Terminologies & Definitions.pdf

DEFINITIONS
1. SPHINX – Mythical monsters each with the body of a lion and a head of a man, hawk, ram or
woman possessed.
2. MASTABA – An ancient Egyptian rectangular, flat-topped funerary mound with battered (sloping)
sides covering a burial chamber blow ground
3. OBELISK – Huge monoliths, square on plan and tapering to an electrum-capped (alloy of silver &
gold) “pyra-midion” at the summit, which was the sacred part. The four sides are cut with
hieroglyphics.
4. PYRAMID – A massive funerary structure of stone or brick with a square base and four sloping
triangular sides meeting at the apex.
5. BATTER – Inward inclination or slope of an outward wall
6. STONEHENGE – Consists of a complex of “sarsen” (any of the many large sedimentary rocks that
have been broken into blocks by frost action and are found scattered across the chalk downs of
southern England )stones and smaller blue stones set in a circle and connected by lintels
7. ZIGGURAT – Artificial Mountains made up of tiered (layered), rectangular stages which rose in
number from one to seven
8. HIEROGLYPHICS – Pictorial representation of religious ritual, historic events and daily pursuits
1. DOLMEN – An ancient structure usually regarded as a tomb, consisting of two or more large
upright stones set with a space between and capped by a horizontal stone
2. VOUSSOIRS – Any of the pieces, in the shape of a truncated wedge, which form an arch or a
vault. A wedge-shaped stone: a wedge-shaped brick or stone used to form the curved parts of an
arch or vault
3. EXEDRA - In ancient Greece/ Rome, a room or covered area or open on one side used as a
meeting place; architecture history conversation room: a room fo r relaxation or conversation,
especially a semicircular recess in a larger hall with a continuous bench along the wall; furniture
long curved outdoor bench: a long curved or semicircular outdoor bench, usually with a high back;
architecture recess: any kind of recess or niche (technical)
4. CELLA – The sanctuary of a classical temple, containing the cult statue of the god
5. STUPA – Domical mounds which grouped with their rails, gateways, professional paths and
crowning umbrella came to be known as symbols of the universe; a Buddhist shrine, temple, or
pagoda that houses a relic or marks the location of an auspicious event.
6. ECCLECTIC – An adjective used to describe an artist who selects forms and ideas from different
periods or countries and combines them to produce a harmonious whole.
7. SOFFIT – The exposed undersurface of any overhead component of a building such as an arch,
balcony, beam, cornice, lintel or vault. bottom surface: the underside of a structural component of
a building, for example the underside of a roof overhang or the inner curve of an arch
8. FORTRESS – a large fortified (armed) place; a fort often including a town; any place of security.
9. PENDENTIVE– the term applied to the triangular curved overhanging surface by means of which a
circular dome is supported over a square or polygonal compartment. a sloping triangular piece of
vaulting between the arches that support a dome and its rim
10. MAYAN TEMPLE PYRAMID – Pre-Columbian edifice dedicated to the service or worship of their
god which is made of stones entered by a single door to a very steep single flight of steps, above
it rises a high stone roof.
11. PICTURESQUENESS – Term in a specialized sense to describe one of the attitudes of taste
towards architecture and landscape gardening in the late 18t h
and early 19t h
century; very
attractive: visually pleasing enough to be the subject of a painting or photograph
12. FRESCO – A term originally applied painting on a wall while the plaster is wet and is not in oil
colors. painting done on fresh plaster: a painting on a wall or ceiling made by brushing
watercolors onto fresh damp plaster, or onto partly dry plaster
1. STOA – A long colonnaded building, served many purposes, used around public places and as
shelter at religious shrines; an ancient covered walkway: in ancient Greece, a covered walkway,
usually with a row of columns on one side and a wall on the other
2. ATLANTES – Carved male figures serving as pillars also called TELAMONES; architecture figure
of man used as support: a figure of a man, either standing or kneeling, used as a support for the
upper part of a classical building
3. ABACUS - A slab forming the crowning member of a column;
4. ENTASIS – A swelling or curving outwards along the outline of a column shaft, designed to
counteract the optical illusion which gives a shaft bounded by straight lines the appearance of

curving inwards; a bulge in architectural column: a slight bulge in the shaft of a column, designed
to counter the visual impression of concavity that a perfectly straight column would give
5. FLUTES – The vertical channeling on the shaft of a column ; architecture: groove in column: a
groove running down an architectural column
6. CARYATIDS – Sculptures female figures used as columns or supports
7. DAADO – the portion of a pedestal between its base and cornice. A term also applied to the lower
portions of walls when decorated separately.
