315 Final Exam Terms

Acanthus leaves 

Capitals for Corinthian leaves 

Used for aesthetics 

 
Acropolis 

Citadel or fortified city, built on a hill (Athens; Parthenon) 

 
Adobe (mud brick and rammed earth) 

Highly compacted mud/sand/straw/grass 

Made into bricks 

 
American Renaissance 

 
Anthropomorphic 

Directly/indirectly recall human faces or expressions 

 
Architecture parlante 

When the architecture explains its own function or identity 

 
Architecture Considered in Relation to Art, Morals, and Legislation (Ledoux) 

 
Architecture Without Architects (Rudofsky) 

Exhibition that explored the functional value and artistic richness or practice and communal architecture 

 
Arcuated architecture  

Extensive use of arches and vaults 

Different from trabeated system (not post and beams) 

Ex: ROMAN BRIDGES, AQUADUCTS, AMPHITEATERS, CATHEDRALS 

 
“Art and Craft of the Machine” (Wright) 

 
Barrel vault (Tunnel Vault) 

A large, extruded arch that is over a central space 

Gives a semi-cylindrical appearance 

 
Basilica 

Large public building with multiple functions 

Typically, early Christian or Roman  

 
Black Death, 1348 

50% of Europe's 14^th century population perished  

 
Brises soleils 

Sun-shading structures 

Le Corbusier – simple patterned concrete walls 

 
Caisson 

 
Campanile 

Bell tower. Built beside or attached to a church 

Typically, Italian  

Watch tower, civic monument 

 
Capital 

Topmost member of the column or pilaster 

Decorative element 

Enriches columns design and mediates between the column and the load 

 
Catalan Modernismo 

ART NOUVEAU 

Reaction to industrialization and urban growth 

Drew inspiration from nature and individuality  

Cenotaph 

Memorial architecture  

India- Hindu arch. Later Mughals 

Later, part of England arch. 

 
Centrally planned church 

Hagia Sophia  

dome over the major interior space 

 
Chahar Bagh plan 

Organizing of paradise gardens 

Structured, geometrical  

4-part layout 

4 rivers (Water, Wine, Milk, Honey) 

 
City Beautiful Movement 

American urban-planning movement 

Led by architects and landscape architects 

1890-1920 

 
Classical orders: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian 

Doric the most simple 

Ionic feminine for detailed 

Corinthian the most current and most elaborate designs, inspirated from 

acanthus Leaves 

 
Coffer 

Detailed square panel on the ceiling 

Represents the days of the week  

Are often gold. 

 
Colossal order 

Giant order 

Pilaster or columns span for than 2 stories 

Used in antiquity  

 
Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (Venturi) 

 
Compression 

Force that squeezes down on another structural member 

 
Cornice 

Ledge, horizontal decorative molding that crowns a building or   

furniture element  

Crenellation 

Alternating raised and lowered wall 

Sections 

Gaps in walls for gaps in the low wall and edge of the roof 

Crossing square 

Dominant Architectual form middle and late-period byzantine  

Square center with internal structure  

curved and topped by a dome 

 
Cruciform 

Building that are designed in the shape of  

a cross 

East end that has an alter with an elaborate window 

Curtain wall 

Exterior covering of a building 

Outers are non-structural  

Exterior glass face  

Das Andere/The Other (Loos) 
De re aedificatoria (Alberti) 
 

Deutsche Werkbund 

Association of artists, architects, 

designers, and industrialist in 1907 

 
Drawings: plan, elevation, perspective, 
section 

 
École des Beaux-arts 

Influential schools in France  

city planning style  

French neoclassicism  

Renaissance and baroque  

 
Élan vitale 

“Life force”  

Performative and stenographic spatial intervention 

Reveal often-invisible relationship with 

environment  

 
Fin-de-siecle 

“End of the century”  

Sophistication  

Escapism  

Extreme aestheticism 

World-weariness 

 
Flock of Geese plan 

Building that are arrange in a scattered  

pattern 

Resembles the formation of a geese flock 

 
Follies and mock ruins 

 
Fusama (sliding wall panels) 

Vertical rectangular panels  

Used to redefine spaces or act as doors 

Same size as a tatami mat 

Gesamtkunstwerk 

“Total work of art” 

