A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a doorway or portal. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security by controlling access to the doorway (portal). Conventionally, it is a panel that fits into the doorway of a building, room, or vehicle. Doors are generally made of a material suited to the door's task. They are commonly attached by hinges, but can move by other means, such as slides or counterbalancing.
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is control. The garden can incorporate both natural and artificial materials.
A surfboard is a narrow plank used in surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding an ocean wave. They were invented in ancient Hawaii, where they were known as papa he'e nalu in the Hawaiian language, and were usually made of wood from local trees, such as koa. They were often over 460 cm (15 ft) in length and extremely heavy. Major advances over the years include the addition of one or more fins (skegs) on the bottom rear of the board to improve directional stability, and numerous improvements in materials and shape.
A railroad tie, crosstie, railway tie or railway sleeper is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Usually laid perpendicular to the rails, ties transfer loads to the track ballast and subgrade, hold the rails upright and keep them spaced to the correct gauge.
A shoji is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque fusuma is used. Shoji usually slide, but may occasionally be hung or hinged, especially in more rustic styles.
Fretwork is an interlaced decorative design that is either carved in low relief on a solid background, or cut out with a fretsaw, coping saw, jigsaw or scroll saw. Most fretwork patterns are geometric in design. The materials most commonly used are wood and metal. Fretwork is used to adorn furniture and musical instruments. The term is also used for tracery on glazed windows and doors. Fretwork is also used to adorn/decorate architecture, where specific elements of decor are named according to their use such as eave bracket, gable fretwork or baluster fretwork, which may be of metal, especially cast iron or aluminum. Installing elaborate wooden fretworks on residential buildings, known as gingerbread trims, became popular in North America in the late 19th century.
Roof shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat, rectangular shapes laid in courses from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive course overlapping the joints below. Shingles are held by the roof rafters and are made of various materials such as wood, slate, flagstone, metal, plastic, and composite materials such as fibre cement and asphalt shingles. Ceramic roof tiles, which still dominate in Europe and some parts of Asia, are still usually called tiles. Roof shingles may deteriorate faster and need to repel more water than wall shingles. They are a very common roofing material in the United States.
This page is a glossary of architecture.
A bench is a long seat on which multiple people may sit at the same time. Benches are typically made of wood, but may also be made of metal, stone, or synthetic materials. Many benches have back rests, while others do not and can be accessed from either side. Arm rests are another common feature. In many American public areas, benches may be donated by persons or associations, as indicated by an affixed plaque, a common form of memorial to a deceased person. Benches may be placed outdoors or indoors, but are more often found outdoors.
The structure of a thing is how the parts of it relate to each other. In gardens, the term can be applied to soil structure or planting design structure, but it is most often used for structures made out of hard materials including: timber, brick, concrete, metal, plastic, glass, etc.
A terrace is an external, raised, open, flat area in either a landscape near a building, or as a roof terrace on a flat roof.
Alice in Wonderland is a dark ride in Fantasyland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Based on the 1951 animated Disney film of the same name, the attraction resides next to a second ride, the Mad Tea Party, based on a scene in that same adaptation.
A gridshell is a structure which derives its strength from its double curvature, but is constructed of a grid or lattice.
A trellis (treillage) is an architectural structure, usually made from an open framework or lattice of interwoven or intersecting pieces of wood, bamboo or metal that is normally made to support and display climbing plants, especially shrubs.
The Astor Court, located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, is a re-creation of a Ming dynasty-style, Chinese-garden courtyard. It is also known as the Ming Hall (明軒).
Sukiya-zukuri (数寄屋造り) is one type of Japanese residential architectural style. Suki means refined, well cultivated taste and delight in elegant pursuits, and refers to enjoyment of the exquisitely performed tea ceremony.
The Sala delle Asse, is a large room in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, the location of a painting in tempera on plaster by Leonardo da Vinci, dating from about 1498. Its walls and vaulted ceiling are decorated with "intertwining plants with fruits and monochromes of roots and rocks" and a canopy created by sixteen trees.
The Farm House is a historic summer estate at 15 Highbrook Road in Bar Harbor, Maine. The estate includes a 19th-century farmhouse which was extensively altered in the 1920s to Colonial Revival designs by Arthur McFarland, who also designed a caretaker's cottage on the property. The property also includes a series of garden spaces designed by Beatrix Farrand. This work was done for Mildred McCormick, an heir to the fortune of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the combine harvester. The estate was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
St George's Church is an Anglican church of modern design in the Parish of Norton in Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire. Opening in 1964 and arrow-shaped with a 120-foot concrete spire, the congregation are seated in a semi-circle facing the altar. The church building is in the style of the Liturgical Movement following World War II. It was Grade II listed in 2015 for "its striking architectural form, expressed through a diverse range of materials to provide an innovative building of real quality both in composition and detailing."
A Dai bamboo house is a type of stilt building primarily constructed of bamboo as the traditional form of housing for Dai people. The lower floor was about seven or eight feet high. Horses and oxen were hitched to the posts. There was a terrace near the upper stairs, which turned into a large long room. The rest of the house was a largely open space with a low roof, sloping on both sides, with eaves to the floor and, generally, no windows. If the eaves were slightly higher, there were small windows on both sides and a door on the back. In the middle of the building was a fireplace, burning day and night. The roof was covered with thatch and the doors and windows are made of bamboo. The construction is easy. It only took a few days to cut down bamboo and gather neighbors together to build it. These houses are perishable and had to be repaired each year after the rainy season. This construction method was conducive to damp roof, and drainage of rain suitable for topography of the PingBa area.
