Isabel's ARC 134 Key terms

Utopia

An imagined ideal society or place, often expressed through architecture and urban planning.

Modernization

The process of social, economic, technological, and political transformation toward modern conditions, including industrialization and urbanization.

Modernity

The historical condition and experience of living in a changing modern world.

Modernism

A cultural and architectural movement that deliberately challenged historical traditions and explored new forms, materials, and ways of designing.

Mihrab

A niche in a mosque's qibla wall indicating the direction of Mecca.

Minbar

A raised pulpit in a mosque from which the imam delivers sermons.

Qibla

The direction Muslims face during prayer, toward the Kaaba in Mecca.

Exedra

A semicircular or curved architectural recess, often containing seating.

Spolia

Architectural elements reused from older buildings in new construction, such as columns or capitals.

Pendentives

Curved triangular surfaces that allow a circular dome to rest over a square space.

Muqarnas

Three-dimensional, tiered ornamental vaulting resembling honeycombs or stalactites, common in Islamic architecture.

Horasan

A traditional mortar made using lime and crushed brick or ceramic, used in Ottoman and earlier masonry construction.

Opus Reticulatum

An ancient Roman masonry technique with small diamond-shaped stones arranged in a diagonal net-like pattern.

Pilaster

A shallow rectangular column attached to a wall, often with a base and capital.

Enfilade

A sequence of rooms with doorways aligned along a single axis, creating a continuous view.

Entablature

The horizontal classical architectural element above columns, consisting of architrave, frieze, and cornice.

Nave

The principal longitudinal space of a church, usually where the congregation gathers.

Cruciform

A cross-shaped building plan, often used for churches.

Palazzo

An Italian urban palace or large residence, often organized around a central courtyard.

Portico

A covered entrance or porch supported by columns.

Chacmool

A reclining Mesoamerican stone figure, often with a receptacle on its abdomen for offerings.

Converso

A Jewish person who converted to Christianity in medieval or early modern Spain, sometimes under coercion.

Mudéjar

Islamic-influenced architectural and decorative traditions produced under Christian rule in Iberia; also refers historically to Muslims living under Christian rule.

Marrano

A historically derogatory term for Jewish converts to Christianity in Iberia, often associated with accusations of secretly practicing Judaism.

Morisco

A Muslim convert to Christianity in Spain, or a descendant of such converts, particularly after forced conversions.

Mozarab

A Christian living under Muslim rule in medieval Iberia, associated with a distinctive cultural and architectural tradition.

Voussoirs

Wedge-shaped masonry blocks forming an arch or vault; the central block is the keystone.

Portada

A monumental or elaborately decorated architectural entrance or portal, especially in Spanish architecture.

Serliana

A three-part opening with a central arch flanked by two lower rectangular openings, also called a Palladian window.

Loggia

A covered, open-sided gallery or porch, often supported by columns or arches.

Chinampas

Raised agricultural plots constructed in shallow lake environments and separated by canals, used by the Mexica around Tenochtitlan.

Hôtel Particulier

A large private urban mansion in France, typically organized around an entrance courtyard and rear garden.

Rez-de-chaussée

The ground floor of a building in French architecture.

Porte Cochère

A large covered carriage entrance or gateway providing access from the street to an interior courtyard.

Cour d'Honneur

A formal ceremonial entrance courtyard, often framed by the wings of a palace or mansion.

Corps de Logis

The main residential block of a palace or hôtel particulier, containing its principal rooms.

Antichambre

An antechamber or waiting room preceding a more private or important room.

Chambre

A bedroom or principal private chamber in a French domestic plan.

Cabinet

A small private room used for study, conversation, storage, or personal activities.

Hanamichi

A raised passageway running through the audience in a Japanese Kabuki theater, used for dramatic entrances and exits.

Shakkei

Borrowed scenery; a Japanese garden technique incorporating distant landscape features into the composition of a garden.

Volutes

Spiral or scroll-shaped ornamental forms, used on classical capitals and Baroque church façades.

Aedicule

A small architectural frame resembling a miniature temple front, often surrounding a door, window, niche, or altar.

Cartouche

An ornamental frame or tablet containing an inscription, symbol, or coat of arms.

Quadratura

An illusionistic painting technique using perspective to make ceilings or walls appear to extend into three-dimensional architectural space.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Italian Baroque architect and sculptor known for theatrical space, dramatic movement, controlled light, and emotional religious experiences.

Bernini — St. Peter's Square

Vatican City, Rome, 1656–1667; monumental oval piazza surrounded by curved colonnades and connected to a trapezoidal approach space.

Bernini — Scala Regia

Vatican City, Rome, 1663–1666; ceremonial staircase using forced perspective to exaggerate depth.

Bernini — Cornaro Chapel

Rome, 1647–1652; contains the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa and combines sculpture, architecture, and concealed light.

Bernini — Fountain of the Four Rivers

Piazza Navona, Rome, completed 1651; sculptural fountain with four river personifications and a central obelisk.

Bernini — Santa Maria in Montesanto

Rome, 17th century; one of the paired churches at Piazza del Popolo, developed with Carlo Rainaldi and other architects.

Francesco Borromini

Italian Baroque architect known for complex geometry, concave and convex surfaces, oval plans, and inventive domes.

Borromini — San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane

Rome, begun 1634; church with an undulating façade, complex oval plan, and geometrically coffered dome.

Borromini — Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza

Rome, 1640s onward; church with a complex centralized plan, faceted interior geometry, and distinctive spiral lantern.

Borromini — Sant'Agnese in Agone

Rome, 17th century; church at Piazza Navona with a concave façade and prominent dome, developed with Carlo Rainaldi.

Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand

French architectural theorist who emphasized systematic classification, grids, geometry, and rational planning in Précis des leçons d'architecture (1802–1805).

Marc-Antoine Laugier

French architectural theorist who proposed the primitive hut as a model for the essential principles of architecture in Essai sur l'architecture (1753).

Quatremère de Quincy

French architectural theorist who understood architecture as a language of types, meanings, and conventions; wrote architectural dictionaries and theoretical works.

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux

French Neoclassical architect associated with utopian planning, expressive geometry, and architecture parlante, in which form communicates purpose.

Ledoux — Royal Saltworks

Arc-et-Senans, France, 1775–1778; semicircular industrial complex organized around a central director's house.

Ledoux — Inspector's House at the Loue River

Unbuilt design featuring a monumental cylindrical opening through which water flows, expressing the building's function.

Ledoux — Oïkéma

Ideal project published in 1804; symbolic architectural plan demonstrating architecture parlante.

Filippo Brunelleschi

Florentine Renaissance architect associated with mathematical perspective, classical architectural proportion, and the dome of Florence Cathedral.

Brunelleschi — Florence Cathedral Dome

Florence, 1420–1436; innovative double-shell masonry dome built using a complex system of ribs and brickwork without full conventional centering.

Brunelleschi — Ospedale degli Innocenti

Florence, begun 1419; foundling hospital with a regular arcade of semicircular arches and proportional classical columns.

Brunelleschi — Basilica of San Lorenzo

Florence, begun 1420s; Renaissance church with regular classical columns, semicircular arches, and a clearly proportioned nave.

Brunelleschi — Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo

Florence, 1420s; centralized square space with a dome, emphasizing clear geometric proportions.

Brunelleschi — Pazzi Chapel

Florence, traditionally attributed to Brunelleschi; chapel known for its restrained classical details, geometric proportions, and domed central space.

Brunelleschi — Santo Spirito

Florence, begun 1430s; basilican church organized through a consistent proportional system of columns, arches, and repeated bays.