Flash Cards for Common Architectural Terms

Architects speak their own specialized language, one laced with obfuscation and intrigue. Most of us learned an extensive vocabulary particular to our profession during our years in design school. Our professors gleefully taught us to "visualize the intrinsic tension" created by the "diametrically opposed" forms within the "balanced compositional elements encoded" within our "conceptual configuration."

We are very proud of our vocabulary, and now, as we talk with our clients, our speech is sprinkled with this terminology. Our clients tend to stare at us blankly as we speak, with a combination of envy and disgust in their eyes (mostly disgust).

Clearly we need to find a better way to communicate. So, as an attempt to clarify things, I've come up with a few simple flash cards for some of the more common architectural terms. I suggest you study these for a few hours a day. That way you'll know what I'm talking about.

And maybe you'll stop staring at me like that.