ARC132 Contemporary Architecture

Glossary Terms Exam Two

Agricultural Revolution
An 18th-Century development in agricultural technologies that resulted in unprecedented growth in
production, primarily in England.
Alberti (1404-1472)
15th-century Italian architect and theorist.
Arch
An opening curved at its head to allow for greater span
Aristocracy
A class of nobility that owned land and held most of the capital before the rise of industrial capitalism.
Avant-garde
1. Military term for the part of the army placed at the forefront; the first attack
2. Group of pioneer artists assumed to be at the forefront of an artistic development
Axonometric
A two-dimensional technique of representing three dimensions; parallel lines remain parallel in an
axonometric, or do not converge.
Baron Haussmann (1809-1891)
French civil engineer, notable work: The Haussmanization of Paris, a project to modernize the medieval
urban fabric of Paris (1853-1870)
Bauhaus (1919 1933)
One of the many private arts schools in Germany that staged the birth of design in architecture and the
arts in the 1920s; altered academic pedagogical methods to reflect a unification of the arts and the
inception of design processes following form, line, colour, etc.
Bay
Space between two load-bearing columns
Bourgeoisie
A socio-economic class between aristocracy and proletariat; holding capital without being part of nobility
Blas Attitude
Attitude of apathy or indifference
Bourgeoisie A socio-economic class between aristocracy and proletariat; holding capital without being part
of nobility
Camillo Sitte (1843-1903)
Austrian urban theorist and an advocate for the preservation of the old city of Vienna; notable work: The
City According to Its Artistic Principles (1889); criticized Ringstrasse

Cantilever
Any structural element that projects outward from a building; a beam anchored at only one end
Charette
1.Carriage, chariot, cart, wagon
2.A period of intense (group) work, typically undertaken in order to meet a deadline
Congrs Internationaux DArchitecture Moderne (CIAM) (1928 1959)
An organization formed as a platform for developing ideas and principles related to modern architecture
and urbanism; the first meeting was held in La Sarraz, Switzerland.
Circulation
Any means by which one moves through a building, including corridors, stairs, ramps, elevators, etc.
Curtain Wall
System of covering a building with a non-structural outer wall (i.e., Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building)
Discipline
1.A branch of instruction or education; a department of learning or knowledge; a science or art in its
educational aspect
2.Instruction having for its aim to form the pupil to proper conduct and action; the training of scholars or
subordinates to proper and orderly action by instructing and exercising them in the same; mental and
moral training; also used fig. of the raining effect of experience, adversity, etc.
3.Correction; punishment inflicted by way of correction and training; in religious use, the mortification of
the flesh by penance; also, in more general sense, a beating or other infliction assumed to be salutary to
the recipient
Discourse
1. Verbal interchange of ideas; especially conversation
2. Formal, orderly, and usually extended expression of thought on a subject
3. A mode of organizing knowledge, ideas, or experience that is rooted in language
Dome
A curved roof structure with a circular plan; exerting equal lateral and vertical force in all directions
Do-mino House
Reinforced concrete structure consisting of columns and floor slabs
Drum
Any of the cylindrical blocks that form the shaft of a column
Dystopia
An imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives

cole des Beaux-Arts (1793 1968)

