San Elijo Hills architectual terms

San Elijo Hills real estate agents are notorious for inserting highfalutin expressions into much of our ad copy.  Ever wonder where these ‘descriptors’ come from…the majorty of architectural terms used are in fact legit.

Coffered or soffited ceiling: 

Before the Romans built the Pantheon, the Chinese were building soffited ceilings in many of their palaces.  Now you too can live like a Chinese emperor or a Roman Senator right here in San Elijo Hills 😉

A coffer (or coffering) in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.^[1] A series of these sunken panels were used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also called caissons (‘boxes”), or lacunaria (“spaces, openings”),^[2] so that a coffered ceiling can be called a lacunar ceiling: the strength of the structure is in the framework of the coffers. The stone coffers of the ancient Greeks^[3] and Romans^[4] are the earliest surviving examples, but a seventh-century BCE Etruscan chamber tomb in the necropolis of San Giuliano, which is cut in soft tufa-like stone reproduces a ceiling with beams and cross-beams lying on them, with flat panels fillings the lacunae.^[5] Wooden coffers were first made by crossing the wooden beams of a ceiling in the Loire Valley châteaux of the early Renaissance.^[6]

Experimentation with the possible shapes of coffering, which solve problems of mathematical tiling, or tessellation, were a feature of Islamic as well as Renaissance architecture. The more complicated problems of diminishing the scale of the individual coffers were presented by the requirements of curved surfaces of vaults and domes.

A prominent example of Roman coffering, employed to lighten the weight of the dome, can be found in the ceiling of the rotunda dome in the Pantheon, Rome.

In ancient Chinese wooden architecture, coffering is known as zaojing (Chinese: 藻井; pinyin: zǎojǐng).^[7

 

Cul de sac:

A cul-de-sac (literally “bottom of bag” in French) is a word of French origin referring to a dead end, close, no through road (UK English) or court (American, Canadian, and Australian English) meaning dead-end street with only one inlet/outlet. While historically built for other reasons, its modern use is to calm vehicle traffic. In the United States, a cul-de-sac is notably longer than a court.

 

Foyer:

A foyer is a large, vast room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc.) adjacent to the auditorium. It is a repose area for spectators and place of venues, especially used before performance and during intermissions, but also as a place of celebrations or festivities after performance.

Usually a foyer is a large, specially designed hall, but sometimes it is a corridor surrounding the main hall. It is furnished and big enough to enable spectators to stroll, get together and rest. Foyers are commonly adorned with art works, permanent or temporary exhibitions related to the activity of the institution, and a refreshment room or buffet. Moreover, the foyer can be the main place of some events such as vernissage, meetings with the artists, actors’ benefit, etc.

A foyer in a house is usually a small entry area or room by the front door. Other public rooms such as the living room, dining room, and family room typically attach to it, along with any main stairway. It was initially intended as an “airlock“, separating the fireplace-heated rooms from the (colder, in winter) front entrance, where cold air infiltration made for cold drafts and low temperatures. It is commonly used for outer garment and umbrella storage for both residents and guests.

 

Port-Cochere:

A porte-cochère ( from French, literally “coach gate”; also called a “carriage porch”) is the architectural term for a porch– or portico-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which a horse and carriage (or motor vehicle) can pass in order for the occupants to alight under cover, protected from the weather.

The porte-cochère was a feature of many late 18th and 19th-century mansions and public buildings. Well-known examples are at Buckingham Palace in London and the White House in Washington D.C. Today a porte-cochère is often constructed at the entrance to public buildings such as churches, hotels, health facilities, homes, and schools where people are delivered by other drivers. Porte-cochères should not be confused with carports in which vehicles are parked; at a porte-cochère the vehicle merely passes through, stopping only for passengers to alight.

At the foot of the porte-cochère there are often a couple of guard stones to prevent the wheels of the vehicle from damaging the wall.

 

Rotunda:

A rotunda (from Latin rotundus) is any building with a circular ground plan, often covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building (a famous example being within the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome. An outcrop around said building.