Architectural Terminology
The world of architecture introduces a variety of new vocabulary to any layman. Knowing basic terminology used commonly in the world of architecture is essential! I have a short video series of architectural terminology on my YouTube channel too, if you prefer a video format!
Arcade: A series of arches supported by columns or piers, it may be attached to a wall (blind) or freestanding.
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Arch: A curved or pointed structural element that is supported at its sides.
Architecture: The art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
Architectural Symmetry: 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.
Ashlar: Smooth square stones laid in a horizontal fashion; used for foundations or facing of masonry walls.
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Balconet: A false balcony, or railing at the outer plane of a window.
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Balcony: 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: A vertical supporting element, similar to a small column.
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Balustrade: A railing composition composed of upper and lower rails, balusters and pedestals. Materials used can range from stone to brick, wood and sheet metal.
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Bays: A section of a building distinguished by vertical elements such as columns or pillars. The number of bays refers to the width of a building by counting the number of openings including both doors and windows. 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
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Bellcast: A curved shape resulting in a lower pitch at the bottom of a roof slope.
Bonneted: A dormer with a semicircular roof line, normally containing an arched window.
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Bousillage: 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: A reinforcing and/or stabilizing element of an architectural frame.
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Brackets: Applied ornamental elements often used at a cornice or to flank windows and doors.
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Brick Header: A brick oriented with the smaller end exposed on the face of the wall and smaller dimension vertical; typically placed over window and door openings.
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Building Envelope: A building envelope, also referred to as a building skin, is the physical separator between the interior and exterior of the building. The envelope includes things like walls, floors, roofs, fenestrations, and doors.
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Bulkhead: A set of metal door providing an outdoor entrance to the cellar.
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Buttress: A projecting mass normally of brickwork or masonry that is used to support a structure. Gives additional strength usually to counteract the outward thrust of an arch or vault; Commonly seen on some Gothic Revival style churches.
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Canopy: A projecting roof structure that shelters an entrance.
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Cantilever: A rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Architects often refer to cantilever when discussing overhanging planes, like a cantilevered roof or deck. Can be formed as a beam, plate, truss, or slab
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Casement: In a window refers to a vertical window hinged on its vertical side, meant to open either out or in.
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Central Hallway: 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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Chamfer: A 45-degree bevel cut at an outside corner of a building element, often seen in wood, stone or brick.
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Circulation: Used to describe the flow of people throughout a home or building.
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Cladding: The application of one material over another to add an extra skin or layer to the building. In construction, cladding is used to provide a degree of thermal insulation and weather resistance, and to improve the appearance of buildings. It could be any material—wood, metal, stone, vinyl—but the cladding must be waterproof because it’s primarily used to protect the building against leaking.
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Classical Architecture: Architecture modeled after the buildings of ancient Greece and Rome.
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Clearstory (or Clerestory): the upper level of a room that extends beyond the single-story height; often found in churches and penetrated by windows.
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Colonnade: A range of columns that supports a string of continuous arches or a horizontal entablature.
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Column: 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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Column Capitals: Capitals are the tops of round columns and may be of several distinct types or orders. Greek Doric capitals are fluted and plain, Roman Doric capitals are smooth and plain, Ionic capitals have a rams horns at all four corners, and a Corinthian capital is highly decorative with curling acanthus leaves.
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Composite Order: A mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order capital with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.
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Corbel: A piece of stone, wood, brick or any other building material that projects from the face of a wall. It’s generally used to support a cornice or an arch.
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Corinthian Order: A variation of the Ionic order. This 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.
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Cornice: Derived from the Italian word meaning "ledge," a cornice refers to any horizontal, decorative molding that crowns a building.
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Crenellation: A sequence of alternating raised and lowered wall sections at the top of a high exterior wall or parapet. Were originally employed for defensive purposes, but were later used for decoration.
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Cupola: A small dome, or hexagonal or octagonal tower, located at the top of a building. A cupola is sometimes topped with a lantern.
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Curtain Wall: A thin, aluminum-framed wall that contains in-fills of glass or metal panels. The framing is attached to the building structure, so it doesn’t carry the floor or roof loads of the building. It gets the name ‘curtain wall’ because it’s much like window curtains, hanging from a supporting framework.
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Dentils: Small tooth like projections adorning an area under an overhang; square blocks in series under a cornice.
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Diagram: This is a drawing that will outline, explain, or clarify different elements of the building as it relates to the whole design. It’s not necessarily drawn exactly to scale.
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Dome: an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere.
Doric: The earliest type of classical Greek architecture, has a simple yet powerful capital design.
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Dormer: A small structure that projects from a sloping roof, with a window in the façade face.
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Double Doors: Two adjacent doors that share the same door frame, and between which there is no separating vertical member.
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Eaves: The projecting edge of a roof that overhangs an exterior wall to protect it from the rain.
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Eclecticism: A mixing of various architectural styles and ornamentation of the past and present.
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Elizabethan Architecture: Architecture constructed in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It resulted from the English debut of French and Italian Renaissance architecture, whose classical order and symmetry transformed the asymmetrical and rambling medieval English castle. This style followed Tudor architecture, and preceded Jacobean architecture.
