History of Western Architecture – Key Vocabulary

A curated set of key vocabulary terms spanning the chronological survey of Western architecture—from Ancient Egypt to 21st-century movements—each with concise definitions to aid exam revision.

Ancient Egyptian Architecture

Architectural style (c. 3100 BC – 300 AD) known for pyramids, mastabas, hypostyle halls and monumental stone temples aligned with religious cosmology.

Pyramid of Djoser

The first large-scale cut-stone structure (c. 2667–2648 BC, by Imhotep) marking the evolution from mastaba to step pyramid.

Hypostyle Hall

Vast interior space whose roof is supported by rows of columns; Karnak Temple’s hall is the most famous example.

Ziggurat

Stepped mud-brick temple-tower of Mesopotamia symbolising a mountain bridge between Earth and heaven.

Doric Order

Earliest and simplest of the three Greek classical orders; fluted shaft, no base, plain capital with echinus and abacus.

Ionic Order

Greek classical column type distinguished by a base and volutes (scrolls) on its capital.

Corinthian Order

Most ornate classical order; slender fluted column with acanthus-leaf capital.

Entasis

Slight convex curve applied to column shafts to correct optical illusion of concavity and add strength.

Pediment

Triangular gable found over classical porticoes, often filled with sculpture.

Frieze

Horizontal band between architrave and cornice; can be plain or sculpted (e.g., Parthenon’s sculpture).

Triglyph & Metope

Alternating panel system in Doric frieze; triglyphs have three vertical grooves, metopes are plain or sculpted panels between them.

Roman Forum

Central open rectangular civic space of ancient Rome for commerce, politics, justice and religion.

Basilica (Roman)

Large oblong hall with nave, side aisles and apse; used for law courts and commerce, later model for Christian churches.

Pantheon

Roman temple (113–125 AD) with massive unreinforced concrete dome and oculus; later converted to a church.

Triumphal Arch

Monumental freestanding archway commemorating military victories or emperors (e.g., Arch of Titus).

Catacomb

Underground network of burial chambers used by early Christians for burials and secret worship.

Central Plan Church

Byzantine church type organised around a centralised space (circle, square, octagon) often beneath a dome.

Pendentive

Curved triangular masonry element that transitions from square base to circular dome; perfected in Hagia Sophia.

Hagia Sophia

Byzantine masterpiece (532–537 AD) in Istanbul combining basilica and central plan under massive dome on pendentives.

Carolingian Architecture

Early medieval revival (8th–9th c.) under Charlemagne, blending Roman, early Christian and Germanic forms (e.g., Palatine Chapel).

Romanesque Architecture

11th–12th-c. European style with thick walls, round arches, barrel vaults, small windows, twin towers and sculpted portals.

Barrel Vault

Continuous semicircular vault forming a tunnel-like ceiling, common in Romanesque churches.

Rib Vault

Gothic ceiling where intersecting barrel segments are combined with diagonal ribs for support and aesthetics.

Pointed Arch

Arch with two arcs meeting at a peak; key Gothic element allowing greater height and weight distribution.

Flying Buttress

Exterior arched support transferring roof thrusts beyond walls, enabling large Gothic windows.

Gothic Cathedral

13th-c. church typified by rib vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, tall spires, and stained-glass walls.

Rose Window

Large circular stained-glass window with radiating tracery, prominent on Gothic façades.

Humanism (Renaissance)

Intellectual movement stressing classical antiquity, proportion and human scale that guided 15th-c. architecture.

Renaissance Architecture

15th–16th-c. revival of classical orders, symmetry and proportion; began in Florence with Brunelleschi.

Filippo Brunelleschi

Florentine architect who engineered the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore and pioneered Renaissance style.

Pazzi Chapel

Brunelleschi’s small cloistered Renaissance chapel (c.1441) noted for perfect proportions and umbrella dome.

Leon Battista Alberti

Renaissance architect-theorist; author of De Re Aedificatoria and designer of Sant’Andrea, Palazzo Rucellai, Santa Maria Novella façade.

Tempietto

Donato Bramante’s small circular shrine at San Pietro in Montorio (1502); High Renaissance ideal of centrally planned perfection.

