Like other professions, Architecture and Urbanism often revolves around its own language. What may seem like a basic term for professionals in the field, can often sound completely strange or meaningless to those starting their studies or who are curious about the field. For this reason, we created a small glossary with some words that are important to expand your vocabulary and contribute to a future discussion about your project.
- Water (Black and Gray)
The water that will be disposed of in the sewer receives the adjectives of gray or black. The gray one results from domestic processes, such as bathing or washing dishes and clothes, therefore, they contain food residues, concentrate chemicals from cleaning materials and other impurities. The black one has fecal material and urine, in addition to concentrating chemical products, making its recycling even more difficult.
- Pitch
Flat surfaces of a roof and with a certain level of slope that carry out the flow of rainwater. A gable roof, for example, has only two sloping planes.
- Brickwork
It is the construction of structures, foundations or walls that use units joined together. The units can be composed of the most different materials: concrete blocks, rubble, ceramic or glass bricks, etc.
- Cantilever
The cantilevered structure forms the part of the building that is suspended in the air. Its support takes place in other parts of the structure, by anchoring or counterweight, and it is not possible to see any support touching the ground below it, making this space completely free.
- Grade Beam
Also known as a foundation beam, it is a common type of shallow foundation used in small buildings that connects insulated footings and supports walls below ground level, better distributing the structural load.
- Hydraulic Piping
Set of hydraulic pipes that starts in the reservoirs (engine room or water tank) and ends in the distribution of the city's hydraulic network.
- Tilting Window
A plane (which can be a door or window) that rotates around a horizontal axis, i.e. lowering one end to raise the other.
- Brise
An abbreviation of the French word brise-soleil, which means "sunbreak". Therefore, it is an architectural element that contributes to thermal comfort by preventing direct sunlight from inside a building.
- Rail
Parts for the assembly of frames. Provide support for windows and doors. They can be made of aluminum, steel, wood or PVC.
- Bracket
A profile made up of two right-angled flaps that can coat corners of pillars, walls, steps and stairs. When they are made of metal, they are highly resistant and can also be used to structure furniture.
- Carpentry Workshop
Wood working area, dedicated to heavier production, performing services within the construction that require experience, but which are integrated with civil works, such as the construction of forms, shoring structures, or also the installation of doors and windows, for instance. It is not dedicated to the fabrication of an object, but of a constructive element that is integrated into the construction as a whole.
- Skylight
The zenith lighting (which comes from above) can be performed through a skylight, an opening that occurs in the roof of buildings and is usually covered by a frame or glass dome. Depending on its design, it can also favor ventilation in spaces.
- Concreting
Process that involves all the phases for the creation of the concrete: its transport, pouring of the fresh concrete, densification, curing and drying.
- Comfort
To literally guarantee the user's comfort in architecture, there are three main areas that work with the sensations of the body: thermal comfort (which guarantees that the person does not feel either excessive heat or cold), acoustic comfort (the search for good sound in environment, without much noise or echoes, for example) and visual or lighting comfort (which is related to environmental stimuli to vision that vary according to the amount of light, natural or artificial).
- Sketch
It is a quick and simple drawing that serves to explain or develop an idea.
- Gable
Gables are known as the side walls of a building, usually intended to flank a neighboring building. It is called "blind gable" when this wall does not have any opening - either for reasons of legislation or to maintain the privacy of the interior of the building.
- PPE
Acronym for Personal Protective Equipment. It consists of the set of elements (helmet, vest, gloves, boots, goggles, ear protection, appropriate uniform) that guarantee the safety of a person on the construction site.
- Scale
A mathematical relationship between the dimensions of the actual object and the size it is represented. For example, at 1:10 scale, one unit of measurement on the drawing is equivalent to ten units of measurement in real life.
- Riser
The front of a step, the vertical surface between one step and another. There are even rules for minimum and maximum heights of a riser to keep the scale within the standards, comfortable and safe for users.
- Structure
If we imagine a building as a body, the structure would be the equivalent of the skeleton. It is what sustains and allows the structuring of all other systems.
- Rebar
Metal parts used to compose several other structures or objects, for example, the steel tubes present in reinforced concrete.
- Railing
Or parapet, it is the half-height protection that protects the sides of stairs, terraces or spaces at high levels, preventing people from falling and getting injured.
- Waterproofing
A process that seeks to isolate and protect a building from the undesirable passage of liquids or vapors, preventing the creation of fungi, bacteria or other factors that can damage the structural conditions or even bring risks to both physical and hygienic well-being of the inhabitants of the building.
- Woodwork
Manufacture of wooden elements that normally appear after the civil part of the work is completed. It is the practice of producing furniture or decorative objects, which usually takes place in a workshop dedicated to this.
- Ceiling Height
The height of a space, measured between the distance between the floor and the ceiling.
- Pilotis
A set of columns or pillars that support a building and maintain free circulation at ground level.
- Drip
Finishing normally used on top of walls to prevent rainwater from running down them, increasing their conservation and preventing infiltrations.
- Pivot
A plane (which can be a door or window) that rotate about a vertical axis, generating an opening mechanism.
- Plotar
At the beginning of college many people talk about plotting a blueprint. In this case, it is printing using a plotter, which allows the printing of large-scale drawings, and not a printer.
- Plumb
It is the set of elements that are in perfect vertical alignment.
- Topography
Science that studies the earth's surface and its geography. In the case of architecture, it helps to understand the type of soil, its specific characteristics and the unevenness of a terrain.
- Metalwork
It is the production of metal parts such as gates, railings, windows, mezzanines, partitions, which arises from the work with metallic elements that involve different processes such as welding, polishing and painting.
