General
- Cities and Buildings Database This link opens in a new window
A collection of architectural images from around the world searchable by country, city, style, title, architect, or date of construction.
- Architect: Topic PagePerson qualified to design buildings and to supervise their erection.
- Architecture: Topic PageThe design of the visual appearance of structures; their internal arrangements of space; selection of external and internal building materials; design or selection of natural and artificial lighting systems, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems; and design or selection of decorations and furnishings.
Architecture Reference Books
The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of 20th Century ArchitectureContains wide ranging and authoritative coverage of the whole spectrum of architecture and urban planning in the 20th century, and of leading architects and engineers the world over.
Architectural Excellence: 500 Iconic BuildingsArchitectural Excellence is organized chronologically and serves as a visual lesson in architecture through the ages. The buildings featured come from all over the world and include centers of worship, public buildings, places of business and homes. Each building includes a photograph, with a double-page spread for the top 50 selections. Captions provide specifications and brief histories.
Key Interiors since 1900 by This book defines the history of modern interior design through the reuse of existing buildings. This approach allows the history of the interior to be viewed as separate from the history of architecture and instead enables the interior to develop its own historical narrative.
Key Buildings from Prehistory to the Present by This book features some of the most important buildings in the history of world architecture - from the pyramids and Parthenon to some of the most significant works by recent architects.
100 Ideas that Changed Architecture by This inspiring book chronicles the most influential ideas that have shaped architecture. 100 Ideas that Changed Architecture explores when each idea first evolved and the subsequent impact it has had up to the present day.
Landscape Architecture: An IntroductionAimed at prospective and new students, this book gives a comprehensive introduction to the nature and practice of landscape architecture, the professional skills required and the latest developments.
Dictionary of Architecture and ConstructionComprehensive in scope, this title's range spans terms encountered in the practice of architecture from Classical to green, from traditional materials to the latest products, from precise definitions of architectural styles to the particulars of specifications writing.
Real Estate Concepts: A HandbookReal Estate Concepts provides built environment students with an easy to use guide to the essential concepts they need to understand in order to succeed in their university courses and future professional careers. Key concepts are arranged, defined and explained by experts in the field to provide the student with a quick and reliable reference throughout their university studies.
Time Saver Standards for Architectural Design: Technical Data for Professional Practice by One of the most widely recognized and respected resources for architects, engineers, and designers, bringing together the knowledge, techniques, and skills of some of the most well-known experts in the field.
Interior Design
- Furniture: Topic PageMovable functional items such as tables, chairs, and beds needed to make a room or a home more comfortable and easier to live and work in.
- Interior decoration: Topic PageAdornment of the interior of a building, public or domestic, comprising interior architecture, finishing, and furnishings.
- Lighting: Topic PageLight produced by artificial means to allow visibility in enclosures and at night.
- Stained glass: Topic PageIn general, windows made of colored glass. With the development of medieval architecture, stained glass assumed a unique structural and symbolic importance.
- Wallpaper: Topic PageWas used in Europe in the 16th and 17th cent. as an inexpensive substitute for costly hangings.
Urban Planning
- Aqueduct: Topic PageAny artificial channel or conduit for water, originally applied to water supply tunnels, but later used to refer to elevated structures of stone, wood, or iron carrying navigable canals across valleys.
- Bridge: Topic Page
Structure that provides a continuous path or road over water, valleys, ravines, or above other roads. - Canal: Topic PageArtificial waterway constructed for drainage, irrigation, or navigation.
- City planning: Topic PageProcess of planning for the improvement of urban centers in order to provide healthy and safe living conditions, efficient transport and communication, adequate public facilities, and aesthetic surroundings.
- Dam: Topic PageStructure built across a river to hold back a body of water (called a reservoir) in order to prevent flooding, provide water for irrigation and storage, and provide hydroelectric power.
- Fortification: Topic PageSystem of defense structures for protection from enemy attacks. Fortification developed along two general lines: permanent sites built in peacetime, and emplacements and obstacles hastily constructed in the field in time of war.
- Fountain: Topic Page
Natural or artificially conveyed flow of water. In ancient Greece columnar shrines were built over springs and dedicated to deities or nymphs. - Garden: Topic PageLand set aside for the cultivation of flowers, herbs, vegetables, or small fruits, for either utility or ornament.
- Housing: Topic PageIn general, living accommodations available for the inhabitants of a community.
- Irrigation: Topic PageIn agriculture, artificial watering of the land. Although used chiefly in regions with annual rainfall of less than 20 in. (51 cm), it is also used in wetter areas to grow certain crops, e.g., rice.
- Town planning: Topic PageThe design of buildings or groups of buildings in a physical and social context, concentrating on the relationship between various buildings and their environment, as well as on their uses.
- Tunnel: Topic PagePassageway through a mountain, under a body of water, or underground.
- Zoning: Topic PageLegislative regulations by which a municipal government seeks to control the use of buildings and land within the municipality.
Art Librarian
TCTC Learning Commons
Contact:
Pendleton 864-646-1750; Anderson 864-260-6720; Easley 864-220-8899; Oconee 864-613-1964
Materials
- Brick: Topic PageCeramic structural material that, in modern times, is made by pressing clay into blocks and firing them to the requisite hardness in a kiln.
- Cement: Topic PageBinding material used in construction and engineering, often called hydraulic cement, typically made by heating a mixture of limestone and clay until it almost fuses and then grinding it to a fine powder.
- Concrete: Topic PageStructural masonry material made by mixing broken stone or gravel with sand, cement, and water and allowing the mixture to harden into a solid mass.
- Insulation: Topic PageUse of materials or devices to inhibit or prevent the conduction of heat or of electricity.
- Iron: Topic PageIron is a lustrous, ductile, malleable, silver-gray metal found in Group 8 of the periodic table.
- Steel: Topic PageAlloy of iron, carbon, and small proportions of other elements. Iron contains impurities in the form of silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and manganese; steelmaking involves the removal of these impurities, known as slag, and the addition of desirable alloying elements.
- Wood: Topic PageBotanically, the xylem tissue that forms the bulk of the stem of a woody plant. Xylem conducts sap upward from the roots to the leaves, stores food in the form of complex carbohydrates, and provides support; it is made up of various types of cells specialized for each of these purposes.