St Peter’s Basilica

Largest church in Christendom, built 1506-1626 by Bramante, Michelangelo, Maderno et al.; monumental dome and Latin-cross plan.

Mannerism

Transitional 1525–1575 style featuring visual tension, elongated forms and inventive spatial manipulation (e.g., Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library).

Baroque Architecture

17th–18th-c. style of dramatic curves, rich decoration, movement and theatrical spatial compositions (e.g., Bernini’s Sant’Andrea al Quirinale).

Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini

Italian Baroque sculptor-architect; designed St Peter’s Square colonnade, Baldacchino, Sant’Andrea al Quirinale.

Francesco Borromini

Baroque architect known for complex geometry and undulating space (e.g., San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane).

Rococo

Late Baroque decorative style (c.1730-1750) with lightness, asymmetry, pastel colours and exuberant ornament.

Neoclassical Architecture

Mid-18th- to early-20th-c. return to austere classical forms inspired by archaeological discoveries (e.g., Petit Trianon, Panthéon).

Palladianism

18th-c. British-led revival of Andrea Palladio’s Renaissance villas, emphasising symmetry, temple fronts, cubic volumes (e.g., Chiswick House).

Industrial Revolution (architecture)

19th-c. era introducing iron, steel and glass structures enabling vast spans (e.g., Crystal Palace 1851).

Cast-Iron Architecture

Use of prefabricated iron elements in façades and framing; pioneered in mid-19th-c. factories and arcades.

Chicago School

Late-19th-c. group developing steel-frame skyscrapers with large windows and minimal ornament (e.g., Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Building).

Louis Sullivan

“Father of skyscrapers”; coined ‘form follows function’; designed Auditorium and Wainwright Buildings.

Arts and Crafts Movement

Late-19th-c. English design reform led by William Morris, advocating handmade craftsmanship and honesty of materials.

Art Nouveau

1890-1910 ornamental style characterised by sinuous lines, organic motifs, iron and glass (e.g., Hector Guimard metro entrances).

Hector Guimard

French Art Nouveau architect-designer; famed for cast-iron Paris Métro entrances.

Secession (Vienna)

Austrian Art Nouveau variant (1897–) with geometric abstraction; leaders: Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann.

De Stijl

Dutch movement (1917-31) advocating pure abstraction with vertical/horizontal lines and primary colours; architects: Gerrit Rietveld.

Expressionist Architecture

1910-30 German-led style using distorted forms and novel materials to evoke emotion (e.g., Erich Mendelsohn’s Einstein Tower).

Bauhaus

German school (1919-33) merging art, craft and industry; championed functionalism, mass production and basic design education.

Walter Gropius

Founder of Bauhaus; designer of Dessau Bauhaus building and Fagus Factory.

International Style

Global modernist aesthetic of the 1920–70s: steel-and-glass rectilinear volumes, open plans, lack of ornament (e.g., Mies van der Rohe).

Le Corbusier

Swiss-French modernist; formulated Five Points (pilotis, free plan, ribbon windows, roof garden, free façade); designed Villa Savoye, Unite d’Habitation.

Five Points of Architecture

Le Corbusier’s modernist principles: pilotis, free plan, free façade, ribbon windows, roof garden.

Dom-ino Frame

Le Corbusier’s modular reinforced-concrete slab-and-column structural system enabling free façades and plans.

Brutalism

1950s-70s modernist style using raw exposed concrete (béton brut) and bold geometric forms (e.g., Le Corbusier’s La Tourette).

Alvar Aalto

Finnish architect who humanised modernism with warm materials and organic forms (e.g., Paimio Sanatorium, Viipuri Library).

Mies van der Rohe

German-American modernist; ‘less is more’; glass-and-steel minimalism (e.g., Barcelona Pavilion, Farnsworth House, Seagram Building).

Art Deco

1920s-30s decorative modern style with geometric motifs, rich materials, and optimism in technology (e.g., Chrysler Building).

Streamline Moderne

Late Art Deco phase (1930s) featuring aerodynamic curves and horizontal lines reminiscent of ocean liners.

Organic Architecture

Philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright integrating buildings with nature (e.g., Fallingwater).

Fallingwater

Frank Lloyd Wright’s house (1935) cantilevered over waterfall exemplifying organic integration.

