Architecture: A Very Short Introduction

Glossary

Baroque: This is a stylistic development of classical architecture, where the building is overlaid with ornamental work, often including statuary and illusionistic painted murals and ceilings. It developed in 16th-century Italy, and was widespread throughout Europe in the 17th. The most floridly grand style of architecture. See Rococo.

broken pediment: a pediment with a gap in the middle.

cella: the enclosed room in a classical temple.

CIAM: Congrès internationaux d’architecture moderne (international congresses of modern architecture), a series of meetings held between 1928 and 1956, dominated by Le Corbusier, at which resounding declarations were made in an attempt to determine what the agenda for modern architecture should be.

classical: 1. pertaining to ancient Greece and Rome: classical architecture is in a style derived (ultimately) from the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome; 2. specifically of Greek architecture: pertaining to the 5th century BC.

clerestory: A clerestory (pronounced ‘clear-story’) window is a highlevel window, especially in a church.

Constructivism: a revolutionary movement in Russian art and architecture in which abstract geometric shapes predominated, as did the colours black, white and red.

Deconstructivism: This was a term fashionably applied to architecture in the 1990s, deriving from Constructivism on one hand, and Deconstructionist philosophy on the other. It was the name for the style of philosophy was coined by Jacques Derrida, who was little understood. There were two ways to pass as a Deconstructivist; either by designing buildings that looked as if they might be falling apart, or by designing buildings that were accompanied by texts that sounded like high-powered philosophy. In popular usage now ‘to deconstruct’ means ‘to analyse’.

Doric: This was the most severe of the Greek orders, and the first to develop. The other ‘canonic’ orders were to be called Ionic and Corinthian, but in addition there were idiosyncratic local variants. The Romans extended the range, and they were codified by Vitruvius and then in pattern books from the Renaissance.

eclectic: in more than one style; from the Latin word for ‘to select’, suggesting a range of interchangeable stylistic choices.

entablature: the beam-like part of a classical temple that runs horizontally across above the columns.

frieze: This is part of the entablature. In more ornamented buildings it is distinguished by having sculpted panels (in a Doric frieze) or a run of continuous sculpted decoration. It is also a horizontal run of decoration applied to a wall.

Gothic: This style of architecture, particularly church architecture, used in the later medieval period, originally developed in the 12th century. It replaced Romanesque. It is characterized by pointed arches and large expanses of stained glass.

keystone: This is the topmost block of stone in an arch, often picked out for decorative and symbolic purposes. It is sometimes taken to be the most important stone in the arch, but actually it would collapse if any one of them were to be removed.

Mock Tudor: a very popular English style that involves the notional evocation of the decorative effects of the timberwork that could be found in traditional timber-framed houses.

Modernism: 1. architecture inspired by the CIAM, characterized especially by its use of planar forms, non-traditional materials, avoidance of historical associations; often referred to as the Modern Movement, or in the USA as the International Style; 2. any architecture, especially of the mid-20th-century, that worked by experimental rather than traditional means; 3. architecture of the later 20th century and after that makes use of Modern Movement buildings as historical reference points.

naos: the Greek name for a cella; used as an English word when referring specifically to Greek temples.

Neoclassical: This is a version of classicism from the later 18th century that made use of specifically Greek and not Roman ideals of beauty. ‘Neoclassical’ is a 20th-century term. At the time the people involved called the style ‘Grecian’.

Norman: This can refer to anything coming from Normandy, but in architecture it can be used as an alternative to ‘Romanesque’ when it is found in England: so called because the Romanesque spread rapidly through the kingdom after the Norman invasion of 1066.

order: In classical architecture the ‘order’ is the name given to the different types of columns, which bring with them a set of proportions not only for the column-type but also for the frieze and entablature, which varied from one order to another. See Doric.

pattern book: an illustrated book, designed to give architects and builders ideas to copy.

pediment: 1. the low sloping gable at the front of a classical temple; 2. a low sloping triangular form often placed to mark entrances or windows in classical buildings.

peristyle: a row of columns round the outside of a building, especially if the building is a classical temple.

portico: a porch with columns that takes the form of the end of a classical temple.

postmodernism: in architecture this term usually means a building from the 1980s that makes eccentric and unconventional use of historical ornamental features such as columns and keystones.

Regency: Properly this refers to the time between 1810 and 1820 when George III was King of England, but insane, so his son acted as the ruler (the regent). The son had an influence on fashionable taste over a longer period, from when he was Prince of Wales until he was George IV, and the ‘Regency Style’ would normally refer to this longer period. It is marked by simplicity and elegance of form (which is remarkable, given that the Prince Regent had built the Brighton Pavilion). In contemporary popular usage with reference to architecture it suggests a rather notional indication of classicism.

Rococo: This was a late variant of the Baroque, which is different in mood, having a lighter touch. Its characteristic swirling plasterwork often used abstract or shell-like forms (rocaille) and delicate colour schemes.

Romanesque: This was medieval architecture, especially churches, built in imitation of Roman models, particularly architecture from the 12th century and before. It made use of round-headed arches and in the more ambitious work favoured stone-vaulted ceilings.

stoa: This was an ancient Greek building type with a long narrow rectangular plan. One of the long sides would have a wall along it, while the other would have a row of columns, leaving that side open to the outside. The arrangements made a pleasantly sheltered verandahlike space which was put to use in a multiplicity of ways. The most famous example was the stoa poikile, or painted stoa, in Athens, from which Zeno operated a school of philosophy (the Stoics).

vernacular: traditional buildings erected by craftsmen without the guidance of an architect.