Glossary of Architectural and Building Terminology - S

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Saddle - A saddle is the threshold of a door, when a separate piece from the floor or landing. It is so called because it spans and covers the joint between two floors.
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Saddle Bar - A saddle bar is one the small iron bars to which the lead panels of a glazed window are secured.
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Saddle Roof - A saddle roof (or saddleback roof) is a roof having two gables and one ridge. The term is generally said of such a roof when it is used in places where a different form is more common, for example in the case of a tower surmounted by a saddle roof.
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Sagitta - A sagitta is the keystone of an arch.
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Sanctuary - A sanctuary is the most sacred part of any religious building. The term is especially applied to that part of a Christian church in which the altar is placed.
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Scaffolding - Scaffolding is a temporary framework consisting of poles or metal tubes and planks &c. on, or from which, work may be performed during the construction or maintenance of a building. In Britain scaffolding tends to be comrpsied of metal tubes. In the Third World wooden poles and in the Far East bamboo poles are commonly used.
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Scagiola - Scagiola is an imitation stonework effect. Scagiola itself is generally confined to interior work and consists of fine plaster of Paris mixed with glue, which after application is polished, and into which pieces of gypsum and marble may be embedded. The term is also sometimes given to plastic paint treatments which also imitate stonework.
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Scamillus - A scamillus is a sort of second plinth or block, below the bases of Ionic and Corinthian columns, generally without mouldings, and of smaller size horizontally than the pedestal.
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Scape - The shaft of a column or the apophyge of a shaft are known as the 'scape'.
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Scarcement - A scarcement is an offset where a wall or bank of earth, etc., retreats, leaving a shelf or footing.
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Sconcheon - A sconcheon (squinch or sconce) is a small arch thrown across the corner of a square room to support a superimposed mass, as where an octagonal spire or drum rests upon a square tower, for example.
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Scotia - A scotia was originally a sunken moulding in the base of a pillar, so called from the dark shadow it casts. The term has become applied to any concave moulding used especially in classical architecture.
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Screed - A screed is a strip of plaster of the thickness proposed for the coat, applied to the wall at intervals of about one meter, as a guide. The term is also used to describe a wooden straightedge used to lay across the plaster screed, as a limit for the thickness of the coat.
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Screen - A screen is a dwarf wall or partition carried up to a certain height for separation and protection, as in a church, to separate the aisle from the choir, or the like.
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Scroll - A scroll is an ornament formed of undulations giving off spirals or sprays, usually suggestive of a plant form. Roman architectural ornamentation is largely of some scroll pattern.
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Semidome - A semidome is a roof or ceiling covering a semi-circular room or recess, or one of nearly that shape, like the apse of a church, a niche, or the like. It is approximately the quarter of a hollow sphere.
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Septfoil - A septfoil is an ornamental foliation having seven lobes.
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Setting Coat - A setting coat is the finishing or last coat of plastering applied to walls and ceilings.
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Settlement - The term settlement refers to the gradual sinking of a building, whether by the yielding of the ground under the foundation, or by the compression of the joints or the material. The term is also applied to the fractures or dislocations caused by settlement.
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Severy - A severy (or civery) is a bay or compartment of a vaulted ceiling.
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Sgraffito - Sgraffito or graffito is a method of decorating involving scratching through a layer of plaster to reveal a different coloured ground. Sgraffito is an ancient form of decorating, with examples being evident in the ruins of Pompeii
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Shaft - The shaft refers to the body of a column, that is the cylindrical pillar between the capital and base.
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Shank - The space between two channels of the Doric triglyph are known as the shank.
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Sheen - In decorating, sheen refers to a slight degree of gloss or lustre evident on an eggshell finish or semi-gloss finish
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Shoe - A shoe is a trough-shaped or spout-shaped member, put at the bottom of the water leader coming from the eaves gutter, so as to throw the water off from the building.
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Sill Course - A sill course is a horizontal course of stone, terra cotta, or the like, built into a wall at the level of one or more window sills, these sills often forming part of it.
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Skew - A skew is a stone at the foot of the slope of a gable, the offset of a buttress, or the like, cut with a sloping surface and with a check to receive the coping stones and retain them in place.
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Skew-bridge - A skew-bridge is a type of bridge which, instead of crossing a road or river at right angles to its course, makes an oblique angle with it, in order that the continuity of the road may be preserved.
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Skirting Board - Skirting board is the board running around the base of the wall of a room.
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Sleeve Coupler - In scaffolding a sleeve coupler is a coupler used to join two tubes end to end, and which grips the outside of the tubes as opposed to a joint pin which grips the internal surfaces of the tubes to be joined.
