Looking at Buildings

Glossary

Pilastrade: A series of pilasters or flat representation of classical columns, equivalent to a colonnade.
Pile: Row of rooms. The most common use of the term is in double pile, describing a building, especially a house, that is two rooms deep.
Pillar: Free-standing upright member of any section, not conforming to one of the classical orders.
Pillar piscina: In a church or chapel, a free-standing basin (piscina) for washing Mass vessels.
Pilotis: (French): 20th-century term for pillars or stilts that support a building above an open ground floor.
Pinnacle: A small spike- or turret-like termination of a buttress, parapet etc., especially in Gothic architecture.
Pins or pinning: (Scots): Lines of tiny stones used decoratively in the mortar joints.
Pis: Walling material of clay mixed with straw. Also called cob.
Piscina: In a church or chapel, a basin for washing Mass vessels, provided with a drain, usually set in or against the wall to the south of an altar.
Pitchback water wheel: One with water fed on to the wheel on the top but falling backwards. Compare breastshot, overshot and undershot.