8. ARRIS –The sharp edge formed by the meeting of two surface usually in DORIC columns
9. FILLETS – a small flat band between mouldings to separate them from each other. architecture
flat narrow moulding: a raised or sunken ornamental surface set betwee n larger surfaces
10. PEDIMENT – A triangular piece of wall above the entablature enclosed by raking cornices;
architecture gable on colonnade: a broad triangular or segmental gable surmounting a colonnade
as the major part of a facade
11. PLINTH – The lowest square member of the base of a column
12. AGORA – Town square, was the center of social and business life, around which were stoas, or
colonnaded porticoes, temples, markets, public buildings, monuments, shrines.
1. TRIUMPHAL ARCH – These are arches erected to emperors and generals commemorating
victorious campaigns; has one or three openings. Such arches were adorned with appropriate
bas-reliefs (flat sculpture; slightly projecting) and usually carried grit-bronze statuary (statues
considered collectively) on an attic storey and having a dedicatory inscription in its face.
2. THERMAE – Palatial public baths of Imperial Rome raised on a high platform; hot springs: hot
springs or baths, especially the public baths of ancient Rome.
3. COLOSSEUM – Elliptical Amphitheatres are characteristically Roman buildings found in every
important settlement, used to display of mortal combats (gladiatorial)
4. AQUEDUCTS – A roman structure where immense quantities of water were required for the great
thermae and for public fountains, and for domestic supply for the large population; a channel for
water: a pipe or channel for moving water to a lower level, often across a great distance
5. FORUM – Corresponds (links) to the Agora in a Greek city was a central open space, used a
public meeting space, market or rendezvous for political demonstrations .
6. PINNACLE – A turret (small rounded tower) or part of a building elevated above the main building.
architecture pointed ornament: a pointed ornament on top of a buttress or parapet
7. SARCOPHAGUS – Taken from a tomb chamber, or the ornamental treatment given to a stone
coffin hewn out of one block of marble and with sculptures, figures and festoons (garl and) of a
late period, surmounted by lids like roofs terminating in scrolls. stone coffin: an ancient stone or
marble coffin, often decorated with sculpture and inscriptions
8. MAUSOLEUM – A term applied to monumental tombs. They consisted of large cylindrical blocks,
often on a quadrangular podium, topped with a conical crown of earth or stone.
9. GROINS – Line of intersection of cross-vaults.
10. COFFER – Sunk panels, caissons or lacunaria formed in ceilings, vaults or domes; sunken panel
in a ceiling: a decorative sunken panel in a ceiling
11. BUTTRESS – A mass of masonry built against a wall to resist the pressure of an arch & vault.
12. VAULT – an arch covering in stone or brick over any building; architecture arched ceiling: an
arched structure of stone, brick, wood, or plaster that forms a ceiling or roof; a room with arched
ceiling: a room, especially an underground room, with an arched ceiling
1. NARTHEX – A long arcaded entrance porch to a Christian Basilican Church.
2. BAPTISTERIES – A building or a part of a church in which baptism is administered
3. FONT – a basin usually of stone which holds the water for baptism.
4. DOME – A vault having a circular plan, and usually in the form of a sphere portion, so constructed
as to exert an equal thrust in all directions.
5. BEMA – A raised stage in a Basilican church reserved for the clergy.
6. ARCADE – A range of arches supported on piers or columns attached to or detached from the
wall.
7. AMBO – A raised pulpit on either side of a Basilican church from which the epistle of a gospel
were read.
8. MOSAIC - Decorative surfaces formed by small cubes of stones, glass & marble.
9. BALDACHINO – A canopy supported by columns generally placed over an altar or tomb. Also
known as “CIBORIUM”.