A school of the arts founded in France after the Revolution; offered an academic pedagogical approach to
architecture, defined by ideas such as imitation, orders, proportions, harmony, etc.; supported by a
competition based, hierarchical structure of learning.
cole Polytechnique (1794 present)
A school of engineering founded in France after the Revolution; developed a new pedagogical approach
involving practical training; introduced an analytical approach to the discipline of architecture, especially in
the lectures of Durand.
Enlightenment
A philosophical shift in thinking that promoted freedom, liberty and autonomy; associated with the rise of
the bourgeoisie in the 18th-Century
Entasis
From the Greek verb enteinein, which contains the idea of tension; the convex curve given to a column or
to any element of a Greek temple
Ergonomics
The scientific study of the efficiency of man in his working environment
First Industrial Revolution
An economic and social change associated with mechanical production and accumulation of capital at the
end of the 18th-Century
Five points
The principles that Le Corbusier developed for modern architecture. They are: 1. pilotis 2. free plan 3. free
faade 4. horizontal window 5. roof terrace
Flying Buttress
A structural element (usually in a Gothic cathedral) that carries lateral load and transmits this load into a
vertical buttress
Fordism
A manufacturing system that produces standardized, low-cost products in huge volumes
Friedrich Engels (1820 1895)
German political theorist, philosopher, social scientist, and writer; notable work: The Condition of the
Working Classes in England (1845), The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Functionalism
The claim that the design of an object should be determined by its function rather than by aesthetic
considerations, that anything practically designed will be inherently beautiful
Geodesic Dome
A spherical form comprised of triangular elements (i.e., Buckminster Fuller's US Pavilion for the 1967 Expo,
Montreal)

Grid
A network of uniformly spaced horizontal and perpendicular lines
Ecology
Branch of biology which deals with the relations of living organisms to their surroundings, their habits and
modes of life, etc
Herzog and de Meuron (1978 present)
Contemporary Swiss architecture firm; notable work: Beijing Olympic Stadium (2008)
Historiography
The writing of history
I-Beam
Steel element with a cross-section that resembles an I
Jane Jacobs (1916 2006)
American-Canadian author best known for her book: The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961)
Jacobus Johannes Pieter (J.J.P.) Oud (1890-1963)
Dutch Architect; notable for his contributions to the De Stijl movement, his participation in the
construction of the Weissenhof Siedlung (1927), and his inclusion amongst the architects featured in the
1932 Modern Architecture International Exhibition at MoMA.
Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (1760-1834)
Architect and professor of architecture at the cole Polytechnique
Le Corbusier (1887 1965)
French Swiss Architect, painter, and author; a prominent figure from 1920 until the postwar period;
notable work: Towards an Architecture (1923); Villa Savoye (1928-31), Plan Voisin (1925)
Lightweight Tensile Structure
A structure that resists forces in tension only (i.e., Frei Otto's Munich Olympic Stadium, 1972)
Literal Transparency
A term that Rowe and Slutzky developed in their seminal essay from 1963 to describe a clear spatial
organization; glass is used primarily for its see-through properties as in the Bauhaus building by Gropius in
Dessau; in literal transparency the viewer can immediately see into deep space
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 1969)
German/American architect and third director of the Bauhaus, who, after a successful career in Germany;
emigrated to the US and exerted influence on architectural culture there
Marc-Antoine Laugier (1713 1769)
Jesuit Priest and architectural theorist who criticized Baroque architecture and suggested a return to
nature

Media
1. Channel or system of communication
2. After mass media. Newspapers, radio, television, etc., collectively as vehicles of mass communication
3. (singular as medium) That which goes in between; an intervening agent, intermediary
Metropolis
Big City
Modern architecture
Arguably refers to any work of architecture produced from the time of the Enlightenment to
the present.
Mullion
Vertical bar between panes of glass in a window
Orthogonal
Involving correct, right angles
Orthogonal projection
A form of parallel projection where all projection lines are parallel, or correct, to the projection plane.
Otto Wagner (1841 1918)
Austrian architect and planner, criticized Ringstrasse for not being modern enough; argued for more ring
avenues around Vienna and involved in an extension of infrastructural network throughout the city
Paradox
A contradiction that cannot be resolved
Parti
A diagram or statement which describes the basic concept or organization of an architectural project.
Pedagogy
A method, practice, and theory of teaching.
Pedestal
The base of a column or other tall object
Perspective
A two-dimensional technique of representing three dimensions; parallel lines converge in a perspective in
order to give the illusion of depth and distance
Peter Behrens (1868 1940)
A German architect known for his work with the AEG corporation, notable work: AEG Turbine
Factory, Berlin (1908-10)

