Architecture Glossary

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

S

Sacristy - A room in a church for sacred vessels and vestments.

San Lorenzo Old Sacristy

Saddle bars - In casement glazing, the small iron bars to which the leaded panels are tied.

Saddle stone - See apex stone.

Sail vault - See dome.

Sala terrena - A round-floor room opening directly onto the garden, a feature especially of c17-c18 palaces. They were often decorated with trompe d’œil painted vegetation or like a grotto to suggest their intermediary function between the built and the natural world.

Sala Terrena Schloss Favourite

Sally-port - A postern gate or passage underground from the inner to the outer works of a fortification.

Sally-port mycenae

Salòmonica - Spanish term for solomonic column, much used in Spanish Baroque architecture.

Sanctuary - Area around the main altar of a church. See presbytery.

Sash window - A window formed with sashes, i.e. sliding glazed frames running in vertical grooves; imported from Holland into England in the late c17.

Saucer dome - See dome.

Scagliola - A material used since ancient Roman times to imitate marble, and especially popular in the c17 and c18 for columns, pilaster and other interior architectural features. It is composed of pulverized selenite, applied to e wet gesso ground, fixed under heat and highly polished, hence sometimes called stucco lustro.

Scallop - An ornamental carved or moulded in the form of a shell.

Sconce - In military architecture, a small fort or earthwork, usually built as a counter-fort or to defend a pass. Castle gate, etc.

Scotia - A concave moulding which casts a strong shadow, as on the base of a column between the two torus mouldings.

Screen - A partition wall of wood or stone, with one or more doors, as at the kitchen end of a medieval hall where it usually supports a gallery.

Screen passage - The space at the service end of a medieval hall between the screen and the buttery, kitchen and pantry entrance.

Scroll - An ornamental in the form of a scroll of paper partly rolled. In classical architecture, the volute of an Ionic or Corinthian capital. In Early English and Decorated Gothic architecture, a moulding in such a form.

Section - A diagrammatic drawing of a vertical plane cut through a building.

Sedilia - Seats for the clergy, generally three (for priest, deacon and sub-deacon) and of masonry, in the wall on the south side of the chancel.

Segment - Part of a circle smaller than a semicircle.

Segmental - Of an arch or other curved member, having the profile of a circular arc substantially less than a full circle.

Semidome - Hermitage

Semidome - A roof covering a semicircular space; half a dome.

Serliana - An archway or window with three openings, the central one arched and wider than the others; so called because it was first illustrated in Serlio’s Architettura. It was much used by Palladio, and became one of the hallmarks of palladism.

Villa Valmarana

Severy - A bay or compartment of a vaulted ceiling.

Sexpartite vault - in architecture, is a name given to the single bay of a vault, which, in addition to the transverse and diagonal ribs, has been divided by a second transverse rib, forming six compartments.

Sgraffito - Decoration on plaster of incised patterns, the top coat being cut through to show a differently coloured coat beneath.

Shaft - The trunk of a column between the base and capital. Also, in medieval architecture, one of several slender columns attached (in a cluster) to a pillar or pier, door jamb or window surround.

Shaft-ring or annulet or corbel-ring - A motif of the 12th and 13th Century consisting of a ring round a shaft

Shingles - Wooden tiles for covering roofs, walls and spires, They were sometimes of other materials (e.g. asbestos, cement) but were always cut to standard shapes and sizes.

Roof shingles

Shuttering - is the term given to either temporary or permanent moulds into which concrete or similar materials are poured. In the context of concrete construction, the falsework supports the shuttering moulds. See formwork.

Basement shuttering

Sill - Paris

Sill or cill - The horizontal member at the base of a timber-framed wall into which the posts and studs are normally tenoned. Also the horizontal member at the bottom of a window-opening or door-frame. Windows and doors rest on sills. Sills can be of wood, stone, concrete, or metal, and can be plain or ornate. The sill is generally intended to direct water away from the door or window in addition to being a support and a decorative element.

Sill - Pisa

Sima recta - See Cyma recta.

Sima riversa - See Cyma riversa.

Skeleton construction - A method of construction consisting of a framework (see framed building) and an outer covering which takes no load (see cladding). The skeleton may be visible from the outside.

Skewback - That portion of the abutment which supports an arch.

Skirting - The edging, usually of wood, fixed to the base of an internal wall.

Architecture Glossary

Home