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Architecture encyclopedia?

What are some words/terms that architects have made up when discussing their work? I'm interested in how words get invented/manipulated to suit architectural discourse.

Some examples:

Orhan Ayyüce's "gin-fizz urbanism"

Steven Fleming's "bike-washing"

If possible, please credit the inventor of the term and/or where you found it.

GO!

 
Jan 13, 14 5:55 pm

My book The Hamptons Dictionary has a solid collection of language related to high-end residential architecture and construction.

Jan 13, 14 7:11 pm  · 
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gwharton

How is it that Quondam has not yet posted in this thread?

Jan 15, 14 1:15 pm  · 
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I've recently invented:

"archikomori" - to describe the withdrawal of arch students (although I suppose some professionals are also stuck there too) into studio culture

"casting-couch architecture" - the process by which an architect or firm is propositioned to do something unpleasant by an elite client with either the hopes of future commissions (e.g., Dillsco tearing down Folk Museum) or to avoid risk of being discarded

Jan 15, 14 2:01 pm  · 
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Ooh, that Hamptons dicitonary looks promising.  I just downloaded the kindle edtion.

Jan 15, 14 2:06 pm  · 
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vado retro

i always like Facadomy.

Jan 15, 14 2:16 pm  · 
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Alien 8

Vado wins!

Jan 15, 14 3:59 pm  · 
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Magpie Architecture via Donna Sink's link

Jan 21, 14 11:00 pm  · 
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Nothing like taking a virtual dump to succinctly address the issue at hand. 


Jan 22, 14 10:37 am  · 
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Quondam, maybe someday you'll learn the difference between a nugget of fertilizer and an overflowing sewage treatment plant.


Jan 22, 14 10:57 am  · 
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SneakyPete

Quondam, I have tried to understand your posts, but there's so much obfuscation I gave up. Sorry, brother.

Jan 22, 14 11:35 am  · 
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Which clearly explains your widely ignored weekly dated defecations here and here, here, here and here, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

Oh, look - here's one that someone posted a response to. Oh, wait. It was only you. Sorry.

Jan 22, 14 11:40 am  · 
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SneakyPete

That's a bit like putting random words together, posting the gibberish, and then claiming it makes people think. I want to understand what you are trying to say, but you seem to delight in betraying the system of communication which would enable you to get your ideas across. That's not a failing of mine, and frankly I don't appreciate the underlying insinuation.

Jan 22, 14 12:19 pm  · 
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SneakyPete

Carry on playing with your blocks in your tower, then.

Jan 22, 14 12:29 pm  · 
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curtkram

it would appear to me the difference between the nugget and plant is entirely in quantity rather than quality.  one should also perhaps consider the location and frequency in which one applies their fertilizer, which is not addressed in the nugget/plant analogy.

Jan 22, 14 12:32 pm  · 
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curtkram

is 'tafurian' a word?

apparently 'tafuria' could be mid-19th century samoan for 'a rocky place in the sea'

Jan 22, 14 12:34 pm  · 
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Oh, Amelia.  I adore these guys in so many ways but I'm really sorry for this thread. It's a train wreck.

Orhan, I don't think magpie architecture was in anything I linked to? I think nam did.

I'm still thinking but can't come up with any good terms.  I had a professor (Kirby Lockard) who referred to suburban sprawl as "one-story peanut butter"; I always thought that was quite evocative.

Jan 22, 14 12:39 pm  · 
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SneakyPete

Tafuri: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfredo_Tafuri

 

Tafuri-an.

Jan 22, 14 12:46 pm  · 
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Quondam, funny how easy you are to offend, I said more with 13 words than you did with 2,339.

Hey! Maybe that's why.

Donna, if you've forgotten how testosterone works Angus will remind you in a couple of years.

If you're going to talk the talk you'd better be able to walk the walk.

Jan 22, 14 1:13 pm  · 
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Dude, get over yourself already. You really don't have to piss yourself every time some takes a point of view contrary to your own. Especially over such verbal diarrhea as Reenactionary Bilocating Architecturism. 


Jan 22, 14 2:41 pm  · 
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@Donna and #Orhan actually toasteroven was the one who linked to the article re: magpie architecture

Jan 22, 14 3:59 pm  · 
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Quondrum, don't flatter yourself. I just have a low tolerance for bullshit and tend to point it out when I see it.

Jan 22, 14 5:31 pm  · 
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Quondam, I literally grew up in an architect's office. My single parent father was an architect and we lived the various offices he had beginning with one he shared with another architect. I was surrounded by architects and draftsmen every day. I went to job sites with my father, did office chores and started working construction at 11. By the time I got to RISD I had more real-world experience in architecture and construction than some of the profs. 

Which is how I knew that isometric murals were bullshit - my farher produced at least half-a-dozen large scale interior and exterior perspective renderings for each presentation, eye-level views that allow the viewer to imagine they are in the scene. Can't do that with an isometric. If isos are so great why aren't they the presentation technique of choice today? And I didn't leave, I switched into and graduated with a degree in industrial design.

Keep slinging bullshit. Maybe someday you'll actually hit something other than the fan that's blowing on you. 

Jan 22, 14 7:29 pm  · 
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For the encyclopedia, Quondam, do you think this qualifies as Reenactionary Bilocating Architecturism? Or, the site and building has to be identical although there is a strong inspirational connection? Can you show more precise example as to what you mean?

Thanks to toaster I now know magpie architecture.

Jan 22, 14 7:29 pm  · 
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boy in a well

so, uh (head scratching), isometrics made you leave architecture school?

like, you got angry at drawings? and changed majors?

Jan 22, 14 7:40 pm  · 
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"supercharged urbanismics"

I meant it to mean a socio scientific branch studying people who are super bedazzled with suddenly living in the dense inner city experience. Inspired by urban orgasmics, an imaginary condition.

Feb 4, 14 9:18 pm  · 
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Sounds like an STD.

Feb 4, 14 9:29 pm  · 
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@Orhan, Donna, Quondam -- thanks for your vocab additions. Train wreck or not, it's great to see people excited by semantics!

@Miles: could you share some choice terms from "The Hamptons Dictionary"? I'd love to hear some examples.

Mar 3, 14 5:29 pm  · 
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@the user who contributed "archikomori" and "casting-couch architecture" -- to whom should I credit those terms, and how did they first come about?

Mar 3, 14 5:46 pm  · 
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Bourbanism with people passed out on the sidewalks.

Apr 2, 16 10:12 pm  · 
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