10. AISLE – A longitudinal division of an interior area, as in a church, separated from the main area
by arcades or the like.
11. NAVE – The principal or central longitudinal area of a church, extending from the main entrance or
narthex to the CHANCEL (area of church near altar: an area of a church near the altar for the use

of clergy and choir, often separated from the nave by a screen or steps) usually flanked by aisles
of less height.
12. APSE – The circular or multi-angular termination of a church sanctuary. A rounded projection of a
building.
1. KIOSK – A small pavilion, usually open – built in gardens & parks.
2. MOSQUE – An inward-looking building whose prime purpose is for contemplation & prayer. A
space without object of adoration. (Muslim)
3. CORBEL – A block of stone, often elaborately carved or moulded, projected from a wall,
supporting the beams of a roof, floor or vault.
4. MINARET - a tall tower in, or continuous to a mosque arch stairs leading up to one or more
balconies from which the faithful are called to prayer.
5. CHAMFER – A diagonal cutting of an arris formed by two surfaces at an angle
6. ATRIUM – An approach or an open forecourt surrounded by arcades in a Basilican church.
7. SQUINCH – A small arch or bracket built across each angle of a square or polygonal structure to
form an octagon or other appropriate base for a dome or a spire. An interior supporting part of a
tower: an arch, corbelling, or lintel built across the upper inside corner of a square tower to
support the weight of a spire or other structure above
8. HAREM – Women’s or private quarters of a house or place in Islamic architecture.
9. CENOTAPH – An empty tomb. A monument erected in memory of one not interred in or under it.
10. OGEE – A double curve, resembling the letter “S”, formed by the union of a curve and a convex
line.
11. KEYSTONE – The central stone of a semi-circular arch, sometimes sculptured.
12. ICONOSTASIS – a screen in a Greek orthodox church on which icons or (sacred images), pictures,
are placed separating the chancel from the space, open to the laity. An altar screen decorated
with icons: a screen on which icons are mounted, used in Eastern Orthodox churches to separate
the area around the altar from the main part of the church
13. VERANDAH – A covered porch (porch-roofed exterior of a room) or balcony (balcony- a platform
projecting from an interior or exterior wall of a building) extending along the outside of a building,
planned for summer leisure.
14. PIAZZA – A public open space in Byzantine architecture, surrounded by buildings.
15. ARABESQUE – Geometrical ornaments due to absence of human and animal statues; an ornate
design.
16. SPANDREL – The triangular space enclosed by the curve of an arch, a vertical line from its
springing, a horizontal line through its apex. A space between one arch or another. Space
between two arches and a cornice.
1. TURRET – small towers, often containing stairs, and forming special features in medieval
buildings.
2. MULLIONS – Vertical tracery members dividing windows into different numbers of light. A vertical
window divider: a vertical piece of stone, metal, or wood that divides the panes of a window or the
panels of a screen
3. CHATEAU – A castle in a French-speaking country or a stately residence. A French castle: a
castle or large house in France, often one that has a vineyard attached and gives its name to wine
produced there
4. FLECHE – A slender wooden spire rising from a roof. A slender church spire: a slender spire,
especially one that emerges from the roof of a church at the point where the ridges intersect.
5. NICHE – a (shell) or a recess in a wall, hallowed like a shell for a statue or ornament.
6. BOSS – (Lump or knob) or projecting ornament at the intersection of the ribs of ceilings, whether
vaulted or flat.
7. PILASTER STRIP – Is a rectangular feature in the shape of a pillar, but projecting only about one
sixth of its breadth (distance from side to side) from the wall.
8. CHATTRIS – An umbrella shaped copula.
9. TRACERY – The ornamental pattern work in stone, filling the upper part of a gothic window.
10. PODIUM – The high platform on which temples were generally placed (in general, any elevate
platform). A foundation wall: a low wall forming a foundation or base, for example for a colonnade
11. TRANSEPT – The part of a cruciform church, projecting at right angles to the main building. Wings
of church: the part of a cross-shaped church that runs at right angles to the long central part
(nave)
12. RIB & PANEL – Vaulting in Romanesque in which a framework of ribs supported thin stone panels.
The new method consisted in designing the profile of the transverse (crosswise or at right angle
with something), longitudinal and diagonal ribs to which the form of the panels was adopted.

