Architectural Dictionary | S

Sarsen – Stone Sandstone Boulder
Scotia – Concave moulding at the base of a column that casts a strong shadow.

l_scotia
Semi Detached – Building A Building detached on three sides with open spaces.
Silo – A pit or airtight chamber for storing grain or other loose materials, or for packing and preserving green crops for fodder.
Service Road – A road/ lane provided at the rear or side of a plot for service purpose.
Services – Facilities that have to be planned within a building to make living in it comfortable: heating and air-conditioning pipes and vents, electrical and telephone wiring ducts, water and sanitation amenities, and so forth.
Set Back Line – A line usually parallel to the plot boundaries or central line of a road and laid down in each case by the authority or as per recommendation of Master Plan beyond which nothing can be constructed towards the plot boundaries, excepting with the permission of the authority.
Shaft – Part of the column between the base and capital, a well like excavation.
Shelf – Board fixed on the cupboard, on the wall.
Shelter – A structure that shields or protects, esp. against weather: a place of refuge, retreat, or temporary lodging in distress: protection.
Shingle – Wooden slab used like a roofing slate: a board.
Shingle Style – Late 19th century US style involving cladding houses with shingles, or wooden tiles, over timber frames
Silhouette – Shadow outline filled in with black or other colour: an outline showing against a contrasting background.
Sink – A kitchen or scullery trough or basin with a drain.
Sink Unit – A fitting consisting of sink, draining board, and cupboards.
Site – Ground occupied by, or set apart for, a building.
Site Depth of – The mean horizontal distance between the front and rear site boundaries.
Site Double Frontage – A site having a frontage on two streets other than a corner plot
Site, Interior or Tandem – A site, access to which is by a passage from a street whether such passage forms part of the site or not
Skin – In architecture, the outer membrane of a building: the brick walls, glass and steel cladding, and so on.

skin
Smoke stop Door – A door for preventing or checking the spread of smoke from one area to another.
Sofa – Long upholstered seat with back and arms.
Space Frame Construction – The use of high tech materials to construct buildings which enclose large areas without internal support; tension and elasticity are the principles mostly involved.
Spandrel – Triangular section of masonry above the junction of two arches in the sequence.
Stair – Series of steps from floor to floor.
Stepped Gable – Particularly Dutch form of gable with stepped sides.
Store Room – A room used as storage space.
Storey – The portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it then the space between any floor and ceiling next above it.
Storage – A space where goods of any kind or nature are stored.
Strapwork – Elizabethan decoration on ceilings and screens that looks like cut leather.
Stringcourse – Projecting band of stone, brick or other moulding running horizontally along the face of a building.
Structure – Manner of building, putting together, construction.
Stucco – Form of Plaster.
Sump – A small pit at the lowest point of a mine or excavation into which water can drain and out of which water can be pumped.
Superstructure – Structure above or on something else, anything erected on a foundation.


This Dictionary is an invaluable guide for anyone interested in Architectural / Construction Activity. Click on the alphabets given below, for the word you are looking for.

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