This page defines a lot of the architecture jargon I use frequently across my posts. It may be helpful to use as a reference while reading.
I try to make my posts layperson-accessible, but I understand that they may not always be in practice.
For stylistic descriptions, see the “Entries by Style” page.
Acroterion - a pedestal on the pediment of a classical building upon which a statue or ornamentation stands; also extends to the decorative
item itself
Anthemion - a form of classical ornamentation employing floral motifs, seen as both a repeating pattern on a course or free-standing units
along a cornice or pediment
Apse - a round or polygonal projection from the end of a church
Arcade - a type of colonnade that supports arches instead of an entablature; a Gilded Age predecessor to the shopping mall that features
many shops along a dominant axis
Architrave - a decorative beam supported by columns below, often the lower third of a classical entablature
Archivolt - the equivalent of an architrave used in vaulting, a band that follows the curve of the arch along the intrados
Articulation - the method of expressing a building’s corners, joints, and the connections between elements
Ashlar - rectangular-cut stone blocks
Astragal - a type of semicircular molding most commonly seen on classical columns
Axis - an imaginary line employed in a building’s organization, used for visual continuity and circulation
Balconette - a decorative false balcony
Balustrade - in classical architecture, a decorative row of balusters supporting a railing, which typically lines a terrace or parapet
Bay - either the space between columns or pilasters, or the windows if neither are present
Bead-and-reel - a style of classical ornament employing oval elements alternating with smaller bead-shaped ones
Blind - as relating to an arcade or arch, set into a wall without an opening
Brise-soleil - common in Brutalist architecture and later styles, fins and overhangs that cast shadows over openings and passively cool a
building
Buttress - an element attached to a wall that supports the building from lateral thrust forces
Cantilever - a horizontal extension of a roof or floor that is supported on only one end
Capital - the top of a column, typically lavishly decorated in one of the orders
Circulation - the methods of moving around inside a building
Clerestory - openings above eye level, usually directly below or on the roof, used for light or ventilation
Cloister - an open square or rectangular space formed by a surrounding colonnade or walkway, common in church architecture
Coffer - a recessed panel in a dome or arch, historically used to add texture and reduce weight
Colonnade - a long row of columns supporting a lintel, used as a walkway or entrance
Colonnette - a slender, typically decorative column
Coping - the cap of a wall or parapet
Corbel - a type of bracket used to support a wall or parapet above, typically structural but sometimes decorative
Cornice - the top portion of a classical entablature; a crowning decorative element atop a building, typically highly decorated
Crenellation - a parapet with rectangular projections on top, in the manner of a castle
Crossing - in religious architecture, the moment where the nave and transepts meet
Cupola - a small circular or octagonal structure crowned with a dome that serves as a roof lantern or clerestory
Dentil - a small, blocky projection commonly employed in classical architecture
Dormer - a small cross gable that projects from a roof plane, typically featuring a window, that allows a roof to
be used as livable space
Eclectic - unusual or eccentric in design
Egg-and-dart - a style of ornamentation from the Ionic style featuring alternating egg and V-shaped designs
Entablature - the highly decorated beam that columns on a classical temple support, divided into the architrave, frieze, and cornice
Entasis - the subtle outward curvature of classical temples in plan that visually corrects their tendency to appear to sink inward
Expression - the conveyance of a building’s aesthetics or parti
Facadectomy - the act of covering up or removing an original facade in favor of a modern design
Fenestration - window placement, size, and form
Finial - a pointed decorative element atop a dome, tower, or spire
Frieze - the highly decorated or carved central portion of an entablature; more broadly a painted strip on an interior wall
Gambrel roof - a roof with two different slopes, common on Dutch architecture and barns
Gargoyle - a carved animal or monster projecting from a facade or roof that serves as a water spout
Grotesque - essentially a gargoyle that does not spout water and is only decorative
Gutting - the act of removing a building’s original interior features in favor of modern replacements
Hood mold - a projection, typically masonry, which historically served to deflect rainwater from a window,
used as a decorative element in later styles
Keystone - the central stone of an arch which is integral to its construction, literally its “key stone”
