Courtyard Design in Architecture
One of the oldest and most enduring ideas in architecture is to arrange a building around an open central space rather than as a…
Category: Architecture
Design · form · space
What Is a Cornice?
The horizontal moulded band that projects out at the top of a wall or building, capping it and casting a shadow line against the…
Facade Materials in Architecture
The facade is the public face of a building — the part everyone sees, the surface that takes the weather, and a major factor…
What Is a Pediment?
The triangular shape crowning the front of a classical building — sitting above the columns and the horizontal band of the entablature, forming a…
What Is a Flying Buttress?
Stand outside a great Gothic cathedral and you see, leaning against its upper walls, a series of arched stone props springing out from the…
Skylights in Architecture
When daylight cannot easily reach a room through its walls — because the space is deep in the plan, on the top floor, or…
Green Roofs in Architecture
A roof covered not in tiles or membrane but in living plants — grasses, sedums, shrubs or even trees — is a green roof.…
Pilotis in Architecture
Some of the most influential buildings of the twentieth century appear to float above the ground, their main floors lifted clear on a forest…
Clerestory Windows Explained
A row of windows placed high up in a wall, above eye level and often above the roofline of an adjoining lower space, is…
Brise-Soleil and Architectural Louvers
On many modern buildings, particularly in sunny climates, the facade is wrapped in a screen of horizontal or vertical blades that shade the glass…
What Is a Portico?
The grand entrance of a classical building — a roof carried on a row of columns, projecting forward to shelter the front door and…
Vaults in Architecture
Before steel and reinforced concrete, the only way to roof a space in fireproof masonry was to use an arch — and a vault…