Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Xerxes I

(Encyclopedia)Xerxes I (Xerxes the Great) zûrkˈsēz [key], d. 465 b.c., king of ancient Persia (486–465 b.c.). His name in Old Persian is Khshayarsha, in the Bible Ahasuerus. He was the son of Darius I and Atos...

computer-aided design

(Encyclopedia)computer-aided design (CAD) or computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), form of automation that helps designers prepare drawings, specifications, parts lists, and other design-related elements using...

Burlington, Richard Boyle, 3d earl of

(Encyclopedia)Burlington, Richard Boyle, 3d earl of, 1694–1753, English patron and architect of the Neo-Palladian movement. Even before age 21, when he became a member of the Privy Council and Lord High Treasurer...

Ban, Shigeru

(Encyclopedia)Ban, Shigeru, 1957–, Japanese architect. After graduating (1984) from the Cooper Union School of Architecture, New York City, he established (1985) a practice in Tokyo, later adding offices in Paris...

lintel

(Encyclopedia)lintel, in architecture, the horizontal member that spans an opening, such as a door or window, or that connects two columns. The post-and-lintel, or trabeated, system of construction, with spans limi...

Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig

(Encyclopedia)Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig lo͞otˈvĭkh mēˈĕs vän dĕr rōˈə [key], 1886–1969, German-American architect. A pioneer of modern architecture and one of its most influential figures, he is famous...

Mardonius

(Encyclopedia)Mardonius märdōˈnēəs [key], d. 479 b.c., Persian general; son-in-law of Darius I. Darius sent him (492 b.c.) to retaliate against Eretria and Athens for aiding the Ionians in the Persian Wars, bu...

furniture

(Encyclopedia)furniture, properly such movables as chairs, tables, and beds; it is extended to include draperies, rugs, mirrors, lamps, and other furnishings. In its gradual evolution from periods of earliest civil...

column

(Encyclopedia)column, vertical architectural support, circular or polygonal in plan. A column is generally at least four or five times as high as its diameter or width; stubbier freestanding masses of masonry are u...

Pugin, Augustus Charles

(Encyclopedia)Pugin, Augustus Charles pyo͞oˈjĭn [key], 1762–1832, English writer on medieval architecture, b. France. His writings and drawings furnished a mass of working material for the architects of the Go...

Browse by Subject