GLOSSARY OF ARCHITECTURAL
Terms   G - POS

• PALISADE A row of logs or poles inserted upright into the ground and used as a wall or fence.

• PALLADIAN Related to the buildings of the sixteenth-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, or to the eighteenth-century English revival of his style.

• PARAPET A portion of wall that projects above a roof.

• PARTERRE In landscape gardening, a formal area of planting, usually square or rectangular.

• PAVILION An articulated portion of the facade of a building, often higher than, or projecting forward from, the rest. If it is in the centre, it is called a frontispiece.

• PEDIMENT The triangular end of a gable,or a triangular ornamental element resembling it, defined by a moulding (or series of mouldings) along its three edges.

• PENDENTIVE The curved and sloping surfaces beneath a dome that mark the transition from the circle of the dome (or its drum) to the square of the supports. piano nobile In Italian, the principal storey, usually above the ground floor.

• PIER See post.

• PIER-AND-SPANDREL motif A wall treatment that emphasizes the play between vertical piers and horizontal spandrels.

• PILASTER See post.

• PILLAR See post.

• PLATE In wood frame construction, ahorizontal component that connects the tops or bottoms of posts or beams.

• PLINTH A block used as the base of a column or other upright support.

• PORTAL A monumental entranceway to a building or courtyard.

• PORTE-COCHÉRE A covered entrance porch for vehicles.

• PORTICO A covered porch, of ten consisting of columns supporting a pediment.

• POST A generic word for any upright support that has several variants. It is used either in a general sense (e.g. post-and-beam construction) or in specific reference to a timber support. Pillar is a somewhat archaic word synonymous with post. A pier is a post of square or rectangular section, usually of masonry. A column is a post of circular section; a steel or iron member used vertically is also called a column. A colonette is a small column. A pilaster is a shallow rectangular upright support set into a wall and used mainly as decoration.

• POST-AND-BEAM A building system that emphasizes the regular use of vertical and horizontal (or slightly sloping) structural members.