An illustrated dictionary of architecture.
One word, drawn and explained.
Each entry is a short film: a part of a building, drawn from a 3D model in pencil and marker and taken apart until it explains itself. Around each entry sit its cousins, the same idea under other names in other places.
The films
Nº 001 · Film out
cumba
A room that borrows space from the street.
Nº 002 · Film out
engawa
An edge that joins a house to its garden.
Nº 003 · Film out
badgir
A tower that catches the wind.
Nº 004 · Film out
hórreo
A granary that stands on tiptoe.
Nº 005 · Film out
pilotis
Columns that give the ground back.
Nº 006 · Film out
flying buttress
An arm that holds a wall from outside.
Nº 007 · Film out
impluvium
A pool that drinks the rain.
Nº 008 · Film out
brise-soleil
Sunglasses for a building.
Nº 009 · Film out
mashrabiya
A window that breathes.
Nº 010 · Film out
dogtrot
A house split by the breeze.
Nº 011 · Film out
jali
A stone wall that turns sunlight into lace.
Nº 012 · Film out
hypocaust
A floor raised on pillars to let fire flow underneath.
Nº 013 · Film out
oculus
A circular opening at the crown of a dome that turns sunlight into a moving dial.
ComingNº 014 · Coming
iwan
A vaulted hall walled on three sides and open to the courtyard on the fourth.
ComingNº 015 · Coming
muqarnas
A tiered honeycomb of niches that bridges a square room to a round dome.
ComingNº 016 · Coming
ondol
A Korean floor warmed by the smoke of the kitchen fire.
ComingNº 017 · Coming
dougong
An interlocking wooden bracket cluster that carries deep eaves without nails.
ComingNº 018 · Coming
riad
An inward-looking courtyard house built around a four-part garden and fountain.
ComingNº 019 · Coming
loggia
A roofed gallery recessed into a building and open to the air through an arcade.
ComingNº 020 · Coming
trullo
A dry-stone house roofed with a cone of overlapping limestone slabs.
Index (59 terms)
B
- badgir Nº 003 A tower that catches the wind.
- barjeel the Gulf The windtower of the Arabian Gulf coast.
- brise-soleil Nº 008 Sunglasses for a building.
- buttresses Hagia Sophia, Istanbul The massive solid buttresses around Hagia Sophia.
C
- celosía Spain A latticework screen of wood, ceramic or stone that shades windows while letting air pass.
- chahar taq Iran A Sassanian dome chamber open on all four sides through arches.
- clochán Ireland A dry-stone beehive hut with a corbelled stone roof on Ireland's Atlantic coast.
- compluvium Pompeii The rectangular opening at the centre of a Roman atrium roof.
- corbel Europe A stone or timber block projecting from a wall to carry weight above.
- cumba Nº 001 A room that borrows space from the street.
D
E
- engawa Nº 002 An edge that joins a house to its garden.
- espigueiro Portugal The raised granary of northern Portugal.
F
- fan vault England An English Gothic vault in which ribs fan out equally to form inverted masonry cones.
- flying buttress Nº 006 An arm that holds a wall from outside.
G
- gloria Castile, Spain The Castilian underfloor heating system descended from the Roman hypocaust.
H
- harran dome Harran, Turkey The conical mud-brick beehive houses of Harran on the Upper Mesopotamian plain.
- hayat Anatolia The open, roofed living space of the traditional Anatolian house.
- hórreo Nº 004 A granary that stands on tiptoe.
- howz Iran The pool at the centre of a Persian courtyard.
- hypocaust Nº 012 A floor raised on pillars to let fire flow underneath.
I
- impluvium Nº 007 A pool that drinks the rain.
- impluvium house Igbo, Nigeria A West African house built around an open central rain basin.
- iwan Nº 014 Coming A vaulted hall walled on three sides and open to the courtyard on the fourth.
J
K
L
- lantern Florence A windowed turret crowning the top of a dome.
- liwan Levant A vaulted or arcaded central hall opening onto a courtyard or triple arch.
- loggia Nº 019 Coming A roofed gallery recessed into a building and open to the air through an arcade.
- louvred shutters Mediterranean Hinged shutters with angled slats.
M
- malqaf Cairo The Egyptian windcatcher: a roof scoop facing the prevailing wind.
- mashrabiya Nº 009 A window that breathes.
- mungh Sindh The roof wind scoop of Hyderabad, Sindh.
- muqarnas Nº 015 Coming A tiered honeycomb of niches that bridges a square room to a round dome.
N
- nuraghe Sardinia A Bronze Age dry-stone tower-fortress of Sardinia built with corbelled stone chambers.
O
P
- patio fountain Córdoba The fountain at the heart of a Córdoba courtyard house.
- pendentive Istanbul A curved triangular masonry spandrel that transitions a square bay to a circular dome.
- pilotis Nº 005 Columns that give the ground back.
Q
- Queenslander Australia The timber house of Queensland, raised on stumps.
R
S
- shanasheel Baghdad The latticed timber oriel window of Iraq.
- siheyuan Beijing A traditional Chinese residence of four inward-facing halls around a quiet courtyard.
- squinch Iran An arch or corbelled niche built across the upper corner of a square room to carry a dome.
- stabbur Norway The Norwegian farm storehouse, lifted on posts.
- staddle barn England A granary raised on mushroom-shaped staddle stones.
- stepped rings Pantheon, Rome The rings of masonry stepped around the base of the Pantheon's dome.
- stilt house Southeast Asia A house raised on posts above ground or water.
- stoa Athens A long covered colonnade in ancient Greek cities, open to the agora along one side.
T
V
- veranda India A roofed, open platform along the outside of a house.