Architectural Vocabulary

 Author: Kathryn Maxwell
Grade Level: Art Class Grade 8

Styles:

Egyptian: 3100 BC; post and lintel supports with elaborately designed capitals; pyramid

Federal: 1800s; plain undecorated surfaces with symmetrical windows, gabled roofs, side chimneys, narrow multi-pane windows, sidelights, and fanlights

Gothic: 500 AD; tall, slender pointed arches; vaulted ceilings; stained glass windows; clerestory windows; flying buttresses; gargoyles)

Gothic Revival: mid-1800s; homes and especially churches in the 1800s that reflect the Gothic style

Greek: 600-150 BC; columns; classical orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian); entablature; pediment; dentils; metopes and triglyphs; frieze; caryatids; colonnade.  

Greek Revival: mid-1800s; public and residential buildings that reflects the Greek style

Italianate: mid 1800s; Roman influence with decorative brackets under the eaves; Roman influence in the windows and height of the structure; arched windows with keystones; bell towers with hipped roofs; quoins

Prairie Style: early 1900s; developed by famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright; wider spacious buildings (churches, schools, houses) with lower ceilings, hipped roof, and use of cantilever

Roman: 753 BC to 476 AD; arches; keystone; dome; the expansion of Greek influence and modifications

Romanesque: late 1800s; vaulted ceilings; barrel vaults; intersecting vaults; use of large heavy stone for construction and towers

Second Empire: later 1800s; developed in France; heavy structures with mansard roofs, hooded dormer windows, and tower

Queen Anne: late 1885-1905; structures using a variety of additives (i.e. cupolas, bay windows, gingerbread, spindled porches, colorful painted adornments)

Architectural Design Elements:

Arch: a curved support structure with:

• Keystone: middle stone of the arch that diffuses the weight
• Voussoirs: the rest of the stones in an arch
• Arcade: a series of arches

Architrave: the lowest of the three main parts of an entablature that rests directly on top of a column

Atrium: an open court in the middle of a building

Balcony: an upper level porch

Bracket: decorative support that helps hold up a protruding roofline

Buttress: structure that supports the outside of a tall building; used in Gothic buildings; a flying

buttress help bear the pressure of the building pushing itself outward

Cantilever: a beam that is supported at only one end

Clerestory: a series of windows place high on a wall

Column: a support structure whose top part is called a capital. Its middle section is the shaft.

The bottom section is called a base. The three Classical Greek orders of columns are:

• Doric: plain disc capital with thicker fluted shaft
• Ionic: rams horn shaped capital with longer, more slender fluted shaft
• Corinthian: decorative overlapping leaf sculpted capital w/ longest shaft

Cornice: decorative carved wood molding used at the top of a wall where it meets the ceiling

Cupola: a small dome topping a roof, a larger dome, or a tower  

Dentils: from the Greek root meaning teeth; square decorative blocks spaced under rooflines and pediments that resemble a series of teeth

Dome: a series of overlapping arches

Dormer: windows that protrude from a roof

Entablature: a base for a pediment to rest on, often with inscriptions carved into it

Façade: a face or front of a building

Fanlight: an arched window over a door that resembles an open fan

Frieze: a decorative band, usually with high relief sculpture, below the cornice of a building. In Greek architecture it is located between the architrave and cornice of a building.

Gable: the triangle-shaped part of a wall at the end of a sloping roof

Gable roof: an inverted V-shape roof

Gambrel roof: a "barn-shaped" roof with two sloping sides

Gingerbread: fancy and superfluous ornamentation found on late-nineteenth century architectural styles (i.e. Queen Anne)

High relief sculpture: three dimensional sculpture that is carved from stone or clay material that can be seen from the sides. Greek friezes contained high relief sculpture.

Hooded windows: windows that have decorative molding above them

Keystone: the top middle stone in an arch; it transfers the weight of the structure evenly along the top and sides of an arch

Lintel: a long piece of stone or wood at the top of a door or window that helps carry the weight of the wall

Low relief sculpture: carved sculpture that is raised from a slab of stone or clay; the 3-D form is seen only from the front

Mansard roof: pitched roof where the second pitch is so extreme that it is almost vertical

Molding: strips of curved or carved wood used for decoration

Palladian window: a three-sectioned window; it has an arched segment between two multi-paned sections

 Pediment: a triangular structure built above a series of columns or wall. It sometimes can hold sculpture within its walls.

Porch: an external structure built on the front or side of a building that is shelters an entranceway

Post and lintel: horizontal beams resting on top of two vertical supports or "posts"

Roman arch: a semicircular opening with a center stone called a keystone

Quoins: large stones used to make the corner of a building stronger; sometimes they're merely decorative

Spiral staircase: stairs that wrap around a post or pillar

Spire: a tall, cone-shaped structure on top of a tower

Style: the distinctive architectural character of an era or period in time, exemplified by ornament (decoration) and manner (structural design)

Two-point perspective: a drawing with an illusion of depth made by using two vanishing points, guidelines, and a ruler

Unity: a principle of design that brings together an art form by repeating elements. For example, in architecture, the repeat of similar shapes and forms of window hoods, arches, and decorative molding.

Vaulted ceiling: two arches intersecting to form a roof

Window hood: decorative design structure that "caps" a window

Two-dimensional shapes and their three-dimensional corresponding forms: