Illustrated Architecture Dictionary

Peristyle
PEAR i style

An open space surrounded by columns

A colonnade  surrounding a courtyard, temple, etc.  (One speaks of a colonnade 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.

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:


Page by Chuck LaChiusa
...| ...Home Page ...| ..Buffalo Architecture Index...| ..Buffalo History Index...| .. E-Mail ...| ..

web site consulting by ingenious, inc.