German  

Immersive art experience  

 
Greek cross plan 

Church that resembles a Greek cross 

Plus sign shape 

 
Harem 

Domestic space reserved for women 

Muslim 

Non-family males excluded  

Middle eastern, India, Japan, China 

 
Haussmannization 

Complete renovation of a city for the  

betterment of society  

 
Horror vacui 

The fear of empty spaces 

 
Humanism 

Philosophical stance that emphasis the 

individual and social potential of human 

Beings 

 
I-beam 

Support shape 

Typically steel 

 
Iconoclasm 

Period in byzantine history  

Images of icons on buildings is forbidden 

 
Intarsia 

Using various shapes of wood shapes and sizes/ intricate patterns 

 
International Style (MoMA, 1932) 

Architectural movement  

Adherence to functional utilitarian design 

Expressed through minimalism  

 
Jugendstil 

Art Nouveau architecture emerged in the 

late 19^th and early 20^th centuries  

German counterpoint to Art Nouveau 

Naturalistic floral and arabesques 

 
Kaaba 

Ancient simple structure made of gray 

granite, Mecca 

Cubical structure that contains an ancient rock (Black Stone) 

 
Linear perspective (height, width, depth) 
Lives of the Artists (Vasari) 
Load-bearing wall 
Loie Fuller 

Dancer and performer  

Pioneer of theatrical lightening 

techniques 

 
Mannerism/la maniera 

Has twists and surprises and  

unconventional shapes 

High renaissance 

Emphasizes sophistication 

 
Martyrium 

Structure that is built over the tomb of a 

Christian martyr 
Medici 

Powerful and wealthy family 

Funded the Villa Rotunda 

 
Mihrab 

Ornamental, semicircular indentation 

Marks the direction of the qiblah 

 
Minaret 

Tall structure that is used as a call to 

prayer 

Indicates a mosque 

 
Minka 

Traditional Japanese houses that are 

constructed in various styles 

Dwellings of farmers, artisans, merchants during Edo 

 Period 

 
Mortise and tenon joinery 

Type of wood working where the piece of wood (tenon) fits into the Cavity (mortise) 

Japanese architecture 

 
Mughal Empire 

Indo-islamic arch. 

Developed in the 16,17,18^th centuries 

Bulbous domes 

Slender minarets with cupolas at four corners  
 

Muquarnas 

3D decorative element in Islamic 

Interlocking patterns with floral motifs in domes 

 
Nave 

Main walking space in a church that goes down the center 

Leads to the alter 

 
Neoclassicism 

Classical revival architecture 

Prominent in the western world  

Classic Greek and roman features 

Simplicity, geometric, and impressive column 

 
Oculus 

Opening in the top of the dome of a structure 

Seen in many churches 

Main place of use (Pantheon) 

 
Open plan/Democratic plan 

Architectural plan that focuses on minimal walls to separate spaces 

Encourages bonding and communication 

 
Organic architecture 

Not geometrical spaces  

Many curves  

 
Pagoda 

Tower-like multistoried structure that is associated with a Buddhist temple 

complex 
developed in India 

Wood, brick, stone, with curved roofs 

Palazzo 

Grand residences for wealthy families  

Symmetrical proportions, cornices, basements, and neat rows of windows 

 
Panopticon 

Architectual concept for a prison 

Watch tower in the center and a circular glass roofed structure for the external  

faces  
 

Parterre 

Formal garden constructed on a level substrate  

Symmetrical patterns  

Plant beds, plats, low hedge or colored gravels 

 
Pediment 

Found in classical Greek temple  

Greek temple/ rectangular in plan 

 
Peripteral temple 

Peripherals temple surrounded by the portico with column 

Perimeter of the temple structure  

 
Piazza 

Public space in an Italian town or city 

Civic purposes (square or marketplace) 

 
Pietra serena 

Grey colored stones 

 
Pilaster 

Columns that are embedded in the wall of a structure  

Half of a column 

 
Pilgrimage 

Design or constriction of building structures on sites of pilgrimage  

(spots of founding) 

 
Pilotis 

Columns of iron, steel, or reinformed concrete  

 
Pishtaq façade 

Portal projecting from the facade of a building  

Calligraphy bands, glazed tileworks, and geometric designs 

 
Portico 

Porch leading to the entrance of a building or extended as a colonnade 

Roof structure over a walkway 
 

Post and lintel (or post and beam)] 
construction 

 
Prairie house 

Low lying homes 

American style  

One or two stories  

Low pitched roofs and wide overhanging eaves 

 
Quattro Libri (Palladio) 

Four volumes  

includes authors drawings 

Translated into many languages 

 
Reinforced concrete 

Includes rebar (Steel) in the concrete  

 
Reliquary 

Sacred container used to hold relics  

Fragments of bones or sacred body parts. 

