HOA - compilation

Caida

The receiving room located on the second floor of a bahay na bato.

Sala Mayor

The main living room of a 19th-century Filipino ancestral house.

Comedor

The formal dining room typically located on the second floor.

Oratorio

A dedicated prayer room found in traditional ancestral houses.

Cuartos

The bedrooms of the Filipino house.

Cocina

The kitchen room of the house.

Azotea

An open balcony that served as a service kitchen and usually housed the water cistern.

Entresuelo

The mezzanine level often divided into function rooms like a despacho (home office) or guest rooms.

Zaguan

The ground floor area that served as parking for family carriages and carrozas, as well as storage for farming supplies.

Cuadra

The stable for horses located on the ground floor of the house.

Aljibe

A water cistern in the azotea used to collect rainwater or store potable water bought from an aguador (water vendor).

Almario

A vertical pillow rack used to air-dry pillows, bed linens, and banig during the day.

Aparador de Tres Luna

A towering three-door master bedroom cabinet named for the three mirrors attached to its doors.

Aparador ropero

A storage bin for soiled clothes made of a wooden frame with woven rattan screen (solihiya).

Azulejo

Expensive, patterned hand-painted tiles imported from Spain, often used on stair landings.

Descanso

The landing of the staircase where azulejo tiles were often used for decoration.

Machuca

The trademark name for a locally made version of encaustic tiles.

Banggera

A slatted wooden dishrack attached to a window for air-drying tableware and utensils.

Bastonero

A hat and cane rack placed at the caida or the staircase landing.

Batibot Chair

A metal version of the cane bentwood chair; its name means 'enduring'.

Calado

Pierced wooden panels above doors or walls that allow light and air to circulate throughout the house.

Columnilla

A decorative colonette that divides a window into two sides.

Concha

Latticework panels framing translucent capiz shells used to shut windows.

Coquina

Coral rock quarried from reefs used as ground floor building material when adobe limestone was unavailable.

Escritoriong tinipaklong

A sewing table traditionally placed in a lady's bedroom.

Espejo

The Spanish word for mirror; in building terms, it refers to transoms above windows that allow daylight in.

Gallinera

A bench with a built-in chicken coop underneath, designed for visitors waiting with fighting cocks.

Kulompyo

A rocking chair, also known as a tumba-tumba or mercedoras.

Lavadores

A freestanding washstand with a swinging mirror and basin, also called a lavadera.

Media aquas

Metal window awnings or canopies decorated with tin cutouts, also called tapangcos.

Mirador

A small lookout room at the highest floor of the house, often topped with a weather vane.

Painadora

A dresser with a mirror; the marble top itself is referred to as the tremor.

Paminggalan

A slatted-door food cabinet that keeps leftovers aired and insects away by placing the legs in water or petroleum.

Piedra China

Blocks of white stone used to pave the zaguan, originally used as counterweights for Spanish galleons.

Persiana

Jalousies on window panels that shield the interior from the sun while allowing air flow.

Biombos

A free-standing persiana used as a divider to conceal servants.

Punkah

A cloth fan hung over the dining table, swung by a servant pulling a cord.

Postigo

A small pedestrian service door cut into the side of the larger main doors.

Silla Peresoza

A lounging chair with unusually long armrests that allow the sitter to stretch out their legs.

Sillon Fraile

A wide lounging chair originally designed for use in convents to accommodate friars.

Silong

The hollow space beneath the house used for storing livestock, treasures, or even as a temporary prison for tenants.

Teja de curva

Clay roof tiles used to keep the interior of the bahay na bato cool.

Urna

A carved altar used to enshrine statues of saints made of wood or ivory.

Vajilera

A tall, glass-fronted display cabinet for porcelain plates and glassware.

Viriña

A bell-shaped glass jar used to encase religious statuettes or biblical dioramas.

Vitrina

A small glass-enclosed shelf used to protect curios and collectibles from dust.

Ventanilla

A small window located under the windowsill (barandilla) that allows air to enter through grillwork.

Volada

A cantilevered walkway running along the window side of the house, typically used by servants.

History of Architecture

A record of man's effort to build beautifully, tracing the origin, growth, and decline of architectural styles across lands and ages.

Historic Styles of Architecture

The particular method, characteristics, and manner of design that prevail at a certain place and time.

Six Influences of Architecture

Geographical, Geological, Climatic, Religious, Social, and Historical.

Four Great Constructive Principles

Post & Lintel Construction, Arch & Vault Construction, Corbel or Cantilever Construction, and Trussed Construction.

Menhir

A single, large upright monolith serving a religious purpose, sometimes arranged in parallel rows.

Dolmen

A Pre-Historic tomb of standing stones usually capped with a large horizontal slab.

