Architect Glossary

Here we have compiled a list of useful terms to know if you are an architect, or are considering becoming an architect. Many of the terms used in architecture can also be found in the construction sector as much of the work performed by architects is working closely with construction teams to build the designs to the specific plan specified by the architect's drawings.

• Adaptive Reuse - Old buildings often outlive their original purposes. Adaptive Reuse, or Re-use, is a process that adapts buildings for new uses while retaining their historic features. An old factory may become an apartment building. A rundown church may find new life as a restaurant... And a restaurant may become a church.
• Board and Batten - Board and batten, or board-and-batten, describes a type of exterior siding or interior paneling that has alternating wide boards and narrow wooden strips, called battens. The boards are usually (but not always) one foot wide. The boards may be placed horizontally or vertically. The battens are usually (but not always) about 1/2 inch wide. These battens are placed over the seams between the boards.
• Deconstruction - Deconstructivism, or Deconstruction, is an approach to building design which attempts to view architecture in bits and pieces. The basic elements of architecture are dismantled. Deconstructivist buildings may seem to have no visual logic: They may appear to be made up of unrelated, disharmonious abstract forms.
• Floor Plan - A floor plan is a simple line drawing showing rooms as if seen from above. Walls, doorways, and windows are often drawn to scale.
• Gables - A gable is the triangle formed by a sloping roof. A building may be front-gabled or side-gabled. The house shown here is cross-gabled -- It has a gabled wing. Porches and dormers may also be gabled.
• Hipped Roof - A hipped (or hip) roof slopes down to the eaves on all four sides. Hipped roofs are often found on French Inspired and American Foursquare style homes. Although a hipped roof is not gabled, it may have dormers or connecting wings with gables.
• Modular Home - A modular home is constructed of pre-made parts and unit modules. A complete kitchen and bath may be pre-set in the house. Wall panels, trusses, and other pre-fabricated house parts are transported on a flatbed truck from the factory to the building site.
• Pediment - A pediment is a low-pitched triangular gable on the front of some buildings in the Grecian or Greek Revival style of architecture.
• Stock Plans - "Stock Plans" are pre-drawn building plans that you can order from a catalog, magazine, or Web site. Most builders also offer stock plans for you to choose from.
  Stock plans ordered through the mail should include floor plans, foundation plans, structural framing plans, electrical and plumbing plans, cross section drawings, and elevation drawings
• Vergeboard - Bargeboards -- also called vergeboards -- hang from the projecting end of a roof. Bargeboards are often elaborately carved and ornamented. Homes in the Carpenter Gothic style have highly ornamented bargeboards. Other common terms to describe bargeboards and vergeboards include: fly rafters, gable rafters, gableboards and barge rafters.