houses built in a somewhat artificial rustic manner. Characterized by thatch much use of timber features etc. Popular for estate buildings.

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What is a terrace/parterre?

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A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all. (Ex. Versailles)

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What is the Oriental Revival style?

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This style, evocative of the Middle East or Far East, is notable for its pointed arch which appears at windows, and porches. Trim is delicate and ornate, sometimes with a lacey pattern. Some Oriental Revival buildings have recessed porches or Turkish onion domes. The style was inspired in the late 18th and early 19th century by the increasing trade and contact with the Far East. The stylized and traditional architecture of this region appeared exotic and romantic. The Oriental Revival became popular again in the 1920s and 1930s.

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What does VIRIM stand for?

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Variety, Intricacy, Roughness, Irregularity, Movement

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What does sublime mean?

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In aesthetics, the sublime (from the Latin sublīmis) is the quality of greatness or vast magnitude, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation.

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What are Ecole des Beaux-Arts?

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École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years, training many of the great artists in Europe. Beaux Arts style was modeled on classical "antiquities," preserving these idealized forms and passing the style on to future generations.

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What is rustication?

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In classical architecture[1] rustication is an architectural feature that contrasts in texture with the smoothly finished, squared block masonry surfaces called ashlar. Rusticated masonry is usually squared-off but left with a more or less rough outer surface and wide joints that emphasize the edges of each block. Rustication is often used to give visual weight to the ground floor in contrast to smooth ashlar above.

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What is a esquisse?

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A Frech word meaning the first sketch of a picture or model of a statue. Defined as: sketch, outline; beginnings, hint

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What is panopticon?

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The Panopticon is a type of prison building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the incarcerated being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience."

The architecture incorporates a tower central to a circular building that is divided into cells, each cell extending the entire thickness of the building to allow inner and outer windows.

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What does parti mean?

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A Parti, meaning " to make a decision" and often referred to as the big idea, is the chief organizing thought or decision behind an architect's design presented in the form of a basic diagram and/or a simple statement.

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What does l'architecture parlante mean?

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The phrase architecture parlante (“speaking architecture”) refers to the concept of buildings that explain their own function or identity.

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What are Voussoirs?

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used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit of stone in an arch or vault is known as a voussoir, there are two specified voussoir components of an arch: the keystone and the springer. The keystone is the center stone or masonry unit at the apex of an arch, often decorated, embellished or exaggerated in size. The springer is the lowermost voussoir, located where the curve of the arch springs from the vertical support or abutment of the wall or pier.

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What is structural rationalism?

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Structural rationalism is a retroactively-applied name given to a movement in architecture that came about during the Enlightenment (more specifically, neoclassicism), arguing that architecture's intellectual base is primarily in science as opposed to reverence for and emulation of archaic traditions and beliefs.

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What is a banded column?

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A column with drums that alternate in size, color, or degree of ornamentation.

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What is the archeological revival?

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The archaeological revival are neo-styles of the 18th and 19th centuries inspired by excavations/discoveries of Roman, Egyptian, Hellenistic and Etruscan sites. The first revival came after excavations of the the buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which led to the neoclassicism of the 18th century.

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What is Nicholas Biddle Estate?

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The Nicholas Biddle Estate in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, also known as Andalusia, is a National Historic Landmark. Andalusia is one of the earliest and most pristine examples of the Greek Revival style in the country.

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What is Associationalism?

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Associationalism (also: Associative Democracy) is a political project where "human welfare and liberty are both best served when as many of the affairs of a society as possible are managed by voluntary and democratically self-governing associations." Associationalism "gives priority to freedom in its scale of values, but it contends that such freedom can only be pursued effectively if individuals join with their fellows

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What is a sun disk?

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Gold circle symbolizing the sun and reprsenting the Egyptian sun god, Ra, often used in Egyptian style.

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What is a papyrus column?

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Papyrus columns can have either circular or ribbed shafts, representing single- or multi-stem papyrus plants. The columns may also have either bell shaped capitals (representing the open umbel of the papyrus plant) or closed bud shaped capitals representing the closed papyrus bud.

These are relevant b/c of the Egyptian Revival architectural style.

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What is the lotus capital?

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A lotus capital is the top of an Egyptian style column where the top (the capital) is in the form of a closed (bud) or open lotus flower.

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What is a battered wall?

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Battered walls are thinner at the top than at the bottom and give an impression of solidarity and height. The battered walls are meant to represent the old temples of Egypt.

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What is a lancet window?

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A lancet window is a tall narrow window with a pointed arch at its top.[1] It acquired the "lancet" name from its resemblance to a lance.[2] Instances of this architectural motif are most often found in Gothic and ecclesiastical structures, where they are often placed singly or in pairs.

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What is the Gothic style of architecture?

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The Gothic revival style was influenced from medieval Gothic architecture.

Identifying features of Gothic Revival are steeply pitched roofs, usually with steep cross gables; intricately carved verge boards (barge boards) along the eaves and gable edges (beyond the mid-1860's, intricate vergeboards were replaced by decorative cross bracing at the uppermost point of the gable); vertical board-and-batten siding in gray and earthy tones; tall diamond-paned windows most often placed in gables, having pointed arches or two or three arches grouped together; arched or square hood moldings (drip-molding) over windows.

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What is crenelation?

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To indent; to notch; as, a crenelated leaf. Crenelated molding (Arch.) A kind of indented molding used in Norman (English) buildings.

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What does vaulting mean?

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Making (a roof) in the form of a vault.

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What are oriel windows?

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Oriel windows are a form of bay window commonly found in Gothic revival architecture, which jut out from the main wall of the building but do not reach to the ground.

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What does belvedere mean?

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Belvedere refers to any architectural structure sited to take advantage of a fair (nice) view. A belvedere may be built in the upper part of a building so as to command a fine view.

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What is the Ecclesiological Society?

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It was a learned architectural society founded in 1839 by undergraduates at Cambridge University to promote "the study of Gothic Architecture, and of Ecclesiastical Antiques.

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What is a palazzo?

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A palazzo is a grand building of some architectural ambition that is the headquarters of a family of some renown or of an institution, or even what is called in English a “block of flats” or a tenement in multiple occupancy.

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How is Gothic architecture linked with Gothic novels?

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Gothic literature is intimately associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era. In a way similar to the gothic revivalists' rejection of the clarity and rationalism of the neoclassical style of the Enlightened Establishment, the literary Gothic embodies an appreciation of the joys of extreme emotion, the thrills of fearfulness and awe inherent in the sublime, and a quest for atmosphere.

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What is a nave?

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In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" (Medieval Latin navis, "ship") was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting. The nave of a church, whether Romanesque, Gothic or Classical, extends from the entry — which may have a separate vestibule, the narthex — to the chancel and is flanked by lower aisles separated from the nave by an arcade. If the aisles are high and of a width comparable to the central nave, the structure is sometimes said to have three naves.

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What is an apse?

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An apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome. In Romanesque, Byzantine and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to a semi-circular or polygonal termination of the main building at the liturgical east end (where the altar is), regardless of the shape of the roof, which may be flat, sloping, domed, or hemispherical.

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What is a chancel?

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In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.

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What is an aisle in the context of cathedral architecture?

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In cathedral architecture, an aisle (also known as an isle, yle, or alley) is more specifically a passageway to either side of the nave that is separated from the nave by colonnades or arcades, a row of pillars or columns. Occasionally aisles stop at the transepts, but often aisles can be continued around the apse.