Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Gadrooning: Classical ribbed ornament like inverted fluting that flows into a lobed edge.
Galilee: Chapel or vestibule usually at the west end of a church and enclosing the main entrances.
Gallery: A long room or passage; an upper storey above the aisles of a church, looking through arches to the nave; a balcony or mezzanine overlooking the main interior space of a building; or an external walkway.
Galleting: Small stones set in a mortar course.
Gambrel roof: A hipped roof which turns to a gablet at the ridge.
Garderobe: A medieval privy; usually built into the thickness of an external wall.
Gargoyle: Projecting water spout often carved into human or animal shape.
Gauged brickwork: Soft brick sawn roughly, then rubbed to a precise (gauged) surface. Mostly used for door or window openings. Also called rubbed brickwork.
Gazebo: (jocular Latin, ‘I shall gaze’): Ornamental lookout tower or raised summerhouse.
Geodesic dome: A part-spherical structure of lightweight rods, joined in an even three-dimensional frame (called a space-frame), developed by the American engineer R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983).