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July 5th, 2009
04:01 pm - architectural anatomy
Last weekend, on a walking tour of historic homes, I was reminded how much I've always liked functionally obsolete architectural features: the widow's walk, the porte cochère. I like them much in the same way I like the idea of functionally obsolete anatomy, like the appendix and male nipples. To really consider them, one has to consider how they would have been used, a way of life when they were common. And now they remain, like slightly mysterious monuments - not entirely obsolete, just functionally so.
And then this correspondence, the anatomical with the architectural, made me wonder that there aren't more architectural terms taken from human anatomy. There are fewer than one might think, but more than I knew of: eyebrow window, bellied balconet, hipped gable, ear (?), knee brace.
Which made me recall the conversation in which I was told that balcon was French slang for bustline, which wasn't and isn't anyting that I'd ever heard. I recall him (this was no one really important, but his moments of crudeness, which might have been just amusing in most other people, came from being just slightly an octave off, which made it seem more violent than funny) smiling smugly, saying, titty is to torso as balcon is to maison. Which made me think of The Rape.
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