ARCH 2303 - EXAM 4 - Vocabulary

Feng Shui

Chinese term (wind-water) for systems of auspicious planning of living spaces and tombs based
upon the belief that currents of energy (the cosmic breath or qi) run through the earth and influence human
fortunes.

Confucianism

the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE and followed by the
Chinese people for more than two millennia. Emphasizes social order through deference to authority and
proper behavior.

Crenellation

A PARAPET with alternating indentation or EMBRASURES and raised portions or merlons

Tatami Mat

A Japanese mat of rice-straw used as a floor-covering and made to a standard size (approximately 180 x 90 cm. Or 70 x 35 in.); multiples of this determine the size and proportions of Japanese rooms.

Chahar bagh

garden divided into four quadrants symbolic of paradise in Islam.

Chahar taq

Sassanian “fire temple.” A pre-Islamic sanctuary common in Persia (Iran) consisting of a cubic domed chamber with four axial entrances.

Hypostyle mosque

a large, rectangular mosque with a hypostyle (supported by columns) prayer hall
and a large inner sahn (courtyard) based upon the house of the prophet Muhammad.

Jami

the great mosque in which the communal Friday prayer takes place and the Friday sermon is preached. The “Jami Masjid” or “Masjid-i Jami” is the Friday Mosque.

Masjid

mosque

Madrasa

An Islamic theological and legal college. At first instruction was given in mosques (e.g. al-Azhar, Cairo, still an intellectual centre). The first residential madrasas were built in Iran in the early C10, probably similar to Buddhist VIHARAS in Central Asia. None survives. A madrasa has a courtyard with an IWAN, serving as a classroom, on at least one side, a prayer hall and accommodation for teachers and cells for students, seldom more than twenty.

Iwan

A shallow hall with a pointed vault serving as a portal or closed at the back and facing a court.

Platonic forms

geometric forms generated from straight lines and circles; according to Greek
philosopher Plato, they are imbued with inherent beauty.

Lantern

A small circular or polygonal turret with windows all round, crowning a roof or dome admitting light to the area below.

Loggia

A gallery or room open on one or more sides, sometimes pillared; it may also be a separate structure.

Pietra serena

A fine-grained pale grey SANDSTONE from Fiesole near Florence.

Balustrade

A short post or pillar in a series supporting a rail or COPING and thus forming a balustrade.

Mannerism

In its primary sense, the acceptance of a manner rather than its meaning. Now Mannerism has also become a term to denote the style current in Italy from MICHELANGELO to the end of the C16. It is characterized by the use of motifs in deliberate opposition to their original significance or context, but it can also express itself in an equally deliberate cold and rigid Classicism.

Martyrium

A church or other building erected over a site which bears witness to the Christian faith, either by referring to an event in Christ’s life or Passion, or by sheltering the grave of a martyr, a witness by virtue of having shed his or her blood. In Early Christian architecture, martyria were usually circular whereas churches were rectangular.

Vestibule

An anteroom or entrance hall.

Villa

In Roman architecture, the landowner’s residence or farmstead on his country estate; in Renaissance architecture, a country house; in C19 England, a detached house ‘for opulent persons’, usually on the outskirts of a town; in modern architecture, a small detached house. The basic type developed with the growth of urbanism: it is of five bays, on a simple corridor plan with rooms opening off a central passage. The next stage is the addition of wings. The courtyard villa fills a square plan with subsidiary buildings and an enclosure wall with a gate facing the main corridor block. As a building-type the Palladian villa was to have enormous influence.

Baldachin or Baldacchino

A canopy over a throne, altar, doorway, etc. It may be portable, suspended from a ceiling, projecting from a wall or free-standing on columns or other supports.

Piazza

In Italy an open space, usually oblong, surrounded by buildings.

Parterre

In a garden the level space, usually adjacent to a house and best seen from above, laid out with regularly disposed flowerbeds or a turfed lawn with a design cut into it by paths.