1. CIMBORIO – Special term for a lantern or raised structure above a roof admitting light into the
interior.
2. LARDER – A room where food is stored; a pantry ( a walk-in cupboard); a cupboard
3. SPIRE – The tapering termination of a tower in Gothic churches.
4. STEEPLE – The term applied to a tower crowned by a spire
5. WARDROBE – A room for storage of garments.
6. CAMBER – A slight convex curvature built into a truss or beam to compensate for an anticipated
deflection so that it will gave no sag when under load.
7. COISTERS – Covered passages around an open space or “ Garth”, connecting the church to the
chapter house; a small courtyard or enclosed space.
8. PANTRY – A serving room between kitchen and dining room, or a room for storage of food
supplies.
9. STELLAR VAULT – A vault in which the ribs compose a “star-shaped” pattern.
10. MONASTERY – A building complex of a certain English order or a self-contained community used
by monks.
11. ORIEL WINDOW – A bay window especially cantilevered or corbelled out from the face of the wall
by means of projecting stones.
12. REFECTORY – The dining hall of a monastery, convent or college.
1. SCROLL – An ornament consisting of a spirally wound band, either as a running ornament or as a
terminal, like the volutes of the ionic capital.
2. PALAZZO – An Italian impressive building or private building
3. BALUSTER – One of a number of short vertical members ofte n circular in section used to support
a stair handrail or a coping (wall’s capping surface).
4. ROCOCO - “ROCK”; a term applied to a type of Renaissance ornament in which rock-like forms
fantastic scrolls, and ‘crimped’ folded or pressed together) shells (are worked up together in a
profusion and confusion of detail often without organic coherence but presenting a lavish display
of decoration; Any excessively ornate or fancy style; A style of architecture and the decorative
arts characterized by intricate ornamentation that was popular throughout Europe in the early 18th
century.
5. BAROQUE – In France, anything extravagantly ornamented, so ornate as to be in bad taste, a
style of art and architecture in Italy in the 17t h
to 18t h
century.
6. BELFRY – A tower not connected with “Bell”. A term applied to the upper room in a tower in which
the bells are hung.
7. ENTABLATURE – The entire construction of a classical temple or the like, between the columns
and the eaves usually composed of an architrave, frieze, and a cornice.
8. DOGE’S HALL – (BRITISH) The hall built or used by medieval association as of merchants and
tradesmen, organized to maintain standards that constituted a governing body. (Doge = Italian
renaissance chief magistrate)
9. PAVILION – (little house for pleasure & recreation). A prominent structure, generally distinctive in
character.
10. CHANCEL – The space about the altar of a church, usually separated by a screen for the clergy
and other officials, usually referred to as the “choir”.
11. QUOINS – An eternal solid angle of a wall or the like. One of the stones forming it, corner stone
(Renaissance) A block forming a corner: a stone block used to form a quoin, especially when it is
different, for example in size or material, from the other blocks or bricks in the wall
12. CONSOLE – A “BRACKET”: is a projecting member to support a weight generally formed with
scrolls or volute when carrying the upper member of the cornice.
13. CRYPT – A space entirely or partly under a building; in churches, generally beneath the chancel
and used for burial in earlier times. An underground chamber: an underground room or vau lt, often
below a church, used as a burial chamber or chapel, or for storing religious artifacts
14. NEWEL – The central shaft of a circular staircase. Also applied to the post in which the handrail
is framed.
15. DOGE’S PALACE – The chief magistrate’s buildings, in the former republic of Venice & Genoa.
16. CUPOLA – A spherical roof, (a dome-shaped roof) placed like an inverted cup over a circular
square or multi-angular apartment. A dome on roof: a small dome on a roof, sometimes made of
glass and providing natural light inside
1. VESTIBULE – An ante-room to a larger apartment of a building; An entrance hall: a small room or
hall between an outer door and the main part of a building
2. LANTERN – A construction such as a tower, at the crossing of a church rising above the
neighboring roofs and glazed at the sides.