Lintel - a horizontal beam, usually structural, which spans an opening such as a door or window
Loggia - a colonnade open on one side, typically used around a garden or on upper stories of a building
Lunette - a semicircular transom filling the space of an arch above a window or door
Mansard roof - a double-pitched roof steeply sloped at the base and abruptly becoming very shallow near the peak, allows the roof
level to be occupied
Massing - a term for the 3D shape and geometry of a building
Metope - space between triglyphs on a Doric frieze, sometimes filled with sculpture or ornament
Miesian - evoking the architecture of Mies van der Rohe
Modillion - a type of bracket used to support a Corinthian or Composite cornice, smaller than a corbel but larger than a dentil
Mullion - a larger vertical element dividing panes of a window
Muntin - a smaller strip that historically held the smaller glass lights of a larger window opening, now typically false and
decorative
Narthex - the vestibule through which one enters a church before proceeding into the nave
Nave - the central area of a church where worshipers sit
Niche - a recess in a wall or parapet that houses sculpture
Oculus - a circular opening in a dome
Orders - ancient Greek and Roman methods of expressing their architecture, five of which exist and are the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian, and Composite orders
Oriel window - a type of bay window that does not touch the ground
Ornamentation - any form of applied decoration to a building, including the orders, carved panels, statues, etc.
Orthogonal - building elements that are at strictly right angles
Parapet - the portion of a wall extending beyond the roofline
Parti - a building’s overall “big idea”
Patera - a dish-shaped ornament filling the metopes on a frieze
Pediment - the term for a classical temple’s end gable, called a “broken pediment” if not fully closed
Pendentive - a more efficient method of placing a dome over a square or rectangular room, followed squinches
Pilaster - either a thickened, load-bearing element part of a wall expressed as a classical column, or one that does not bear a load for
visual continuity
Pinnacle - a small spire atop a buttress or parapet used for decorative or structural purposes
Polychrome - incorporating a variety of colors, usually in masonry or ornamentation
Porte-cochere - a portico through which carriages or cars can unload passengers under, meant to protect occupants from the weather
Proscenium - an imaginary vertical wall of space that separates theater performers from the audience, typically
expressed by an arch or vault
Quoin - thick blocks of stone at the corner of a wall, either providing structural support or meant to give the
appearance of doing so
Revival - the act of designing in a historic language, “revival styles” are those that employ design features from an existing one
Rustication - a method of cutting masonry in which the sides are squared off on all sides except the face, which is deliberately left rough
and unfinished, to evoke a sense of strength and visual weight
Sill - a horizontal structural member that supports a vertical opening of some kind, the counterpart of a lintel
Spandrel - a decorative panel, often engraved with ornament, that divides windows; also the area formed
between a rectangle and an inset arch
Springer - the first stone of an arch, sometimes decorated
Squinch - structural supports for a round or octagonal dome atop a square or rectangular space, placed at the corners
String course - a horizontal dividing feature on a building’s facade, typically masonry and sometimes carved with ornament
Sullivanesque - design, typically ornamentation, inspired by the work of Louis Sullivan
Tectonics - the expression of a building’s construction through its design
Tracery - similar to muntins but more specific to Gothic architecture, the elaborate stone ribs that divide panes of a window
Transept - projections from a church that run perpendicular to the nave in plan, creating a cruciform shape
Transom - a small window or panel above a door or larger window, used for ventilation before the advent of air conditioning
Triglyph - a rectangular ornament used in the Doric order, believed to represent wooden beams from pre-marble temples
Tripartite - expressed in three distinct parts
Troffer - term for a fluorescent light receptacle in a dropped ceiling, name comes from union of “trough” and “coffer”
Trumeau - the central vertical element of a doorway
Turret - a circular or octagonal projection from an orthogonal wall plane or corner that does not touch the ground
Tympanum - a semicircular or pointed panel above a doorway, typically carved with ornament
Vaulting - the act of employing arches as a structural or aesthetic feature
Volute - a scroll-shaped decoration seen on the Ionic and Composite column capitals
Voussoir - a stone of an arch
Wimperg - a decorative gable form over a door or window