🏠Facade

The exterior face or front of a building.

🗺️Floor Plan

A scaled diagram showing the arrangement of rooms and spaces on one level.

🧱Foundation

The structural base that transfers a building's load to the ground.

👷General Contractor

The main contractor responsible for overseeing an entire construction project.

🪟Glass Curtain Wall

A non-structural outer wall of glass that hangs off a building frame.

🌱Green Building

A structure designed to be environmentally responsible and resource-efficient.

❄️HVAC

The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems of a building.

🧊Insulation

Material used to reduce heat loss or gain through building surfaces.

🛋️Interior Design

The planning and furnishing of interior spaces for functional and aesthetic ends.

🌷Landscape Architecture

The design of outdoor spaces, gardens, and natural environments.

🏅LEED Certification

A rating system that recognizes environmentally sustainable buildings.

🔄Life Cycle Assessment

An analysis of a building's environmental impact from cradle to grave.

💡Lighting Design

The planning of artificial and natural light within a space.

🏗️Load-Bearing Wall

A wall that supports structural weight from above in addition to its own.

🧱Masonry

Construction using individual units such as bricks or stones bonded together.

🗺️Master Plan

A long-term framework guiding the development of a site or district.

🏗️Mezzanine

An intermediate floor between main levels of a building.

🪣Mortar

A paste that binds bricks or stones together in masonry.

📐Parametric Design

Design driven by algorithms that relate geometry to defined parameters.

🧱Partition

An interior wall that divides a space without bearing structural load.

🌞Passive Design

Using building form and materials to reduce reliance on mechanical systems.

📄Permit

Official authorization required before construction or renovation begins.

🏗️Physical Model

A scaled three-dimensional representation of a building made by hand.

🚰Plumbing

The system of pipes and fixtures for water supply and waste removal.

🔎Post-Occupancy Evaluation

An assessment of how well a completed building performs for its users.

🏛️Preservation

The act of maintaining a historic building in its current condition.

🗂️Project Management

The discipline of planning and controlling resources to complete a build.

🔩Reinforced Concrete

Concrete embedded with steel bars to increase tensile strength.

🖼️Rendering

A realistic image generated from a 3D model to visualize a design.

🏚️Restoration

The process of returning a historic building to a known earlier state.