Glossary of Architectural and Building Terminology - B

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Back filling - Back filling refers to the mass of materials used in filling up the space between two walls, or between the inner and outer faces of a wall, or upon the haunches of an arch or vault.
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Back Priming - In building, the term back priming refers to coating up, for protective purposes, those parts of a structure and those materials which will be out of sight when the building is completed. Wooden door and window frames, for example, are back primed prior to being fitted as their back edges are in contact with brickwork after being fitted, and liable to come into contact with moisture.
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Back Putty - Back putty (bedding putty) is the putty which is run into a window frame and into which the pane of glass is bedded.
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Backjoint - A backjoint is a rebate or chase in masonry left to receive a permanent slab or other filling.
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Backstein Gothic - Backstein Gothic describes a distinctive style of Gothic architecture that developed in northern Germany during the 14th century. The Backstein Gothic is a simplified form of Gothic architecture employing brick due to an absence of natural building stone. Because of the nature of the building materials available, the Backstein Gothic lacks decoration and instead uses large expanses of simple unbroken surfaces and enormous vertical windows
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Bague - A bague is the annular moulding or group of mouldings dividing a long shaft or clustered column into two or more parts.
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Balcony - A balcony is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, usually resting on brackets or consoles, and enclosed by a parapet; for example as a balcony in front of a window. The term is also applied to a projecting gallery in places of amusement; for example the balcony in a theatre.
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Baldachin - A baldachin or baldacchino, is a structure in form of a canopy, sometimes supported by columns, and sometimes suspended from the roof or projecting from the wall; generally placed over an altar; as in the baldachin over the High Altar in St. Peter's. Baldachins are common in Baroque churches
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Ball-Flower - A ball-flower is an ornament resembling a ball placed in a circular flower, the petals of which form a cup round it. They are usually inserted in a hollow moulding. Ball-flower ornaments occur chiefly in 14th century Gothic architecture.
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Balloon - The term balloon describes a ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc., as at St Paul' s Cathedral in London.
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Baluster - A baluster (now banister) is a small column or pilaster, used as a support to the rail of an open parapet, to guard the side of a staircase, or the front of a gallery.
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Balustrade - A balustrade is a row of balusters topped by a rail, serving as an open parapet, as along the edge of a balcony, terrace, bridge, staircase, or the eaves of a building.
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Band - The term band describes a continuous tablet, stripe, or series of ornaments, such as carved foliage, of colour, or of brickwork, etc. In Gothic architecture, band describes the moulding, or suite of mouldings, which encircles the pillars and small shafts.
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Bandelet - The term bandelet describes a small band or fillet; any little band or flat moulding, compassing a column, like a ring.
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Banker - A banker is the name given to the stone bench on which masons cut and square their work.
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Banquette - A banquette is a narrow window seat or a raised shelf at the back or the top of a buffet or dresser.
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Bar Tracery - Bar tracery is an ornamental stonework resembling bars of iron twisted into the forms required.
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Bargeboard - Bargeboard or vergeboard is the ornament of woodwork upon the gable of a house, used extensively in the 15th century. It was generally suspended from the edge of the projecting roof and in a position parallel to the gable wall.
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Bargecourse - A bargecourse is the part of the tiling which projects beyond the principal rafters, in buildings where there is a gable.
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Baroque - Baroque is a term first applied to ill-shaped pearls, but now denoting fantastic, bizarre, and decadent forms in art and even in nature. It is especially used in connection with an architectural style. Baroque is a European style of architecture confined to churches and palaces.
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Barrel Drain - A barrel drain is a drain in the form of a cylindrical tube.
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Barrel Vault - A barrel vault (Cradle vault, cylindrical vault or wagon vault) is a kind of vault having two parallel abutments, and the same section or profile at all points. It may be rampant, as over a staircase or curved in plan, as around the apse of a church.
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Bartizan - A bartizan is a small, overhanging structure for lookout or defence, usually projecting at an angle of a building or near an entrance gateway.
