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F

façade:  An exterior wall of a building.  The principal or front face of a building showing its most prominent architectural features.
fan light:  Glazed area above a doorway, designed to brighten the hallway inside.  A type of transom.
fan vaulting: A method of vaulting employed in the Perpendicular style, so called because of its resemblance to a fan. The ribs radiate from one point with the same curvature, and are equidistant. The intermediate spaces between the ribs are generally filled in with smaller ribs and with decorative ornaments that sometimes give it the name of ‘fan-tracery’.
Federal / Adam Style: Graceful details distinguish these homes from the pragmatic Georgian colonial style. Highlights include: low pitched roof; smooth façade; semi-circular fanlight over entry door; and geometric forms.
fenestration:  The stylistic arrangement of windows in a building.
Flamboyant style: The final development in French Gothic architecture that reached its height in the 15th century. It is characterized chiefly by ornate tracery forms that, by their suggestion of flames, gave the style its name. Flamboyant works exhibit pronounced freedom and exuberance, created by high, attenuated proportions, accumulated and elaborate traceries, and many crockets, pinnacles, and canopied niches.
fleche:  A slender spire, especially one on a church above the intersection of the nave and transepts.  The word is French for “arrow.”
flute (or fluting):  Shallow, concave grooves running vertically on a column, pilaster, or other surface.
Fieldstone:  A stone used in its natural shape.
finial:  An ornamental projection at the top of a gable, spire, arched structure, or roof.
Fish scale Shingles  A shingle having straight sides and rounded bottoms.
floor plan: A simple line drawing showing rooms as if seen from above. Walls, doorways, and windows are often drawn to scale.  A complete set of construction plans will also contain many other types of diagrams, such as cross-section drawings, electrical plans, and elevation drawings.
fluting: Shallow, concave grooves running vertically on a column, pilaster, or other surface.
flying buttress:   A buttress arched over at the top to engage with a main wall.  A principal feature of Gothic architecture, lending strength and solidity to the main structure.
flying stair: Cantilevered from the walls of a stairwell, without newels; sometimes called a Geometric stair when the inner edge describes a curve.
formalism: An emphasis on form and visual relationships between the building parts and the work as a whole. Shape, often on a monumental scale, is the focus of attention. Lines and rigid geometric shapes predominate in Formalist architecture. Formalism found in many Modernist buildings, especially in Bauhaus and International Style architecture.
foundation:  The base of a house providing stability.
foyer:  The entrance hall or vestibule of a home.
frame:  Of wood construction.
French Renaissance: In France in the 16th century Renaissance taste made one of its first tentative appearances in the Louis XII wing of the château of Blois. In the first period Gothic traditions persisted in plan, structure, and exterior masses, onto which fresh and graceful Renaissance details were grafted. Handsome and livable châteaus replaced grim feudal castles.
French Second Empire: An architectural style that was popular during the Victorian era, reaching its zenith between 1865 and 1880. In the United States, the Second Empire style usually combined a rectangular tower, or similar element, with a steep, but short, mansard roof; the roof being the most noteworthy link to the style’s French roots. The mansard roof crest was often topped with an iron trim, sometimes referred to as “cresting”. The exterior style could be expressed in either wood, brick or stone.
frieze:  Usually located below crown moldings; refers to a decorative band running along the wall of a room, usually just below the ceiling.  A horizontal band forming part of the entablature of a classical building, situated between the architrave and the cornice, and often decorated with sculpted ornaments or figures.
fritted-glass: Tempered glass with a ceramic based paint permanently bonded
onto the glass during the tempering process. front gable: Roof on houses having the peak or gable facing the front.

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