Arch 321 - Exam One

Dolmen

a simple boxlike chamber made up of several upright slabs for walling, with a more or less flat stone on top

Menhir

a single upended stone; the simplest form of a megalithic monument

Trilithon

a stone monument of two upended stones supporting a horizontal third stone as a lintel

Hypostyle hall

a room with a roof supported by eighty octagonal columns arranged in ten rows

Obelisk

a tall, square pillar, tapering upward and ending with a pyramidal tip

Megaron

a large, rectangular, single-storey structure with a circular central hearth and a front porch formed by the prolongation of the sidewalls

Cyclopean

ancient masonry which used massive irregular blocks without mortar

Tholos

corbelled underground domes with an approach causeway; Mycenaean “beehive tomb”

Ziggurat

a Mesopotamian temple-tower in the form of a tiered pyramid

Theocratic

a form of government in which religious leaders control the government, relying on religious law and consultation with religious scholars

Entasis

a slight convex curve in the shaft of a column, introduced to correct the visual illusion of concavity produced by a straight shaft

Peristyle

a roofed, columned porch or colonnade surrounding a building or courtyard

Stelai

upright stone slab grave markers at the Mycenaean grave circles

Echinus

the circular, upward-flaring lowest part of a doric capital, or the corresponding decorated part of other orders

Polytheistic

the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals

Typology

classification of characteristics commonly found in buildings and urban places, according to their association with different categories, such as intensity of development, degrees of formality, and school of thought

Abacus

the uppermost part of the capital of a column, often a plain square slab

Stylobate

the top or top step of the substructure or platform on which columns stand

Metope

the square space, often decorated with sculpture, between the triglyphs in a Doric frieze

Triglyph

a vertically grooved block between metopes in a Doric frieze

Architrave

a beam that spans a pair of columns as the lowest part of the entablature

Stoa

an ancient Greek, long roofed portico with columns along the front and a wall at the back

Bouleuterion

an ancient Greek assembly building or council hall

Sikas

prytaneion annex; a circular building primarily used as a dining room used by council presidents and state officials

Greek Theater

emerged as a typology in Athens, developed to have radial staircases dividing the auditorium steps which built up on a slope from around the stage below

Caryatid

a sculptured, draped female figure used as a pillar

Bramante

Renaissance, Tempietto

Borromini

Roman Baroque, St. Charles at the Four Fountains

Louis Khan

Modern, Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban

Imhotep

Third Dynasty, Zoser’s Pyramid Complex

Anthemios and Isidoros

Byzantine, Hagia Sophia

Oneness of Architecture

the structure, art, style, detail, and meaning are all in one whole piece; structure and design start out different but reach the same outcome

Setting of Architecture

How buildings are depicted indicates how they are perceived; relations between the building and the surrounding environment can affect the context of architecture

Community of Architecture

all past buildings, regardless of size, status, or consequence, deserve to be studied

Meaning of Architecture

every building has a meaning behind it