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Entablature: The horizontal band of elements above the column capitals in classical architecture.
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Exposed Rafters: Rafters that are exposed to the outside of a building. Rafters are the inclined, sloping framing members of a roof, and to which the roof covering is affixed.
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Eyelid Dormer: A half-elliptical decorative window placed in the roof surface, resembling the shape of an eye.
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Facade: An exterior wall, or face, of a building. The front facade of a building contains the building’s main entrance, the rear facade is the building’s rear exterior wall, and the side facades are a building’s side exterior walls.
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Fenestration: It’s a blanket terms for the design, construction, and presence of any openings in a building. Think windows, doors, vents, wall panels, skylights, curtain walls or louvers.
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Finial: A formal ornamentation fixed to the top of a peak, arch, gable, etc.
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Floor Plan: The arrangement of rooms in a building.
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Floor plate: Essentially a metal plate that’s set into a floor and sometimes fitted with slots that allow for equipment to be fastened in.
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Fluting: Shallow, vertical grooves in the shaft of a column or pilaster.
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Free-flowing Floor Plan: A floor plan in which there are no (or few) hallways, and rooms open directly onto one another, often through wide doorways. Sliding doors are popular in such a plan, as are central living rooms.
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French Baroque Architecture: A form of Baroque architecture that evolved in France during the reigns of Louis XIII, Louis XIV, and Louis XV. This style of architecture melded traditional French architectural forms (such as steep roofs and irregular rooflines) with classical Italian elements (such as columns, porticos, and segmental pediments), and greatly influenced the non-religious architecture of 18th-century Europe.
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Frieze: The panel beneath the cornice at the top of a building' exterior wall which is often ornamented with brackets, dentils or modallions.
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Fully Studded: in reference to a type of construction; local term for vertical plank construction. Large vertical planks or studs that are rough sawn or planed are placed next to each other on a sill at the bottom and either extends to a plate at the top or continues to the roof. Sometimes every 16"-20" a stud is mortised into the sill.
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Gable Roof: A roof with two slopes – front and rear– joining at a single ridge line parallel to the entrance façade.
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Gambrel: A roof shape characterized by a pair of shallow pitch slopes above a steeply pitched slope on each side of a center ridge.
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Gothic Window: a triple arched window where the center pane is taller than the sides. Most commonly seen in gothic churches.
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Hardware: The metal fittings of a building, such as locks, latches, hinges, handles, and knobs.
Hip Roof: A roof that slopes inward from all four exterior walls. A roof with four pitched sides, the line where two slopes of a roof meet is called a hip.
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Ionic Order: One of the three basic orders of classical Greek architecture (the others being the Doric and the Corinthian orders). In ancient Greece, the Ionic order was the feminine order, and the most appropriate for temples constructed in homage to goddesses. In ancient Rome, the Ionic order was much more prominently utilized than the Doric order. An Ionic column is tall and slender, with a fluted shaft of 24 flutes, a capital with prominent volute scrolls, and an elegantly molded base.
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Jack Arch: A structural element that provides support over an opening in a masonry wall (i.e., made of brick or stone). Jack arches are not actually arch-shaped, but are, instead, flat, and made of individual wedge-shaped bricks or stones held in place through compression.
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Joinery: Woodworking joints in carpentry.
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Juncture: This is how different materials intersect, which ultimately influences how the building will age or if any maintenance issues will come up. If the juncture between the building siding and a window isn’t correct, it’ll cause leaking.
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Lattice-work: A wooden grid of boards overlaid atop an exterior surface.
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Linhay: local terminology referring to an addition to the rear of a structure; either one story with a shed roof (single-slope) or two stories with a flat roof. Also referred to as a lean-to in other areas.
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Lintel: The flat horizontal piece at the top of a window.
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Louver: A window blind or shutter with horizontal slats angled to let in light and air, but keep out the rain, direct sunshine and noise. Usually the angle of the slats is adjustable.
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Mansard Roof: A double slope roof with the lower slope being longer and steeper, with a concave curve. Can be sloped on all four sides or just two sides (front and back).
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Masonry: Being of stone, brick, or concrete.
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Massing: The general shape, or shapes of a building, as well as its form and size. You could compare it to the overall composition of a painting, but in this case it’s three dimensional.
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Mortar: A mixture of sand, water, lime and cement used to lay bricks, stone, tile or concrete block.
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Motif: A theme or predominant feature of a design.
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Mullions: The structural units that divide adjacent windows.
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Neo-Colonial: Residences built after 1955 with allusions of the colonial revival architectural style.
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Ogee Arch: an arch with a compound curve, partly concave and partly convex; looks like the keel of a boat.
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Order: A classical style of architecture. The three primary orders, used in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, are: the Doric order, the Ionic order, and the Corinthian order.
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Oriel: A projecting window of an upper floor, supported from below by a bracket.
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Pagoda: A tiered tower with multiple roof layers, constructed about a central axis pole. Indigenous to Asia (particularly to China, Japan, and Korea), and typically located there within Buddhist temple precincts
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Palazzo: The Italian word for “palace.”
