Glossary of Architectural and Building Terminology - D

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Dado - A dado is that part of a pedestal included between the base and the cornice (or surbase), and in a wall, that part of the basement included between the base and the base course. In interior decoration, the dado is the lower part of the wall of an apartment when adorned with mouldings, or otherwise specially decorated.
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Dead Wall - The term dead wall refers to a blank wall unbroken by windows or other openings.
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Decastyle - Decastyle refers to a building (a temple etc) having ten columns in front of it.
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Deck Floor - A deck floor is a floor which also serves as a roof, as of a belfry or balcony for example.
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Deck Roof - A deck roof is a nearly flat roof which is not surmounted by parapet walls.
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Decorated Style - The decorated style is a name given by some writers to the perfected English Gothic architecture which flourished from about 1300 to 1375. Rickman used the term to describe the period between Early English and Perpendicular, occupying most of the 14th century, and based his definition mainly upon window designs, many of which made use of the then new art of bar tracery
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Dentil - A dentil is one of a series of small square projecting blocks in the moulding of a cornice. They were originally employed as a decorative representation of the beam-ends of a wooden roof, the term has been extended to apply to objects made of wood.
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Diamond - A diamond is a pointed projection, like a four-sided pyramid, used for ornament in lines or groups.
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Diaper - A diaper is a device employed in Gothic architecture for decorating the plain surface of a wall. It is a pattern of leaves and flowers, and sometimes it is worked into squares or lozenges. Diapers are sometimes carved in stone and sometimes painted and are generally used only in interior work.
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Diglyph - A diglyph is a projecting face like the triglyph, but having only two channels or grooves sunk in it.
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Diminishing Rule - A diminishing rule is a board cut with a concave edge, for fixing the entasis and curvature of a shaft.
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Diminishing Stile - A diminishing stile is a stile which is narrower in one part than in another, as in many glazed doors.
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Discharging Arch - A discharging arch is an arch over a door, window, or other opening, designed to distribute the pressure of the wall above.
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Distemper - In painting and decorating, distemper is properly a composition of common white bound with either glue size or casein. The term is loosely, and inaccurately, frequently applied to any form of water paint or water thinned material.
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Distyle - The term distyle refers to a structure having two columns in front. It is used to describe a temple, portico, or the like.
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Ditriglyph - A ditriglyph is an interval between two columns admitting two triglyphs in the entablature. This arrangement of the intercolumniations was peculiar to the Doric order.
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Dodecastyle - The term dodecastyle refers to a structure having twelve columns in front. It is used to describe a temple, portico, or the like.
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Dog-Legged - The term dog-legged describes a flight of stairs, consisting of two or more straight portions connected by a platform (landing) or platforms, and running in opposite directions without an intervening well hole.
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Dogtooth - A dogtooth is an ornament common in Gothic architecture, consisting of pointed projections resembling teeth.
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Doric Order - The Doric Order was the oldest and simplest of the three orders of architecture used by the Greeks, but ranked as second of the five orders adopted by the Romans. This order is distinguished, according to the treatment of details, as Grecian Doric, or Roman Doric.
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Dormant - A dormant is a large beam in the roof of a house upon which portions of the other timbers rest or sleep.
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Dormer - A dormer is a window pierced in a roof, and so set as to be vertical while the roof slopes away from it. The term also applies to the gablet, or house like structure, in which it is contained.
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Double Floor - A double floor is a floor in which binding joists support flooring joists above and ceiling joists below.
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Double-framed Floor - A double-framed floor is a double floor having girders into which the binding joists are framed.
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Dovetail Moulding - A dovetail moulding is a moulding of any convex section arranged in a sort of zigzag, like a series of dovetails.
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Draft - In masonry, the term draft describes a narrow border left on a finished stone, worked differently from the rest of its face, and also a narrow border worked to a plane surface along the edge of a stone, or across its face, as a guide to the stone-cutter.
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Drag - A drag is a steel instrument used by stone masons for completing the dressing of soft stone.
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Drip - The drip is that part of a cornice, sill course, or other horizontal member, which projects beyond the rest, and is of such section as to throw off the rain water.
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Dripstone - A dripstone or hood moulding is a corona or projecting tablet or moulding over the head of a doorway, window, archway, niche &c. and designed to throw off rain
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Drove Chisel - A drove chisel is a broad chisel used by stone masons to bring stone to a nearly smooth surface.
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Drove Work - Drove work is the grooved surface of stone finished by a drove chisel.
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Drum - A drum is one of the cylindrical, or nearly cylindrical, blocks, of which the shaft of a column is composed. The term is also applied to a vertical wall, whether circular or polygonal in plan, carrying a cupola or dome.
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Dry Area - The dry area is a small open space reserved outside the foundation of a building to guard it from damp.
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Dry-Out - Dry-out is a plastering term for when plaster which has had accelerators added dries before it is set. Subsequent decoration can result in water present in the decorating substance being absorbed by the plaster and the setting process restarted resulting in the skimming coat to buckle and flake off.
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Duplex Paper - Duplex paper is quality embossed wallpaper, reinforced with an additional backing paper that takes most of the strain when the paper is hung and reduces the tendency for the embossing to be misshapen or flattened during hanging.
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Duster Brush - A duster brush (jamb duster) is a painter's large brush, about ten centimetres wide and three centimetres thick with long bristles, about eight centimetres long. A duster brush is used for removing dry grit, dirt and dust prior to painting.
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Dutch Door - A Dutch door is a door divided horizontally into two halves each of which can be opened or closed independently of the other.
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Dwarf Wall - A dwarf wall is a low wall, not as high as the story of a building, often used as a garden wall or fence.
©2007 The Probert Encyclopaedia. Data used under license.