Peter Reyner Banham (1922 1988)

An English architectural historian and critic who wrote Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment
(1969)
Phenomenal Transparency
A term that Rowe and Slutzky developed in their seminal essay from 1963 to describe a spatial organization
that is not immediately clear; glass is used primarily in its capacity to create this ambiguous spatial order
as in Villa Garches by Le Corbusier; in phenomenal transparency, the viewer cannot see deep space right
away; they must reconstruct the space behind the transparent surface mentally.
Philip Johnson (1906-2005)
Amercian architect; notable for founding the department of architecture and design at the Museum of
modern art (MoMA), the organization of the 1932 Modern Architecture International Exhibition (with
Alfred Barr and H.R.Hitchcock), and his contribution to the development of Post-modernism.
Picturesque
Design whose visual and tactile variety is revealed through movement (borrowed from 18th-Century
landscape theory)
Pilaster
An upright architectural member that is rectangular in plan and is structurally a pier, but architecturally
treated as a column that projects from the wall
Pilotis
Vertical structural elements (columns or stilts) that elevate a structure above water or the ground
Plan
A top or horizontal view resulting from an object being cut with a horizontal plane, causing the interior to
be exposed.
Poch
The method of representing the solid parts of a building (a wall, column, etc.) by a darkened area on an
architectural plan or section.
Post-and-lintel construction
A system of construction in which vertical elements support a horizontal element positioned above
Post-modernism
The condition following modernism, marked by a disillusionment and critique of modernism
Proletariat
Class of industrial workers who sell their physical labour in return for a salary
Representation
1. The action or fact of one person standing for another
2. An artistic likeness or image

Renaissance (a.k.a. early modern period)

Translated as re-birth, refers to the cultural movement during the 14th-17th centuries when ancient Greek
and Roman cultures were revived in Western Europe
Rem Koolhaas (1944 present)
Founding partner of Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA); notable work: Seattle Public Library
SANAA / Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa (1995 - present)
A Japanese architecture firm, notable work: Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion (2006)
Second Industrial Revolution
A second wave of economic and social change in the late 19th-Century, associated with the rise of steel
and chemical industries.
Section
A vertical view resulting from an object being cut with a vertical plane, causing the interior to be exposed.
Segregation
A process whereby people from different social classes or ethnic backgrounds got separated from each
other in modern cities
Sigfried Giedion (1888 1968)
Swiss historian and architectural critic; notable texts: Building in France, Building in Iron, Building in
Reinforced Concrete (1928), Space, Time and Architecture (1941), Mechanization Takes Command (1948)
Stereotomy
The science or art of cutting, or making sections of, solids; that department of geometry which deals with
sections of solid figures; the art of cutting stone or other solid bodies into measured forms, as in masonry
Taylorism / Scientific Management
A factory management system developed in the late 19th -Century to increase efficiency by evaluating
every step in a manufacturing process and breaking down production into specialized repetitive tasks
Tectonic
1. (Geology) Relating to the structure of the Earths crust and the large-scale processes which take place
within it
2. Relating to building or construction; origin: mid 17th -Century, via late Latin, from Greek tektonikos,
from tektn carpenter, builder
3. (tectonics) Art of joining
Thin-Shell Concrete
Structure consisting of a thin shell of concrete (around 4), typically with no interior columns or exterior
buttresses (i.e., Felix Candela's Los Manantiales Restaurant (1958))
Vault
An extruded arch
Vitruvius (1st Century BCE)

1st century BCE roman engineer and author. Very influential during Renaissance
Walter Gropius (1883-1969)
German architect and founder of the Bauhaus
Urbanism
The characteristic way of life of city dwellers The study of the physical needs of urban societies (city or
town planning)
Utopia
Non-place, An imaginary and indefinitely remote place; a place of ideal perfection