- alveated: Beehive-shaped.
- scamilli impares: The slight bowing upward of apparently horizontal lines, as in the Parthenon.
- bowl: To construct a bowl; to form with a bowl shape.
- broken: Signifies interruption of an element, e.g., broken arch (usually segmental with its center filled by a carved motif), broken ashlar (random masonry laid in irregular courses), broken column (with the shaft broken off, symbolizing death, a recurring theme in commemorative art), broken pediment, and broken rangework (masonry laid in courses but with blocks of different heights, thus breaking the horizontal joints).
- airgh: Hollow: concave surface requiring filling to make it level.
- crowning: The operation, and the result, of forming anything with a slight convexity upward. Crowning is practiced in laying floors of broad span, especially to sustain heavy strains, in order to offset the sagging likely to result in time; upon roadways to secure a proper drainage to the gutters. 2. The termination of the upper part of a building by a suitable decorative feature such as a cornice, pediment, or finial.
- crown-up: To give an upward tending convexity (to anything). A road or so-called flat roof is said to be crowed-up when the middle is made higher than the sides…
- bellied: Having a convex or bulging form.
- belly: A convex swelling portion of any surface, member, or piece, as the underside of a beam which has sagged; the rounded portion of a vase-shaped baluster.
- bombe: Swelling out; convex in shape.
- gore: Same as lune.
- lune: Anything in the shape of a crescent or half-moon.
- anticlastic: Of a double-curved surface, of which the two curvatures (transverse to each other) line in opposite directions, convex in length and concave in breadth, or vice versa. This condition can be seen in e.g. a hyperbolic paraboloid roof.
- bowed: Curved or rounded.
- bow-shaped: See double-bellied.
- false ellipse: A curve struck from three or five foci, preferred in the design of prefabricated parts for arches since fewer different elements are required. Also see basket-handle arch.
- French curves: Aids in drafting in the form of thin plastic or wood cut to the profiles of various irregular curves.
- full-centered: Descriptive of an architectural feature whose outline follows an arc of a circle.
- geodesic: Having to do with a system of mathematics used to study curves, such as the curvature of the earth or dome structures.
- radial: Denoting a form based on the radius of a circle…
- radiating: Denoting a form based on the radius of a circle…
- developed surface: A curved or angular surface graphically represented as flattened out upon a plane.
- diamond: Generally the same as lozenge; sometimes a square when set diagonally, or with its diagonals respectively vertical and horizontal. The term is scarcely to be considered as technical and is of very loose application.
- diminish: To make smaller; to become smaller…
- size down: To diminish, continually and regularly, the size of members of a series. Thus, slates are sized down from the eaves to the ridge, in order to increase the apparent extent of the sloping roof, and to add a picturesque charm to it.
- dish: To form with a depression of the surface, generally for the purpose of retaining water; as to prevent overflow. A dished slab to a washstand is one having the general surface depressed slightly, leaving a rim about the edges.
- oval: Oval and elliptical are used interchangeably in common English, but have specific (and different) meanings when used in mathematics.
- attenuated: Appearing vertically stretched or elongated.
- embowed: Having an outward-curving projection, as a bay window.
- evase: Opened out, flared.
- expansion: Enlargement of length or bulk by reason of temperature rise, or, less commonly, through absorption of water.
- flare: The widening of a tubular form, funnel-like.
- flared: Gradually wider at one end, as in roofs or furniture feet.
- argh: Hollow: concave surface requiring filling to make it level.
- ergh: Hollow: concave surface requiring filling to make it level.
- horseshoe: Having the form and somewhat resembling a horseshoe, as a horseshoe arch; or suggesting the idea of that form; this being very often remote enough from the actual curved shape…
- battered: Inclined from the vertical. A wall is said to batter when it recedes as it rises.
- incline: A sloping way.
- raking: Inclining; having a rake or inclination.
- random: Irregular in size and shape, unequal…
- ring: Any structure or object having the form of a circle, or set around something…
- round headed: Describing an element, typically a window or a door, whose head takes the shape of a half-circle.
- shape: The outline or surface configuration of a particular form or figure. While form usually refers to the principle that gives unity to a whole, and often includes a sense of mass or volume, shape suggests an outline with some emphasis on the enclosed area or mass.
- taper: A gradual diminution of thickness in an elongated object, as in a spire.
- sheet: A thin piece of material, as glass, veneer, or rolled metal.
- shouldered: Treated with a shoulder.
- lanciform: Having a sharp point.
- shoulder: A projection or break made on a piece of shaped wood, metal, or stone, where its width or thickness is suddenly changed. Also called ear, elbow. 2. The angle of a bastion included between the face and the flank of a fortification. Also called shoulder angle. 3. The end surface from which a tenon projects.
- circle-on-circle face: In stonework, carpentry, and joinery, a face worked to convex spherical shape, presenting a curved outline in both plan and elevation. Also see circle-on-circle face.
- circle-on-circle sunk face: Same as circular-circular face but presenting a concave outline, in both plan and section. Also see circle-on-circle sunk face.
- circular-circular face: In stonework, carpentry, and joinery, a face worked to convex spherical shape, presenting a curved outline in both plan and elevation. Also see circle-on-circle face.
- circular-circular sunk face: Also see circle-on-circle sunk face.
- swan-neck: Any member constructed on a double curve, e.g. a stair hand-rail with a concave curve then bending into a convex curve before straightening out to join a newel-post. 2. Form of a rainwater-pipe connecting a gutter to a down-pipe under the eaves. 3. Scrolled pediment.
- thickness: To bring to a uniform thickness; thus, it is common in specifications to state that the planks, as of a floor, must be accurately thicknessed.
- upset: To thicken an end or other part of a metal bar by hammering.
- hyperbolic parabola: Continuous flowing double-curved form, used for concrete shell-roofs, wing-like in elevation, starting from a parabolic arch and progressing to an upside-down parabola of similar size, often doubled, as a mirror-image. Its geometry, although seemingly complex, is actually very simple, and its construction is largely dependent on straight lines. It was pioneered by Nowicki.
Also see Architecture index.