3. WREATH – A twisted band, garland or chaplet, representing flowers, fruits l eaves, often used in
decoration; A circular arrangement of flowers: a circular arrangement of flowers and greenery

placed as a memorial on a grave, hung up as a decoration, or put on somebody’s head as a sign
of honor; a representation of wreath: a representation of a circular arrangement of flowers, vines,
or other things, for example in a carving or on a coat of arms; [headdress ; garland; laurel]
4. SALON – In Renaissance, a room used primarily for exhibition of art objects, or a drawing
room;[grand sitting room; social gathering of intellectuals; art exhibition or gallery]
5. MANSARD – A roof having a double slope on four sides; the lower slope being much steeper and
the flatter upper portion. Also known as the gambrel roof.
6. NYMPHAEUM – A room decorated with plants, sculpture and fountains (often decorated with
beautiful Maiden living in Rivers, trees) and intended for relaxation. [nymph: a spirit or a minor
goddess of nature; or a beautiful young woman]
7. FINIAL – An ornate iron grille, or screen, a characteristic feature of Spanish Church interiors; An
architectural decoration: a carved decoration at the top of a gable, spire, or a rched structure
8. PEDESTAL – A support for a column statue or a vase, it usually consists of a base. “Die” or Dado,
and a cornice or cap mould.
9. DORMER – A window in a sloping roof usually that of a sleeping apartment. A window projecting
from roof: a window for a room within the roof space that is built out at right angles to the main
roof and has its own gable
10. HERMES – A bust (sculpture of head & shoulders) on a square pedestal instead of a human body,
used in classic times to mark boundaries on highways, and used decoratively in Renaissance
times.
11. MULLION – Vertical members dividing windows into different number of lights.
12. PATIO – A Spanish arcaded or colonnaded yard; a paved area outside a house: a paved area
adjoining a house, used for outdoor dining, growing plants in containers, and recreation. A
roofless courtyard: a roofless inner courtyard typical of a Spanish -style house.
13. MODILLIONS – Also called ‘brackets” or “consoles” or “ancones” . It is a projecting member to
support a weight. generally formed with scrolls or volutes which carry the upper member of a
cornice (a projecting moulding at the top of a wall or at where the wall & ceiling meets); also a
bracket in Corinthian order: a small curved ornamental bracket under the corona of a Corinthian or
Composite column
14. TRANSOM – The horizontal divisions or crossbars of windows.
15. TABERNACLE – A decorative niche often topped with a canopy and housing a statue or an icon.
16. AMBULATORY – (to walk) the cloister (covered walkway around a courtyard) or covered passage
around the east end of the church, behind the altar.
1. FINIAL – Also called “key pattern” the upper portion of the pinnacle [pinnacle: pointed ornament: a
pointed ornament on top of a buttress or parapet]; an architectural decoration: a carved
decoration at the top of a gable, spire, or arched structure
2. DAIS – a raised platform reserved for the seating of speakers and dignitaries; a raised plat form: a
raised platform at the end of a hall or large room. [podium, platform, pulpit, stage]
3. BAY W INDOW – The window of a protruded bay or the windowed bay itself. A protruding window: a
rounded or three-sided window that sticks out from an outside wall and forms a recess on the
inside.
4. HELM ROOF – Bulbous termination to the top of a tower, found principally in Central & Eastern
Europe.
5. GALLERY – A communicating passage or wide corridor for pictures and statues. An upper storey
for seats in a church.
6. STRAPW ORK – A type of relief ornament or cresting [cresting: a decorative roof ridge: an
ornamental ridge on a roof ] resembling the studded leather straps arranged in geometrical and
sometimes interlaced patterns much used in the early renaissance architecture of England. A
decorative work on building: decorative work in the form of crossing or interlaced bands on the
outside of a building, especially in Tudor architecture (1485-1603). [Tudor: relating to Tudor
architectural style: relating to or being a style of architecture popular throughout the Tudor period.
