Illustrated Architecture Dictionary
Peristyle
PEAR i styleAn open space surrounded by columns
A colonnade enclosing a court. (One speaks of a colonade in a peristyle.)
Peri means "around" and style means "column"; literally, surrounded by columns; a term for a temple or other structure enclosed in a colonnade.
"In Greek and Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building that surrounds a court that may contain an internal garden. - Wikipedia: Peristyle
| Classical Roman architecture: Instead of surrounding their houses with large
lawns and gardens, the Romans created their gardens inside their domus. The
peristylium was an open courtyard within the house; the columns surrounding
the garden supported a shady roofed portico whose inner walls
were often embellished with elaborate wall paintings. Examples:
University
of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology model and Roman
house floor plan |
Atrium: open space without columns
Colonnade: A number of columns arranged in order supporting an entablature and usually one side of a roof.
Court/courtyard: An area open to the sky and mostly or entirely surrounded by buildings or walls; a high interior usually having a glass roof and surrounded by several stories of galleries or the like.
Hypostyle:A building with a roof or (flat) ceiling supported by rows of columns.
Portico: A roofed entrance porch supported on at least one side by columns
Examples from Buffalo:
- Illustration above:
