Art History by Credo Reference: Elements & Styles

The spanning of a wall opening by means of separate units assembled into an upward curve that maintains its shape and stability through the mutual pressure of a load and the separate pieces.

Mass of masonry built against a wall to strengthen it.

In engineering, a chamber, usually of steel but sometimes of wood or reinforced concrete, used in the construction of foundations or piers in or near a body of water.

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms
A free-standing pillar, usually circular in section, and often built in accordance with one of the orders of architecture.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Molded or decorated projection that forms the crowning feature at the top of a building wall or other architectural element; specifically, the uppermost of the three principal members of the classic entablature, hence by extension any similar crowning and projecting element in the decorative arts.

A roof circular or (rarely) elliptical in plan and usually hemispherical in form, placed over a circular, square, oblong, or polygonal space.

In architecture, furniture, and decorative objects, a surface or group of surfaces of projecting or receding contours.

High, tapering structure crowning a tower and having a general pyramidal outline.

Structure, the greatest dimension of which is its height.

Bands or bars of stone, wood, or other material, either subdividing an opening or standing in relief against a wall and forming an ornamental pattern of solid members and open spaces.

Ceiling over a room, formed in any one of a variety of curved shapes.

In architecture, the casement or sash, fitted with glass, which closes an opening in the wall of a structure without excluding light and air.

In The New Encyclopedia of the American West
Prehistoric Indians of the Southwest, as well as those in historic times, built single-and multi-storied houses of rock or adobe.

German school of art, design, and architecture founded in 1919 in Weimar by the architect Walter Gropius, who aimed to fuse art, design, architecture, and crafts into a unified whole.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
architectural style of the late 1950s and 60s that arose in reaction to the lightness, polish, and use of glass and steel that had come to characterize the orthodox International style; the term is derived from the French béton brut [raw concrete].

In architecture, a building designed as a place of worship for the Christian church community.

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of 20th Century Architecture
Architectural principle according to which the form of a building is to be derived from the function it is intended to fulfill; the schematic and technological aspect of architectural modernism (Rationalism), whose wider theoretical stance comprises also philosophical, political, social, economic, stylistic and symbolical questions.

It includes several trends in English architecture that were predominant during the reigns (1714–1830) of George I, George II, George III, and George IV.

Style of architecture that flourished in Europe from the mid-12th century to the end of the 15th century.

Term designating a return to the building styles of the Middle Ages.

From The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Design Since 1900
Is a general design term that emerged in the late 1980s. An international surge of interest in ecological issues resulted from various man-made disasters (e.g., the leaks of radiation at Chernobyl and crude oil in Alaska) combined with the growing awareness of the accumulating effects on the environment of the industrial world (e.g., global warming).

Architectural style, an early and influential phase of the Modern Movement, originating in Western Europe in the 1920s but finding its fullest expression in the 1930s, notably in the USA.

The architecture of the Muslim world, highly diverse but unified by climate, culture, and a love of geometric and arabesque ornament, as well as by the mobility of ideas, artisans, and architects throughout the region.

Style of architecture used in England in the 11th and 12th centuries, also known as Romanesque.

From 100 Ideas that Changed Architecture
A work of architecture can be understood as possessing inner ‘laws’ - of geometry, structure, proportion and so on - that are conditioned by the specific circumstances of the choice of materials and site. This is analagous to an organism, which responds to both its inner constitution and its external circumstances.

Descriptive of the English architecture and decoration of the first half of the 16th cent., prevailing during the reigns (1485–1558) of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I.

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
According to architect Amos Rapoport ninety-five percent of the world's structures qualify as examples of vernacular buildings, if what is understood by the term are those structures that are not designed by professional architects.

From Dictionary of Architecture and Construction
The Revival and Eclectic architecture in 19th century Great Britain, named after the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901); also its American counterpart.