Adaptive Reuse  When Old Buildings Get a Glow-Up. Think warehouses becoming lofts or churches turned into breweries.

Adjacency  Which spaces should be next to each other. Kitchen near dining? Yes. Bedroom next to loading dock? Probably not.

Anthropocene Architecture  Design that acknowledges humans have basically remodeled the entire planet (oops). Now we're trying to build our way toward fixing it.

Articulation  How you express different parts of your design. Breaking up a façade so it's not just one massive wall.

Axis  An imaginary line that organizes your design. Like the spine of your building's skeleton.

Bubble Diagram  Those circles you draw in early design to figure out spatial relationships. Simple but powerful.

Bauhaus  The OG minimalist movement from 1920s Germany. Function over frills, baby.

BIM Building Information Modeling)  3D modeling on steroids. Your building exists digitally before anyone lifts a hammer.

Biophilic Design  Bringing the outside in because we're all basically houseplants who need sunlight and greenery to thrive.

Brutalism  Chunky concrete architecture that looks like it could survive the apocalypse. Love it or hate it, you can't ignore it.

Cantilever  When part of your building just...hangs there, defying gravity like it's showing off.

Carbon Footprint  The climate cost of your building. Spoiler: we're trying to make this number way smaller.

Circulation  How people flow through a space. Good circulation = no awkward traffic jams in your hallway.

Cladding  The building's outfit. The outer skin that protects the structure and makes it look good.

Context  Everything around your site: the neighborhood vibes, history, climate, culture. Good architects don't ignore the context.

Cross-Laminated Timber CLT  Engineered wood that's making tall timber buildings possible. Wood skyscrapers are actually happening.

Daylighting  Strategic use of natural light. Because artificial lighting is expensive and kind of depressing.

Deconstructivism  Architecture that looks like it's fragmenting or collapsing but is actually very intentional. Chaos with a plan.

Egress  Emergency exit routes. Boring but crucial. Fire marshals take this very seriously.

Elevation  A flat drawing showing what your building looks like from the side. Not as exciting as a render but way more useful.

Embodied Carbon  All the emissions from making and transporting your building materials. Concrete has a LOT of this.

Façade  The face of your building. First impressions matter in architecture too.

Fenestration  A fancy word for window placement. Can make or break your design.

Form Follows Function  The idea that a building's shape should be based on its purpose. A modernist mantra that's still relevant.

Genius Loci  The "spirit of the place." That special something that makes a location unique.

Greenwashing  When a project claims to be sustainable but is really just slapping some solar panels on top and calling it a day.

Ground Plane  Where the building meets the earth. Get this right and your building feels connected to its site.

HVAC  Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. The unsexy stuff that makes buildings actually livable.

Infill  New development squeezed into existing urban fabric. Filling in the gaps in the city.

International Style  Mid-century modernism gone global. Glass boxes everywhere, for better or worse.

Massing  The overall 3D form and volume of your building. Like sculpting but with architecture.

Material Palette  Your selection of materials and finishes. Mixing textures and materials is where the magic happens.

Metabolist  A Japanese movement that imagined cities as living organisms that could grow and change. Wild stuff from the 1960s.

Mezzanine  A partial floor between main floors. Great for adding space without adding stories.

Mixed-Use  Buildings that do multiple things: retail, offices, apartments all stacked together. The anti-suburb.

Modular Construction  Building with prefab pieces like architectural LEGO. Faster, sometimes cheaper, always interesting.

Moment Connection  A super strong joint in structural frames. It's giving stability.

Net Zero  A building that produces as much energy as it uses. The holy grail of sustainable design.

Orthographic Projection  Drawing technique showing true dimensions without perspective. Essential for construction docs.

Parametric Design  Using algorithms and code to generate forms. When your design tool is basically advanced math.

Parti  The big concept or organizing idea behind your project. Your design's elevator pitch.

Passive Design  Using orientation, materials, and form to heat, cool, and light your building naturally. Old school but making a comeback.

Placemaking  Creating spaces where people actually want to hang out. Public realm design done right.

Plan  The bird's-eye view floor layout. The most important drawing you'll make.

Podium  The base of a building, usually different from the tower above. Common in mixed-use projects.

Post-Occupancy Evaluation  Checking if your building actually works after people move in. More architects should do this.

Precedent Study  Looking at buildings that did something similar to learn what worked (or didn't). Standing on the shoulders of giants.

Prefab  Factory-built components assembled on site. Not your grandma's mobile home anymore.

Program  What happens in the building. The activities, functions, and spaces you need to accommodate.

Proportion  The relationship between dimensions. Golden ratio enthusiasts have entered the chat.

Prospect and Refuge  Humans like spaces where they can see out (prospect) but feel protected (refuge). Evolutionary psychology meets design.

Punkitecture  DIY, anti-establishment, community-driven building. Architecture for the people, by the people.

Remediation  Cleaning up contaminated sites so they're safe to build on. Urban infill often requires this.

Rendering  Making your design look sexy for presentations. The difference between getting the project and not.

Resilience  Designing buildings and cities that can bounce back from disasters. Climate change has entered the chat.

Retrofit  Upgrading existing buildings to meet current standards. Way more sustainable than demolishing.

Rhythm  Repeating elements that create visual flow. Windows, columns, whatever creates a pattern.

Right to Light  The legal concept that your building can't completely block your neighbor's sunlight. Matters more in some places than others.

Scale  How your building relates to human size and surrounding buildings. Get this wrong and things feel weird.

Section  A drawing showing what your building looks like if you slice through it. Reveals the spatial relationships that plans can't show.

Setback  How far your building sits back from the property line or street. Zoning laws love these.

Shearing  Forces that try to slide parts of your structure in opposite directions. Engineers lose sleep over this.

Site Analysis  Studying everything about your location before you design. Sun paths, winds, soil, context, all of it.

Spatial Sequence  How spaces flow from one to another. The choreography of moving through a building.

Spec  Specifications. The written instructions for building materials and methods. As important as drawings.

Structural Expression  When you let the bones of the building show. Celebrating columns and beams instead of hiding them.

Sustainability  Designing with environmental, social, and economic longevity in mind. Should be standard, not optional.

Tectonics  How materials and structure come together to create architecture. The poetry of construction.

Thermal Mass  Materials that absorb and release heat slowly. Concrete, brick, stone—nature's battery.

Topology  The study of spatial relationships and connectivity. Not just shapes, but how spaces link together.

Urban Fabric  The physical form of cities: buildings, streets, blocks, all woven together.

Vernacular  Traditional local building methods using available materials. Original sustainable architecture.

Void  Empty space, but make it intentional. Negative space is just as important as solid space.

Wayfinding  Helping people navigate your building without needing Google Maps. Intuitive design is good design.

Zoning  Local laws that control what you can build where. The bane of every architect's existence but necessary for functioning cities.