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Basement - A basement is the outer wall of the ground story of a building, or of a part of that story, when treated as a distinct substructure and also describes the rooms of a ground floor, collectively.
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Basilica - Originally a basilica was the palace of a king; but afterwards, the term applied to an apartment provided in the houses of persons of importance, where assemblies were held for dispensing justice; and hence, the term is applied to any large hall used for this purpose. The Roman basilica was used by the Romans as a place of public meeting, with court rooms, etc., attached. The term basilica also describes a church building of the earlier centuries of Christianity, the plan of which was taken from the basilica of the Romans. The name is still applied to some churches by way of honorary distinction.
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Basso-Rilievo - Basso-rilievo is an architectural term for a sculptured work in which the figures project less than half their true proportions.
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Bastard Ashlar - Bastard ashlar is the name given to the stones used for ashlar work, roughly squared at the quarry.
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Bastel House - A bastel house is a home in which the residential quarters are above a livestock shelter and storage space.
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Batement Light - A batement light is a window or one division of a window having vertical sides, but with the sill not horizontal, as where it follows the rake of a staircase.
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Batten Door - A batten door is a door made of boards of the whole length of the door, secured by battens nailed crosswise.
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Battening - Battening describes furring done with small pieces nailed directly upon the wall.
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Batter - The term batter describes something, usually a wall, which slopes.
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Battlement - A battlement is a solid upright part of a parapet in ancient fortifications. The term is also applied to the whole parapet, consisting of alternate solids and open spaces. At first they were purely a military feature, but were afterwards copied on a smaller scale with decorative features and used for churches and other buildings.
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Bay Window - A bay window is a window rising from the ground and forming a bay or recess in a room, and projecting outward from the wall, either in a rectangular, polygonal, or semicircular form.
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Bays - Bays are the compartments into which the roof of a building is divided. The term is also applied to the spaces between columns.
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Bead - A bead is a small moulding of rounded surface, the section being usually an arc of a circle. It may be continuous, or broken into short embossments.
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Beak - A beak is a continuous slight projection ending in an arris or narrow fillet forming that part of a drip from which the water is thrown off.
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Beakhead - A beakhead is an ornament that was used in rich Norman doorways, resembling a head with a beak.
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Bed-moulding - Bed-moulding describes the moulding of a cornice immediately below the corona.
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Bell - Bell describes that part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck moulding; the term is also used for the naked core of a nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
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Bell Arch - A bell arch is an unusual form of arch, following the curve of an ogee.
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Bell Roof - A bell roof is a roof shaped according to the general lines of a bell.
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Bell-Gable - A bell-gable or bell-turret is a gable in which a bell or bells are suspended so that they may be rung.
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Belly - Belly refers to the hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.
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Belvedere - A belvedere is a small building, or a part of a building, more or less open, constructed in a place commanding a fine prospect.
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Bench Table - A bench table is a projecting course at the base of a building, or round a pillar, sufficient to form a seat.
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Bilection - A bilection is that portion of a group of mouldings which projects beyond the general surface of a panel.
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Billet-Moulding - A billet-moulding is an ornament used in string courses and the archivolts of windows and doors. It consists of cylindrical blocks with intervals, the blocks lying lengthwise of the cornice, sometimes in two rows, breaking joint.
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Binding Beam - A binding beam is the main timber in double flooring.
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Binding Joist - A binding joist is the secondary timber in double-framed flooring.
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Bird's-Beak - A bird's-beak is a moulding whose section is thought to resemble a beak.
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Bird's-Mouth - A bird's-mouth (or crow's foot) is an interior angle or notch cut across a piece of timber, for the reception of the edge of another, as that in a rafter to be laid on a plate.
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Blade - The principal rafters of a roof are known as the blade.
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Blank Door - A blank door or blank window is a depression in a wall of the size of a door or window, either for symmetrical effect, or for the more convenient insertion of a door or window at a future time, should it be needed.
