Lecture 07: Global Vernacular, Sacred, and Monumental Architecture

Vocabulary flashcards covering Chinese vernacular traditions, Indigenous North American earthworks, Buddhist stupas and rock-cut sanctuaries, Hindu temple architecture, stepwells, and modular design traditions.

Fujian Tulou

Large, enclosed communal residential structures built from rammed earth walls, traditionally constructed in the Fujian province of China.

Rammed Earth

A construction technique that compacts a damp mixture of subsoil—containing sand, gravel, clay, and stabilizers like lime or animal blood—into an externally supported frame or formwork.

Yaodong

An earth-sheltered 'house cave' dwelling built in the Loess Plateau of northern China, using the surrounding earth to maintain consistent year-round interior temperatures.

Jian

A traditional Chinese spatial modular unit measuring approximately $10\text{ ft} \times 15\text{ ft}$, which serves as the basic unit of spatial organization in building planning.

Serpent Mound

A major effigy earthwork in Ohio created by the Fort Ancient Culture (1070 CE) that features precise alignments with solar solstices and lunar cycles.

Cahokia

A large pre-Columbian Mississippian urban and ritual site (active ca. 700–1300 CE) situated in the American Bottom, featuring Monks Mound, a Grand Plaza, and Woodhenge.

Stupa

A hemispherical Buddhist mound structure derived from ancient burial sites ('pile') that houses sacred relics and serves as a center for ritual circumambulation.

Torana

An elaborately carved ceremonial gateway situated at one of the four cardinal entrances of a Buddhist stupa, depicting significant events in the Buddha's life.

Harmika

A square railing or enclosure positioned at the top of a Buddhist stupa dome that surrounds the central umbrella structure.

Chattra

A multi-tiered umbrella spire placed atop a stupa, symbolizing royalty, the Bodhi tree, and the axis mundi passing through the exact center of the structure.

Parikrama

The devotional practice in Buddhism and Hinduism of walking clockwise around a sacred object or shrine as a sign of reverence.

Vedika

The surrounding stone fence or balustrade that demarcates the sacred circumambulation pathway around a stupa.

Chaitya

A rock-cut Buddhist hall of worship containing a stupa at the apse end, named after the Sanskrit word for a pile of cremation ashes.

Garbhagriha

The unadorned, innermost sanctuary ('womb chamber') of a Hindu temple beneath the main tower, housing the deity image or lingam.

Kailasanatha Temple

An 8th-century Hindu temple at Ellora commissioned by Rashtrakuta King Krishna I, carved entirely out of a single continuous rock cliff.

Lingam

A cylindrical stone icon in Hinduism symbolizing creation through the cosmic union of Prakriti (female) and Purusha (male) principles.

Stepwell

A subterranean water structure constructed as an inverted temple or underground shrine, serving functional water storage and thermal cooling needs in semi-arid India.

Borobudur

A monumental 9th-century Buddhist stupa shrine (chandi) in Java, Indonesia, built as a stepped pyramid featuring concentric circular terraces with 72 miniature stupas.

Tatami

A traditional woven straw floor mat in Japanese interior design used as a standardized module to establish room proportions and layouts.

Nakagin Capsule Tower

A modern Tokyo residential building designed by the Japanese Metabolist movement, constructed using interchangeable, plug-in capsule modules.