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Palladian: Neo-classical architecture in the style modeled after the Italian architect Andrea Palladio aka Andrea di Pietro Della Gondola.
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Panel: A smooth surface, usually rectangular (or sometimes circular) in shape and framed by a molding, and often featuring decorative, sculptural carving.
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Parapet: The portion of wall that projects above the adjacent roof.
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Parti: It’s the basic scheme or concept for an architectural design that’s represented in a diagram.
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Pavilion: A small but prominent portion of a building that juts out from a main building, either above its roof line, or to the side, and which is identified by a unique height and individual roof type
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Pediment: an architectural element consisting of a gable, usually of a triangular shape, placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature.
Pergola: A garden structure built up over a path or narrow terrace, lined with evenly spaced columns or posts that support a wooden-framed roof without sheathing.
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Picturesque: Architecture and landscape architecture evolved in England in the 18th and 19th centuries; winding paths, asymmetrical compositions, rustic or exotic element , and faux ruins; These settings were favored for their emotional associations.
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Pilaster: a rectangular column projecting only slightly from a wall, incorporates a capital, shaft and base, as one of the orders. Once used for stiffening, now more common for decoration.
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Pointed Arch: produced by two curves that meet in the center forming a point.
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Portico: An entrance porch with columns or pilasters and a roof, and often crowned by a triangular pediment.
Program: A description of a building's internal functions and their relationship to one another. An office building's program differs greatly from a restaurant program as they serve different needs.
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Projection: A side wing, tower, or window bay that protrudes from a building.
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Quoin: A large rectangular block of stone or brick (sometimes wood) used to accentuate an outside corner of a building.
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Rafters: The inclined, sloping framing members of a roof, and to which the roof covering is affixed.
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Raincap: feature over an opening such as a window or door, a wide trim developed to shed water away from the opening. Can be heavy and decorated or light and plain.
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Roof: Can be steep, flat or gently sloped and take many forms, gable, gambrel, hipped, stepped gable, shed, pent or Mansard. The roof type is an important key to identifying the style of a building.
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Roofline: The part of a building that rises above the building’s eaves. Rooflines can be highly decorative, with balustrades, pediments, statuary, dormer windows, cross gables, etc.
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Round Arch: A semicircular arch over a window or door.
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Scale: It’s a triangular, ruler-like device used to determine dimensions. OR scale refers to how the sizes of different architectural elements relate to one another.
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Segmental Arch: An arch whose arc is shorter than that of a full semi-circle.
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Setback: A step-like recession in a wall.
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Shutters: Pairs of solid or slatted window coverings, traditionally hinged to the exterior of a building to either side of a window, used to block light or wind from the interior of a building.
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Sill: The flat horizontal bottom piece of a window or door, often of wood, but sometimes of stone.
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Spandrel Panel: The panel formed by the bottom of a window and the head of a lower window.
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Spatial Organization: Refers to organizing a series of spaces into one recognizable whole.
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Spatiality: A general term that refers to anything relating to, involving, or having the nature of space.
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Spire: A cone shaped roof element with a steep point.
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Stained Glass: Colored glass. These glass windows are fitted with pieces of colored glass, which often depict a picture or scene.
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Stoop: The uncovered wide step leading into the front or main door of a building.
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Stories: The number of stories a building reflects its height by counting the stacked floors.
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Stucco: A plaster used as a coating for walls and ceilings, and often used for decoration.
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Sustainability: Refers to the structure, and the processes related to the structure, that’s environmentally responsible and energy efficient. Environmental factors are taken into account from the initial designs to the construction, as well as the operation and maintenance of a building, to any renovation or demolition.
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Tectonics: The process of shaping, ornamenting, or assembling materials in the construction period. The art and science behind a building’s construction.
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Terrace: An outdoor extension of a building, situated above the ground level, and open to the sky.
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Terracotta: Fired ceramic clay used in architectural wall elements or ornaments.
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Thatched Roof: A roof covered with straw, which is layered so as to shed rain quickly and effectively.
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Tower: A tall structure, either square or round in shape, rising higher than the rest of the building.
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Transom: The horizontal framing member between a door and a window above; also refers to the window above a door.
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Truncated: Cut off or cut short, usually in reference to a roof.
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Truss: The supporting structure or rigid framework that’s composed of beams, girders or rod, usually made of steel of wood. Its shape usually looks like the triangle, as it’s the frame that supports the building’s roof.
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Tudor Arch: A flattened arch with a center point above a door or window.
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Turret: A small tower that pierces a roofline. A turret is usually cylindrical, and is topped by a conical roof.
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Vault: A self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. The simplest kind of vault is the barrel vault, which is generally semicircular in shape.
Veneer: A thin decorative finish typically made of brick, stone or stucco.
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Vernacular Architecture: Responds to local methods of building construction, local climates, and local living needs and traditions. Vernacular architecture typically exhibits the traditional ethos of its builders.
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Walls: structural element used to divide or enclose, and, in building construction, to form the periphery of a room or a building. Can be of log, stone, brick, frame or stucco over such. In the more modern era, wall material could be of formed concrete, glass, or metal.
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X Bracing: A pair of diagonal braces or struts from corner to corner forming an “X.”