Glossary of Architecture - C

C

Cancellus

(plural: Cancelli) Barriers which correspond to the modern balustrade or railing, especially the screen dividing the body of a church from the part occupied by the ministers hence chancel. The Romans employed cancelli to partition off portions of the courts of law.

Cantilever

An unsupported overhang acting as a lever, like a flagpole sticking out of the side of a wall.

Casement window

Window hung vertically, hinged one side, so that it swings inward or outward.

Cauliculus, or caulicole

Stalks (eight in number) with two leaves from which rise the helices or spiral scrolls of the Corinthian capital to support the abacus.

Cella

The inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture

Chalcidicum

In Roman architecture, the vestibule or portico of a public building opening on to the forum, as in the basilica of Eumactria at Pompeii, and the basilica of Constantine at Rome, where it was placed at one end. See: Lacunar.

Chandrashala

The circular or horseshoe arch that decorates many Indian cave temples and shrines

Chresmographion

Chamber between the pronaos and the cella in Greek temples where oracles were delivered.

Cincture

Ring, list, or fillet at the top and bottom of a column, which divides the shaft from the capital and base.

Cinque cento

Style which became prevalent in Italy in the century following 1500, now usually called 16th-century work. It was the result of the revival of classic architecture known as Renaissance, but the change had commenced already a century earlier, in the works of Ghiberti and Donatello in sculpture, and of Brunelleschi and Alberti in architecture.

Cippus

Low pedestal, either round or rectangular, set up by the Romans for various purposes such as military or milestones, boundary posts. The inscriptions on some in the British Museum show that they were occasionally funeral memorials.

Circulation

Describes the flow of people throughout a building.

Cleithral

Term applied to a covered Greek temple, in contradistinction to hypaethral, which designates one that is uncovered; the roof of a cleithral temple completely covers it.

Coffer

A coffer, in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon that serves as a decorative device, usually in a ceiling or vault. Also called caissons, or lacunar.

Colarin

(also colarino, collarino, or hypotrachelium) The little frieze of the capital of the Tuscan and Doric column placed between the astragal, and the annulets. It was called hypotrachelium by Vitruvius.

Compluvium

Latin term for the open space left in the roof of the atrium of a Roman house (domus) for lighting it and the rooms round.

Coping

The capping or covering of a wall.

Cornice

Upper section of an entablature, a projecting shelf along the top of a wall often supported by brackets.

Cross Springer

Block from which the diagonal ribs of a vault spring or start. The top of the springer is known as the skewback.

Crypto-porticus

Concealed or covered passage, generally underground, though lighted and ventilated from the open air. One of the best-known examples is the crypto-porticus under the palaces of the Caesars in Rome. In Hadrians villa in Rome they formed the principal private intercommunication between the several buildings.

Circular projecting portico with columns, like those of the transept entrances of St Paul's cathedral and the western entrance of St Mary-le-Strand, London.