Looking at Buildings

Glossary

String course: Horizontal course or moulding projecting from the surface of a wall.
Strut: Vertical or oblique timber between two members of a truss, not directly supporting longitudinal timbers. On a tie-beam, queen-struts are in pairs, a king-strut is placed centrally; compare queenposts, kingpost.
Stucco: A durable lime plaster, sometimes incorporating marble dust. It can be shaped into ornamental or architectural features, or used externally as a protective coating.
Studs: Subsidiary vertical timbers of a timber-framed wall or partition. Close studding has closely set studs of equal size.
Stugged: (Scots): Of masonry, hacked or picked as a key for rendering; used as a surface finish in the 19th century.
Stupa: Buddhist shrine, circular in plan.
Stylobate: Top of the solid platform on which a classical colonnade stands.
Sub-cusping: Cusping (projecting points formed by curves, especially within the tracery of Gothic architecture) in which the sides of the cusps have smaller cusps in turn.
Sunk chamfer: A deeply recessed surface, formed by cutting into a square edge or corner.
Superimposed orders: 1834-6 by Thomas Hopper
Classical orders on successive levels, customarily in the upward sequence of Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Composite.