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Blender - In sign writing, a blender is a short, square-ended brush, generally made of sable or ox hair, and used for blending light and dark colours in shaded effects.
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Blocage - Blocage is the roughest and cheapest sort of rubblework, used in masonry.
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Blocking Course - The blocking course is the finishing course of a wall showing above a cornice.
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Blueing - In decorating, the term blueing applies to the adding of a small amount of blue to certain white pigments or paints in order to neutralise their yellowish tint and make them appear whiter.
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Boaster - A boaster is a stone mason's broad-faced chisel. Preparing stone with a boaster is known as boasting.
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Bolection - Bolection is another name for a bilection.
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Bolster - A bolster is the rolls forming the ends or sides of the Ionic capital.
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Bolster Work - Bolster work refers to members which are bellied or curved outward like cushions, as in the friezes of certain classical styles.
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Bond - A bond is the union or tie of the several stones or bricks forming a wall. The bricks may be arranged for this purpose in several different ways, as in English or block bond, where one course consists of bricks with their ends toward the face of the wall, called headers, and the next course of bricks with their lengths parallel to the face of the wall, called stretchers; Flemish bond, where each course consists of headers and stretchers alternately, so laid as always to break joints; Cross bond, which differs from the English by the change of the second stretcher line so that its joints come in the middle of the first, and the same position of stretchers comes back every fifth line; Combined cross and English bond, where the inner part of the wall is laid in the one method, the outer in the other.
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Bonderising - In building, bonderising refers to the chemical treatment of small metal units rendered rust inhibitive and suitable for painting.
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Bondstone - In masonry, a bondstone is a stone running through a wall from one face to another, to bind it together.
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Boss - A boss is a projecting ornament placed at the intersection of the ribs of ceilings, whether vaulted or flat, and in other situations. The name boss is also given to a wooden vessel used for the mortar used in tiling or masonry, which is hung by a hook from the laths, or from the rounds of a ladder.
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Bossage - Bossage describes a stone in a building, left rough and projecting, to be afterward carved into shape. The term is also applied to Rustic work, consisting of stones which seem to advance beyond the level of the building, by reason of indentures or channels left in the joinings.
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Boultel - A boultel is a moulding, the convexity of which is one fourth of a circle, being a member just below the abacus in the Tuscan and Roman Doric capital. the term is also applied to one of the shafts of a clustered column.
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Bow Window - A bow window is a elliptically curved window projecting from the face of a wall. Bow windows originated with the late Gothic style. While a bay window reaches to the ground, a bow window differs in not reaching the ground.
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Box Beam - A box beam is a beam made of metal plates so as to have the form of a long box.
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Box Drain - A box drain is a drain constructed with upright sides, and with a flat top and bottom.
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Boxing - Boxing is the external case of thin material used to bring any member to a required form.
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Brace - A brace is a piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts. It may act as a tie, or as a strut, and serves to prevent distortion of the structure, and transverse strains in its members. A boiler brace is a diagonal stay, connecting the head with the shell. §In scaffolding, a brace is a tube inserted diagonally in a scaffold to give stability and to prevent the tendency for the framework to fold.

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Brattishing - Brattishing is carved openwork, as of a shrine, battlement, or parapet.
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Breastsummer - A breastsummer (brestsummer or bressummer) is a summer or girder extending across a building flush with, and supporting, the upper part of a front or external wall. They are used principally above shop windows.
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Breche Violet - Breche violet is a very decorative type of marble quarried in the Carrara Mountains. Breche violet is of a basic creamy white, clouded colour with delicate tones of blue-grey, broken into irregular angular shapes by veins. The primary veins are blue-violet in colour, the secondary veins a variety of colours. The quarries were exhausted prior to 1960, and breche violet is no longer produced, but can still be found in older buildings.