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Slype - A slype is a narrow passage between two buildings, as between the transept and chapter house of a monastery, for example.
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Snap Line - A snap line is a mark made by a length of string or twine which has been rubbed with chalk and which is held firmly at each end and then plucked. Snap lines are used to provide clean straight vertical lines during decorating
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Socle - A socle is a plain block or plinth forming a low pedestal. The term is especially used for the base of a statue, column, or the like.
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Soffit - A soffit is the underside of any architectural structure. For example an arch, balcony, cornice, vault, etc. The term is especially applied to the under-surface of a board nailed to the underside of rafters under overhanging eaves. Recently the term has been extended to describe the uppermost part of the inside of a drainpipe, sewer-pipe, etc.
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Soirette Paper - A soirette paper is a self-coloured satinette wallpaper with a low-relief pattern.
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Solid Newel - A solid newel is a newel into which the ends of winding stairs are built, in distinction from a hollow newel.
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Spalling - In masonry, spalling is the rough shaping of irregular stone blocks by chipping with a spalling hammer
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Spandrel - A spandrel is the irregular triangular space between the curve of an arch and the enclosing right angle; or the space between the outer mouldings of two contiguous arches and a horizontal line above them, or another arch above and enclosing them.
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Spar - A spar was formerly, a piece of timber, in a general sense, now the term is more applied to rafters.
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Sparpiece - A sparpiece is the collar beam of a roof.
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Spiral Axis - The spiral axis is the axis of a twisted column drawn spirally in order to trace the circumvolutions without.
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Spire - A spire is the name given to the roof of a tower when of a pyramidal form and high in proportion to its width. The name is also given to the pyramidal or aspiring termination of a tower which can not be said to have a roof, such as that of Strasburg cathedral; and to the tapering part of a steeple, or the steeple itself.
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Splay - And joinery a splay (abbreviated from display) is a slope or bevel, especially of the sides of a door or window, by which the opening is made large at one face of the wall than at the other, or larger at each of the faces than it is between them.
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Splitheads - Splitheads are decorators' adjustable supports, generally extending to a height of about 2.5 meters, with which a working platform can be quickly and easily erected. Splitheads consist of a tripod base and a centre prop surmounted by a swivelling fork head into which one or two planks can be fitted on edge, these planks acting as ledgers to support the platform.
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Springer - A springer is the impost, or point at which an arch rests upon its support, and from which it seems to spring. Hence the term describes the bottom stone of an arch, which lies on the impost. The skew back is one form of springer. The term is also used to describe the rib of a groined vault, as being the solid abutment for each section of vaulting.
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Springing line of an Arch - The springing line of an arch (spring of an arch) is the horizontal line drawn through the junction of the vertical face of the impost with the curve of the intrados.
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Spur - A spur is a short wooden buttress of a post. The term also describes a projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
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Squinch - A squinch is a small arch, corbelling, or similar, built across an internal corner of a tower and used to support a superstructure such as a spire for example.
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Squint - A squint or hagioscope is a narrow opening or slit, in a wall of a church, enabling persons in the transept or elsewhere to see the elevation of the Host.
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Stack - The term stack describes a number of flues embodied in one structure, rising above the roof. Hence the term also describes any single insulated and prominent structure, or upright pipe, which affords a conduit for smoke; such as the brick smokestack of a factory.
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Staff - Staff is a plaster combined with fibrous and other materials so as to be suitable for sculpture in relief or in the round, or for forming flat plates or boards of considerable size which can be nailed to framework to make the exterior of a larger structure, forming joints which may afterward be repaired and concealed with fresh plaster.
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Staff Angle - A staff angle is a square rod of wood standing flush with the wall on each of its sides, at the external angles of plastering, to prevent their being damaged.
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Stalk - A stalk is an ornament in the Corinthian capital resembling the stalk of a plant, from which the volutes and helices spring.
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Stanchion - A stanchion is a prop or support, usually a piece of timber in the form of a stake or post, used for a support or stay.
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Standard - In scaffolding, a standard is a vertical tube or column which transmits load to the ground or a base plate
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Standing Finish - The tern standing finish describes that part of the interior fittings, especially of a house, which is permanent and fixed in its place, as distinguished from doors, sashes, etc.
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Stanza - A stanza is an apartment or division in a building; a room or chamber.
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Stereobate - A stereobate is the lower part or basement of a building or pedestal. The term is used loosely for several different forms of basement.
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Stile - A stile is one of the upright pieces in a frame; one of the primary members of a frame, into which the secondary members are mortised. In an ordinary door the principal upright pieces are called stiles, the subordinate upright pieces mullions, and the crosspieces rails. In wainscoting the principal pieces are sometimes called stiles, even when horizontal.