Its buildings typically have a timber framework, visible from the outside, filled in with plaster or
brick]
7. INTERCOLUMNATION – The space between two columns
8. CHERUBS – One of the winged heavenly beings that support the throne of God or act as guardian
spirits, or Chubby, a rosy-faced child with wings. An angel of second order: an angel, specifically
one belonging to the second order of angels in the celestial hierarchy whose distinctive attribu te
is knowledge. Arts depiction of angel: an angel depicted as a chubby -faced child with wings,
sometimes simply as a child’s head above a pair of wings
9. TERRA-COTA – Earth-baked (unglazed) or burnt in moulds. For use in construction, harder in
quality than brick. [brownish red color]
10. HERALDIC – A coat of arms; connected with heraldry or heralds: belonging or relating to heraldry
or heralds
11. PLATERESQUE – Phase of the early period of Spanish architecture of the later 15t h
and early 16t h
century, an intricate style named after its likeness to silverwork; elaborately decorated: relating to

a heavily decorated architectural style fashionable in 16th -century Spain, reminiscent of elaborate
silverware
12. PULPIT – An elevated enclosed stand in a CHURCH in wh ich the preacher stands.
13. BELVEDERE – A roofed but open-sided structure affording an extensive view, usually located at
the rooftop of a dwelling but sometimes an independent building or an eminence (a hill) on a
formal garden; a building with fine view: a building or part of a building positioned to offer a fine
view of the surrounding area
14. CHURRIGUERESQUE – An expression of Spanish baroque architecture and sculpture, a recurrent
feature was the richly garlanded spiral columns. [flamboyant-showy; brightly colored; highly
decorated ornamentation]
15. CANDELABRA – A movable candle lamp-stand with central shaft, and often branches or decorative
representation thereof; a branching light fitting: a large decorative candle holder with several
arms or branches, or a similarly shaped electric light fitting
16. FRETW ORK – (grating: metal grille) an ornament in classic or renaissance architecture consisting
of an assembly of straight lines intersecting at right angles, and of various patterns.
1. WATA-DAGE – Outstanding architectural creation in Sri Lanka which is a circular relic house built
in stone and brick.
2. TUDOR-REVIVAL – Picturesque composition built in America since 1980. Hall timbering and
massive medieval chimney. Identified by prominent gables and large expansive windows with
small panes.
3. TORUS – a large convex moulding used principally in the bases of columns.
4. PAGODA – Most typical Chinese building, usually octagonal in plan, odd number o stories usually
9 or 13 storeys and repeated roofs, highly colored and with upturned eaves, slopes to each storey.
5. BUNGALOW – One storey with low-overhanging roof and broad front porch. Unpretentious style
often rambling spread out floor plan, more expensive to build; lightweight tropi cal house: a simply-
built one-storey house with a veranda and a wide, gently sloping roof in Southeast Asia and the
South Pacific
6. FAIENCE – A glazed earth ware originally made in Italy; pottery with colored glaze: earthenware
decorated with colored opaque metallic glazes (often used before a noun)
7. STAMBAS/ LATHS – Monumental pillars standing free without any structural function, with circular
or octagonal shafts with inscriptions carved in it. The capital was bell -shaped and crowned with
animal supported bearing the Buddhist will of Law.
8. GREAT W ALL – Most famous of ancient Chinese building undertakings. It snakes, loops, and
doubles back on itself. Meandering across valleys, plains, scaling mountains, plunging into deep
gorges and leaping raging rivers of 3,700 miles.
9. ART NOVEAU – An art free from any historical style characterized by forms of nature for
ornamentation in the façade aptly called for the floral design.
10. BAUHAUS – a school founded by Gropius in 1919, developing a form of training intended to relate
art and architecture to technology and the practical needs of human life.
11. FENESTRATION – The arrangement and design of windows in a building.
12. ARCHITECTONIC – Relating or conforming to technical architectural principles.
13. RARHS – Rock-cut temples in India
14. SPACE-FRAME – A structural system consisting of trusses in two directions rigidly connected at
their intersections. A rectangular shape is formed where the top and bottom chords of the trusses
are directly above & below one another.
15. BALOON-FRAME – a type of timber framing in America about 1820s wherein it owes its strength to
the walls, roof acting as diaphragms, and not on the post. It is an extension of the roof.
