Trail:

Glossary

Piended roof
The Scottish term for a hipped roof, i.e. with sloping rather than gabled ends. A piended platform roof is flat in the centre.
Pier
Large masonry or brick support, often for an arch. A compound pier is composed of grouped shafts, or a solid core surrounded by shafts.
Pietra dura
(Italian, lit. hard stone): Ornamental or pictorial inlay by means of thin slabs of stone.
Pilaster
No. 14 Abbey Yard
Flat representation of a classical column in shallow relief. A pilaster respond is set at the end of a colonnade, arcade etc. to balance visually the column which it faces. A pilaster strip is a pilaster without base or capital (also called a lesene).
Pilastrade
A series of pilasters or flat representation of classical columns, equivalent to a colonnade.
Pile
Row of rooms. The most common use of the term is in double pile, describing a building, especially a house, that is two rooms deep.
Pillar
Free-standing upright member of any section, not conforming to one of the classical orders.
Pillar piscina
In a church or chapel, a free-standing basin (piscina) for washing Mass vessels.
Pilotis
(French): 20th-century term for pillars or stilts that support a building above an open ground floor.
Pinnacle
A small spike- or turret-like termination of a buttress, parapet etc., especially in Gothic architecture.