 
Ricetto 

Small, fortified area used in Italian village for strong ag. Products 

Products, livestock, and working tools 

Used for protection of residents  

 
Shakkei (borrowed scenery) 

Incorporating background into the composition of garden 

 
Shogun 

Military rulers of Japan 

General who quells barbarians  

 
Shoji (translucent screens) 

Door, window, or room divider 

 
Skeletal-frame or metal-cage construction 

Frame of thin piece of wood steel, or concrete is created with an exterior material  

 
Solomonic column 

Twisted column with a spiraling shaft 

Baroque and renaissance  

 
Spandrel 

Cured figure and rectangular  

Area between the sill of a window and the head of the window in a multi-story 

buildings 

 
Structural rationalism 

Leading trend in architectural theory and practice  

 
Stuart and Revett 

Completed the first accurate survey of ancient Greek architecture 

Set a new standard 

 
Stupa 

Hemispherical structure 

Buddhist 

Commemorative monument houses sacred relics 

 
Suspension bridge 

Bridge that is supported with overhead cables 

Expensive  

 
Tabula rasa 

Clean slate  

Starting over without a record or history  

Represents the ability to create a better structure  

 
Tatami (mat) 

Traditional Japanese's architecture  

Thixk straw with fine woven rush 

 
Tension 

Being stretched tight 

 
Tenshu 

Architectual typology found in Japanese's castle complexes  

Highest tower in the castle 

Typically, timber  

 
Terracotta 

Brownish red earthware, ornamental building material 

Fired clay and water 

 
The Picturesque 

Artistic concept 

Pictorial values of architecture and landscape in combo. 

 
The “primitive hut” (Laugier) 

The origins of architecture  

Architecture that comes from simple ideas 

 
The Sublime 

Conceptual reach or spiritual dimension 

Related to immense ideas (Space time death and the divine) 

 
Thin-shell concrete 

No interior columns or exterior buttresses  

Flat plates or domes 

 
Topiary 

Horticultural practice of training perennial plants into shapes 

Shaping evergreens into shapes, animals, and fanciful designs. 

 
Toron sticks 

African ornament in earthen arch 

Rodier palm and protrude from the mosques surface 

 
Trabeated architecture 

System or style of construction that uses horizontal beams(lintels) 

Supported by columns or posts 

 
Transcendentalism 

Delivers users to a transcendental state and supports services, activates and 

realizations at advance a transcending cause 

 
Trivium 

Lower division of the seven liberal arts 

Grammer logic and rhetoric 

 
Trompe l’oeil 

Ornamental architectural painting 

Painting on a 2D surface to give the illusion of the 3D architectural moldings  

 
Vernacular 

Building that are constructed with what is nearby 

 
Vers une Architecture/Towards an 
Architecture (Le Corbusier) 

Collection of essays 

Advocates for modern arch and urges architectures to open their eyes to the 

modern world 

 
Villa 

Combines elegance with functionality 

Freestanding or detached dwelling that typically offers more space and privacy  

then an apartment  

 
Vitruvius/Vitruvian Man 

Exhibits stability, utility, and beauty  

The Vitruvian virtues  

 
Voussoir 

Wedge shaped element 

Stone that is used in arches or vaults 

 
Wabi-sabi 

Japanese aesthetic concept that refers to the beauty of imperfection and 

impermanence  

Wabi- harmony, peace, tranquility and balance 

 
Wasmuth Portfolio (Wright) 

100 lithographs or FLW 

Most influential publications of the 20^th century 

 
Wengcheng diagram 

Shows Chinese fortifications  

Enceinte built outside of the gates in city walls. 

Sqaure/ eighteen main roads 9 each orientation 

 
Zocalo 

Common name of the main square in the central Mexico City 

Main ceremonial center of the Aztec city