Architecture Glossary

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R

Rabbet or rebate – A rectangular recess made along an edge or any channel or groove cut along the face of a piece of stone, wood, etc., so as to receive a tongue or edge of another piece.

Radiating chapels – Chapels projecting radially from an ambulatory or apse. See also chevet.

Raggle – A groove cut in masonry, e.g. to receive the edge of a roof.

Ragstones – See rubble masonry.

Rail – A horizontal member in the frame of a door, window, panel, etc.

Rainwater head – A box-shaoed structure of metal, usually cast iron or lead, and sometimes decorated, in which water from a gutter or parapet is collected and discharged into a down-pipe.

Ramp – A slope joining two different levels. Or part of a staircase handrail which rises at a steeper angle than normal, usually where winders are used.

Rampart – A stone or earth wall surrounding a castle, fortress, or fortified city for defence purposes.

Ramping arches – Arches which are made asymmetrically to follow the ramp of a staircase.

Random ashlar – Masonry composed of rectangular stones set without continuous joints.

Ravelin model

Ravelin – In military architecture, an outwork formed of two faces of a salient angle and constructed beyond the main ditch and in front of the curtain wall.

Ravelin - Leonardo da Vinci

Rayonnant – The Gothic style prevailing in French from c. 1230 to c. 1350, named after the radiating arrangement of lights in rose windows.

Notre-Dame d'Amiens Cathedral

Rear arch – The arch on the inside of a wall spanning a doorway or window opening.

Sidi Saiyyed mosque - 1573

Rear vault – The small vaulted space between the glass of a window and the inner face of the wall, when the wall is tick and there is a deep splay.

Tewkesbury Abbey choir vault

Redan – See Ravelin.

Reeding – Decoration consisting of parallel convex mouldings touching one another.

Re-entrant corners – Corners with angles pointing inwards.

Regulus – The short band between the tenia and guttae on a Doric entablature.

Rendering – The plastering of an outer wall.

Reredos – A wall or screen, usually of wood or stone, rising behind an altar, and as a rule decorated.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Respond – Alf-pier bonded into a wall and carrying one end of an arch; often at the end of an arcade.

Retable – A superstructure found since 11th Century, either painted or carved, on the rear of the altar or on its own pedestal behind the altar, especially one with carved figures in the corpus or central part, flanked by carved and/or painted wings.

St Helen Cathedral - Gerona

Retaining wall – A wall, usually battered, which supports or retains a weight of earth or water; also called a revetment.

Reticulated – See tracery.

Retro-choir – The space behind the high altar in a major church.

Return – The side or part which falls away, usually at right angles, from the front or direct line of a structure. Two particular uses of the term are: (a) that part of a dripstone or hood-mould which, after running downwards, turns of horizontally; (b) the western row of choir stalls which runs north-south, set against the screen at the west end of the coir.

Reveal – The part of a jamb which lies between the glass or door and the outer wall surface. If cut diagonally, it is called a splay.

Revetment – The facing (e.g. of marble) applied to a wall built of some other material. See, also, retaining wall.

Rib vault – A projecting band on a ceiling or vault, usually structural but sometimes purely decorative, separating the cells of a groined vault.

Santa Maria delle Grazie

Rinceau – An ornamental motif of scrolls of foliage, usually vine.

Rinceau - Martin Schongauer - 1480

Rise – Of an arch or vault, the vertical distance between the soffit at the crown and the level of the springing line.

Rood – Originally the Saxon word for a cross or crucifix. In churches this was set at the east end of the nave, flanked by figures of the Virgin and St John. It was usually wooden, and fixed to a special beam stretching from respond to respond of the chancel arch, above the rood loft. Sometimes the rood is painted on the wall above the chancel arch.

Rood loft – A gallery built above the rood screen, often to carry the rood or other images and candles; approached by stairs either of wood or built in the wall. Rood loft were introduced in the 15th Century, and many were destroyed in the Reformation.

Rood screen – A screen below the rood, set across the east end of the nave and shutting off the chancel.

Rood screen - St. Etienne Toussaint - Charles Henri

Architecture Glossary

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