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Stilted Arch - A stilted arch is an arch in which the springing line is some distance above the impost, the space between being occupied by a vertical member, moulded or ornamented, as a continuation of the archivolt, intrados, etc.
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Stoop - Originally, a stoop was a covered porch with seats, at a house door based on the Dutch stoep as introduced by the Dutch into New York. Afterwards the term became applied to an out-of-door flight of stairs of from seven to fourteen steps, with platform and parapets, leading to an entrance door some distance above the street like the French perron. Hence, the term applies to any porch, platform, entrance stairway, or small veranda, at a house door.
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Stop - A stop is a member, plain or moulded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts. This takes the place, or answers the purpose, of a rebate.
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Stop Bead - A stop bead is a moulding screwed to the inner side of a window frame, on the face of the pulley stile, completing the groove in which the inner sash is to slide.
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Storm Door - A storm door is an extra outside door designed to prevent the entrance of wind, cold, rain, etc. usually removed in the summer.
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Story Post - A story post is a vertical post used to support a floor or superincumbent wall.
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Stoup - A stoup is a basin for holy water. They are often found built into the wall at the entrance to churches.
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Straight Arch - A straight arch is a form of arch in which the intrados is straight, but with its joints drawn radially, as in a common arch.
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Straining Piece - A straining piece is a short piece of timber in a truss, used to maintain the ends of struts or rafters, and keep them from slipping.
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Strapwork - Strapwork is a kind of ornament consisting of a narrow fillet or band folded, crossed, and interlaced.
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Stretcher - In masonry a stretcher is a brick or stone laid with its longer dimension in the line of direction of the wall.
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Stria - A stria is a fillet between the flutes of columns, pilasters, or the like.
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String Course - A string course is a horizontal band in a building, forming a part of the design, whether moulded, projecting, or carved, or in any way distinguished from the rest of the work.
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Stringpiece - A stringpiece is a long piece of timber, forming a margin or edge of any piece of construction but especially applied to one of the longitudinal pieces, supporting the treads and rises of a flight or run of stairs.
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Strut - A strut is in general, any piece of a frame which resists thrust or pressure in the direction of its own length.
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Stucco - Stucco or Roman cement is a hydraulic cement obtained by burning a naturally occurring cement rock consisting of clay and limestone. Stucco was widely used during the 18th and 19th centuries as an external rendering for buildings.
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Stud - A stud is an upright scanting, especially one of the small uprights in the framing for lath and plaster partitions, and furring, and upon which the laths are nailed.
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Stump Tracery - Stump tracery is a term used to describe late German Gothic tracery, in which the moulded bar seems to pass through itself in its convolutions, and is then cut off short, so that a section of the moulding is seen at the end of each similar stump.
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Stylobate - A stylobate is the uninterrupted and continuous flat band, coping, or pavement upon which the bases of a row of columns are supported.
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Substruction - A substruction is the under building, foundation, or any preliminary structure intended to raise the lower floor or basement of a building above the natural level of the ground.
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Summer - A summer is a large stone or beam placed horizontally on columns, piers, posts, or the like, serving for various uses. Specifically the lintel of a door or window, the commencement of a cross vault, or a central floor timber, as a girder, or a piece reaching from a wall to a girder.
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Supercolumniation - Supercolumniation is the putting of one order above another. The term is also applied to an architectural work produced by this method; as, the putting of the Doric order in the ground story, Ionic above it, and Corinthian or Composite above this.
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Superstructure - The term superstructure refers to all that part of a building above the basement.
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Surbase - A surbase is a cornice, or series of mouldings, on the top of the base of a pedestal, podium, etc.
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Suspension Bridge - A suspension bridge is a form of bridge in which the roadway or railway is suspended from cables attached to and extending between supports.
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Swash - A swash is an oval figure, whose mouldings are oblique to the axis of the work.
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Sweat Out - Sweat out is a defect in plaster work whereby the plaster fails to achieve its proper strength and hardness due to the fact that the surface was sealed too early and while still containing moisture by an impervious paint system.
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Sweating - Sweating is a defect in paint or varnish film whereby the oily matter from the undercoats exudes through the surface causing it to become permanently tacky. The defect is often caused by the application of a quick-drying coating over an insufficiently hard undercoat
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Swivel Coupler - A swivel cupler is a coupler used in tubular scaffolding for joining tubes at any angle other than a right angle, and intended for use in forming diagonal bracings.
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Systyle - A structure is described as systyle if it has a space equal to two diameters or four modules between two columns.
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