Cromlech

An enclosure formed by huge stones planted on the ground in a circular form, such as Stonehenge.

Tumulus

Also known as a Passage Grave, it is a dominant tomb type with a corridor leading to an underground chamber.

Trullo

A dry-walled rough stone shelter with a corbelled roof.

Ziggurat

Religious buildings in the Near East built next to temples, featuring a small temple on top of a staged platform.

Megaron

A Near East dwelling type with the entrance at the end rather than the long sides, featuring a portico.

Pharaoh

The centralized omnipotent authority of Egypt, seen as gods dwelling on earth and acting as sole masters and builders of the country.

Batter Wall

An Egyptian wall design that diminishes in width towards the top to provide stability.

Mastaba

The first type of Egyptian tomb, consisting of a rectangular flat-topped funerary mound with battered sides covering a burial chamber.

Serdab

A part of a Mastaba that contains the statue of the deceased.

Sarcophagus

A term for an Egyptian coffin.

Obelisk

An upright stone square in plan with an electrum-capped pyramidion on top, serving as a sacred symbol of the sun-god Heliopolis.

Pylon

A monumental gateway to an Egyptian temple consisting of slanting walls flanking the entrance portal.

Entasis

A refinement used in Greek columns involving a swelling outwards to correct the optical illusion of the column curving inwards.

Doric Order

A Greek order without a base, standing directly on the crepidoma, with a shaft divided into $20$ shallow flutes.

Ionic Order

A Greek order characterized by a volute or scroll capital and a shaft with $24$ flutes separated by fillets.

Corinthian Order

A decorative variant of the Ionic Order with a much deeper capital inspired by a basket over the root of an acanthus plant.

Agora

The Greek open-air market or meeting place.

Stoa

A Greek colonnaded shelter or porch.

Pozzolana

A thick volcanic earth material used mortar in Roman concrete, allowing for large-scale vaults and domes.

Tuscan Order

A simplified Roman version of the Doric order, approximately $7$ diameters high.

Composite Order

A Roman order evolved in $100\,AD$ combining the volutes of the Ionic with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian.

Basilica

A Roman building type used for law courts and shops, later serving as a model for Early Christian churches.

Insulae

Roman $3$ or $4$ storey tenement buildings that served as prototypes for modern condominiums.

Pendentives

Spherical triangles used in Byzantine architecture to place a dome over a square compartment.

Campanile

A straight tower shaft, generally standing alone, serving as a civic monument or bell tower.

Flying Buttress

A Gothic architectural feature used to transmit the thrust of a vault to an exterior pylon, often weighted by pinnacles.

Piano Nobile

The main floor of a Renaissance palace, usually the first floor above the ground level.

Quoins

Hard stone or brick reinforcements used at the wall angles of Renaissance palaces for both stability and decoration.

Churrigueresque

A fantastically extravagant expression of the Baroque period in Spain, named after Jose de Churriguera.

Curtain Wall

A non-load-bearing exterior sheath suspended on a structural framework, first used by Walter Gropius on the Hallidie Building.

Art Nouveau

An architectural style free of historical precedent, characterized by floral and writhing vegetal forms for ornamentation.

Mihrab

A niche in a mosque wall that is oriented towards Mecca to indicate the direction of prayer.

Minaret

A tower from which a muezzin makes the call to prayer in Islamic architecture.

Stambhas

Monumental pillars in Indian architecture, often circular or octagonal, standing free without structural function.

Stupa

A Buddhist memorial mound erected to enshrine a relic of Buddha or mark a sacred spot.

Pagoda

A Buddhist temple style; Chinese versions are typically octagonal, while Japanese versions are usually square.

Torii

Monumental, free-standing gateways to a Japanese Shinto shrine, consisting of two upright posts and horizontal beams.

Tatami

Japanese floor coverings measuring $1 \times 1/2\,ken$ ($1.8 \times 0.9\,m$) used to determine room size.

Bahay Kubo

A typical Filipino cube-shaped house made of light materials like wood, bamboo, and nipa, elevated from the ground for protection.

Zaguan

The ground floor area of a Bahay-na-Bato used for storing carriages (carozas).

Menhir

A monolith; an isolated single upright stone used as a memorial of victory over one tribe and a prototype of the Egyptian pyramid.

Dolmen

Two or more upright stones supporting a horizontal slab.

Cromlech

Three or more upright stones capped by an unchain flat stone; indicates a place of religious rites.

Stonehenge

A prehistoric structure located at Wiltshire on the Salisbury Plain made up of concentric rings, including an outer ring $106'$ in diameter.

Tumuli

Also known as "Barrows"; earthen mounds used for burials of several to a couple hundred ordinary persons.

Caryatids

Drapped female figure without hands and carrying nothing.