16. PAILOU – A Chinese ceremonial gateway erected in memory of an eminent person.
1. BONSAI – A dwarf tree which is a perfect reflection of Japanese culture.
2. ANTILLAN HOUSE – An elegant two storey, rectangular town house with a massive stone first
floor, and a light and airy second floor, mother -of-pearl or “capiz” windows and picturesque wide
tile roof. Entrance is of Heavy plank door with wrought iron or brass nails, sturdy balustrades of
wood or iron grilles below windows to let in cool air.
3. BELVEDERE – An open-roofed gallery in an upper storey built for giving a view of the scenery.
4. TEA HOUSE – In Japan, a structure where the appreciation of the arts and flower arrangement,
with drinking ceremony is done.
5. KEN – Intercolumniation is regulated by this standard of Japanese measurement, which is divided
into 20 parts called minutes and each minute being again divided into 20 parts or seconds of
space.
6. IFUGAO/BONTOC HOUSE – Cordillera one room house on four wooden posts with an animal or
insect barrier and a pyramidal roof Cogon grass built without nails.
7. NIPA HOUSE – A house with a prow-like (front of ship) majestic roof, the polychrome, extravagant
wooden carvings derived from the Malay Mythical bird the “Sari Manok” The silken Muslim

canopies in the Interiors. The protruding ends of floor beams are decorated with intricate
carvings.
8. MARANAO HOUSE – Lowlands area house with pithed roof, made of bamboo poles, thatch roof
with woven slit canes for walls and split bamboo slats flooring.
9. IVATAN HOUSE – Made of 0.75 m. thick stone of lime wall with thick thatched roof made of
several layers of cogon and held together by seasoned sticks or reeds and rattan to withstand
fiercest typhoons in the north.
10. LOGGIA – An arcade of roofed gallery built into or projecting from the side of a building
particularly one overlooking an open court. A covered balcony and walkway: a covered open -
sided walkway, often with arches, along one side of a building
11. IRIMOYA GABLE – Japanese dominant roofs characterized by their exquisite curvature, and are
supported upon a succession of simple or compound brackets. The upper part of the roof is
terminated by a gable placed vertically above the end walls, while the lower part of the m ain roof
is carried round the ends of the building in a hipped form.
12. TORII – Shinto temples (Shinto-Japanese religion) are characterized by this gateway formed by
upright posts supporting two or more horizontal beams.
13. TROMPE L’ OEIL – “Fool the eye” – are paintings adorning everything from cabinets to cupboards,
fire screen to dishwashers. This creates an illusion of space. A make -believe doorway for
example extends a hall. A glass cabinet or door is painted with cows and chicken and make -
believe or create an outdoor scene.
14. COUNTRY HOUSE – A house composed of natural materials. It is an eclectic and organic look
that grows and changes with antiques and a clutter of different collections, made of rough plaster,
old beams, wood framed windows and slate or brick floors. A house in the country: a large house
in the country, often with a large area of land attached
15. ART DECO – 1930s modernist’s style of art inspired by mechanical forms and chiefly distinguished
by geometrical shapes, bold color schemes and symmetrical designs, suitable for mass
production.
16. CONSERVATORIES, ARBORS & GAZEBOS – These are garden rooms.
a. Fanciful, pre-fabricated models attached to the houses, filled with wrought iron or wicker
furniture exotic plants and birds.
b. These are open spaces with seating areas beneath wood rafters or leaf -entwined plants. (
a shady place: a shaded place formed by the leaves and branches of trees and plants that
interweave naturally or are trained to grow around a trellis )
c. A roof place, shaded from the sun, to read or to entertain and enjoy the view.
STOA; patio (Spanish outdoor living or dining);VERANDAH (a porch or balcony for summer leisure);
LOGGIA
PINNACLE;
Turret(medieval) ; minaret (Islamic);steeple (church tower & spire)(term use for spire crowned towers)
Pinnacle(highest point); fleche (a church spire); spire (tapering termination of a gothic church tower);
finial (a design at the top of a spire)
Boss (vaulted or flat); groin (vaulted only)
Quoins (just a corner stone) vs. squinch (structural arch to support a dome)
Foyer; vestibule; lobby

Terminologies & Definitions.pdf

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