150 Weird Words That Only Architects Use

Bearing in mind the above comments, it's important to remember that this isn't a list of words
you should immediately stop using; simply be aware of who you're talking to, and be sure that if
you do use any of these words they are necessary and appropriate in the context you use them.

This list is by no means exhaustive; with over 750 comments across our original article and
three Facebook posts, we had to cap it somewhere! Included here are the words that were
mentioned most often and which we had encountered ourselves. So without further ado, and in
no particular order, here is our readers' list of 150 weird words that only architects use:

Architecture-specific jargon:

 Pastiche
 Sustainability
 Ergonomy
 Genius loci
 Facade
 Charette
 Regionalism
 Threshold
 Massing
 Enfilade
 Materiality
 Poché
 Post-industrial
 Diagrammatic
 Vernacular
 Modular
 Deconstruction
 Typology
 Parametric
 Program
 Skin
 Building envelope
 Vault
 Arcade
 Fenestration
 Truncated
 Parti
 Flâneur
 Phenomenology
 Brutalism
 Cantilever
  Curvilinear
 Rectilinear
 Miesian
 Corbusian
 Permaculture
 Blobitecture
 Exurbia
 Walkability
 Pilotis
 Verticality
 Rebate
 Mullion
 Muntin
 Gentrification
 Stylobate

Simple words given new meaning by architects:

 Concept
 Space
 Fabric (urban or building)
 Metaphor
 Legibility (of something other than writing)
 Dimension (meaning a characteristic of something)
 Moment
 Celebrate
 Negotiate
 Dynamic
 Language
 Context
 Gesture
 Proud (“the countertop is proud of the cabinet”)
 Taxonomy
 Hierarchy
 Scale
 Section
 Formal
 Nodes
 Pods
 Grain
 Extrapolate
 Device
 Elevation
Obscure words that architects overuse (or misuse):

 Iconic
 Organic
 Dichotomy
 Eclectic
 Kitsch
 Sequence
 Stasis
 Interstitial / Interstice
 Iteration
 Juxtapose/Juxtaposition
 Stereotomic
 Tectonics (and architectonics)
 Liminal
 Articulate
 Ephemeral
 Domesticity
 Anthropogenic
 Regenerate
 Hybrid
 Generative
 Ambiguity
 Catalyst
 Penetrate
 Appropriate
 Inspiration
 Contemporary
 Amalgamation
 Performative
 Hegemony
 Curate
 Bifurcate
 Superimpose
 Confluences
 Gestalt
 Zeitgeist
 Banal
 Blasé
 Motifs
 Procession
 Homogenous
 Palimpsest
 Paradigm
  Dissonance
 Adjacencies
 Parallax
 Assemblage
 Aesthetic
 Monolithic
 Uniformity
 Morphology
 Duality
 Nuance
 Transient
 Redundancy
 Robust
 Bespoke
 Holistic (sometimes even wholistic)
 Simultaneity
 Esoteric
 Concretization
 Schism

Unusual terms or phrases that architects love:

 Play with (light, space, materials)

 Human scale
 Create/provide a gesture
 How the ____ is received by the ____
 Spatial composition
 Map out
 Explores the notion
 Programmatic adjacencies
 Activate the space
 Public Realm
 Outdoor room

Strange concepts within architecture:

 Solid/Void
 Interiority/Exteriority
 Push/Pull
 Bottom up/Top down
 Transparency/Opacity
 Served and Service
 Negative/Positive space