Usonian House

Wright’s affordable single-story housing prototype with open plan and carport for post-war America.

High-Tech Architecture

1970s– style exposing structural and mechanical systems; materials: steel, glass, aluminium (e.g., Rogers & Piano’s Centre Pompidou).

Renzo Piano

Italian architect; co-designed Centre Pompidou, later works include The Shard and Stavros Niarchos Center.

Richard Rogers

High-tech British architect; designed Lloyd’s Building, Millennium Dome; co-authored Pompidou.

Norman Foster

British high-tech architect; works include Reichstag dome, HSBC Hong Kong, Gherkin, Hearst Tower.

Postmodern Architecture

1970s–90s reaction against modernist austerity, reintroducing ornament, historical references, irony (e.g., Venturi’s Vanna Venturi House).

Robert Venturi

Postmodern theorist-architect; author of Complexity and Contradiction; designed Vanna Venturi House, Guild House.

Michael Graves

American postmodernist; Portland Building, Denver Public Library; later product designer.

Deconstructivism

1980s-90s avant-garde showing fragmented forms, distortion and controlled chaos (e.g., Gehry’s Guggenheim Bilbao).

Frank Gehry

Canadian-American architect of expressive, curving forms; works include Guggenheim Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Zaha Hadid

Iraqi-British architect; dynamic parametric forms; projects: MAXXI, Heydar Aliyev Center, London Aquatics.

Daniel Libeskind

Polish-American architect; angular, memory-laden forms; Jewish Museum Berlin, Ground Zero masterplan.

Santiago Calatrava

Spanish architect-engineer; sculptural, bone-like structures; works: Turning Torso, City of Arts & Sciences, WTC Oculus.

Tadao Ando

Self-taught Japanese architect; minimalist concrete, light and nature interplay (e.g., Church of the Light).

Herzog & de Meuron

Swiss firm blending material innovation and context; projects: Tate Modern, Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, Elbphilharmonie.

César Pelli

Argentine-American architect; tall corporate landmarks like Petronas Towers and One Canada Square.

Brutalism (UK)

Post-war British variant of béton brut modernism; architects: Alison & Peter Smithson.

Metabolist Movement

1960s Japanese vision of megastructures and modular growth; key project: Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower.

Geodesic Dome

Buckminster Fuller’s lightweight spherical structure made of triangular elements (e.g., Montreal Biosphere).

Habitat 67

Moshe Safdie’s modular housing complex for Expo 67 illustrating prefabricated urban living.

Structural Expressionism

Synonym for High-Tech architecture highlighting structural framework as visual feature.

Skyscraper Curtain Wall

Non-load-bearing exterior wall hung from a steel or concrete frame, allowing glass façades.

Green Belt (Garden City)

Ring of protected open land encircling satellite towns in Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City urban planning.

Adaptive Reuse

Renovation of old structures for new functions (e.g., Tate Modern power-station conversion).

Parametric Design

Digital design method manipulating variable parameters to generate fluid architectural forms (popularised by Hadid).

Sustainable Architecture

Design approach minimising environmental impact through energy efficiency, renewable materials, and climate-responsive planning.

LEED Certification

U.S. Green Building Council rating system measuring sustainability performance of buildings.

Biophilic Design

Incorporation of natural elements into built environment to enhance occupant well-being.

Smart Façade

Building envelope integrating sensors and responsive systems to optimise light, heat and ventilation.

Mixed-Use Development

Urban project combining residential, commercial and cultural functions within one site for walkability.

New Urbanism

Movement promoting compact, walkable neighbourhoods with traditional street grids and civic spaces.

Neo-Futurism

21st-c. style emphasising dynamic forms, advanced materials and sustainability (e.g., Calatrava, Hadid).

Iconic Architecture

Buildings designed to become instantly recognisable symbols of place or brand.

St Mark’s Basilica (Venice)

Byzantine-influenced 11th-c. Venetian church noted for Greek-cross plan and domes atop pendentives.

Flying Carpet Roof

Dramatic single-plane concrete roof suspended above columns (e.g., Oscar Niemeyer’s Brasília Palácio do Planalto).

Maison Domino

Le Corbusier’s 1914 open-plan concrete frame prototype illustrating structural independence of walls.