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Brick - Bricks are blocks of clay or other ceramic material used for the construction and decorative facing of buildings. Bricks may be dried in the sun but are more usually baked in a kiln. They cost relatively little, resist dampness and heat, and can supposedly last longer than stone - in tests however, modern bricks have a life span of only about forty years after which they start to decay. The colour varies according to the clay used and in proportions according to architectural tradition. Brick was the chief building material of ancient Mesopotamia and Palestine, which had little wood or stone. The inhabitants of Jericho in Palestine were building with brick about 7000 BC. Sumerian and Babylonian builders constructed ziggurats, palaces, and city walls of sun-dried brick and covered them with more durable kiln-baked, often brilliantly glazed brick, arranged in decorative pictorial friezes. Later the Persians and the Chinese built in brick (the Great Wall of China is built of brick). The Romans built such large structures as baths, amphitheatres, and aqueducts in brick, which they often covered with marble facing - ironically they built their houses from the far more resilient flint. During the Middle Ages, in the Byzantine Empire, in northern Italy, in the Low Countries, and in Germany, indeed wherever stone was scarce, builders valued brick for its decorative and structural qualities. They made handsome use of warm, red, unglazed brick laid in a variety of intricate patterns, such as checker, herringbone, basket weave, or Flemish bond. Such traditions continued during the Renaissance and in English Georgian architecture, and were taken to North America by the colonists although brick was already known to the American Indians of pre-Columbian civilizations. In dry regions they made houses of sun-dried adobe brick. The great pyramids of the Olmec, Maya, and other groups were made of brick faced with stone.

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Brick Trimmer - A brick trimmer is a brick arch under a hearth, usually within the thickness of a wooden floor, used to guard against accidents by fire.
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Bridgeboard - A bridgeboard is a notched board to which the treads and risers of the steps of wooden stairs are fastened.
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Bridging - Bridging is the system of bracing used between floor or other timbers to distribute the weight. In decorating, bridging refers to a continuous film of paint that is not in complete contact with the surface to which it is applied, soon leading to a lifting and cracking of the dried film
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Bridle - In scaffolding, a bridle is a horizontal scaffold tube secured between two putlogs to give support to intermediate transoms across window openings
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Bridle Iron - A bridle iron is a strong flat bar of iron, so bent as to provide support, as in a stirrup, one end of a floor timber, etc., where no sufficient bearing can be had.
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Brise-Soleil - Brise-soleil refers to a slattered or louvered sun-screen comprised of horizontal and vertical compartmental screens often found incorporated into the facades of buildings in sunny countries notably Brazil and Egypt, so as to keep the glare of the sun out, while still admitting light and air and allowing a view from the window. The brise-soleil was first used in a design for a block of offices to be built in Algiers in 1933 by le Corbusier. In 1937 Le Corbusier was consultant to the Brazilian architects who incorporated the brise-soleil device into the offices of the Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro.
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Browning - Browning is a smooth coat of brown mortar, usually the second coat, used as the preparation for the finishing coat of plaster.
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Bull's-Nose - A bull's-nose is the name given to an external angle when obtuse or rounded.
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Bundle Pillar - A bundle pillar is a column or pier, with others of small dimensions attached to it.
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Butment - A butment is a buttress of an arch; the supporter, or that part which joins it to the upright pier. The term is also applied to the mass of stone or solid work at the end of a bridge, by which the extreme arches are sustained, or by which the end of a bridge without arches is supported.
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Butt Joint - In paperhanging, the term butt joint refers to paper hung with the edges lying side-by-side, rather than overlapping
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Butting Tube - In scaffolding, a butting tube is a very short piece of tube used in tubular scaffolding to make it possible for a diagonal brace to be fastened to a standard with right-angled couplers instead of with swivel couplers, thereby giving extra strength to the structure.
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Buttress - A buttress is a projecting mass of masonry, used for resisting the outward thrust of an arch, or for ornament and symmetry. When an external projection is used merely to stiffen a wall, it is called a pier, rather than a buttress.
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