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BADA. (Indian). Term for a wall in Orissan architecture.

BAFOKONA. Sotho/Tswana term used mainly in the Transvaal to indicate a square plan or four-cornered dwelling. The Nguni equivalent is uFokona.

BAKSTAPEL. (Afrikaans). See under CLAMP (of bricks).

BAKSTEEN. (Afrikaans). See under BRICK.

BALDAKYN. (Afrikaans). See under CANOPY.

BALK. (Afrikaans). Also referred to as a vloerbalk, in floors, or as a plafonbalk, in ceilings. See under BEAM or JOIST.

BALKONERKER. (Afrikaans). See under ORIEL.

BALUSTER. A small pillar or post, usually made circular, commonly used in a balustrade.

BALUSTRADE. A series of small balusters supporting a coping, cornice or hand-rail, and forming a parapet or enclosure.

BAND. Twisted band of straw, reed or sedge used for tying a bunch of the same material.

BANDLAAG. (Afrikaans). See under STRING.

BARGE. Also known as a flue, verge or gable. The finished edge of thatch overhanging a gable. (Afrikaans: gewelrand).

BARGEBOARD. A board generally used on the verge of gables where the roof covering extends over the wall, concealing rafter ends which would otherwise be exposed. (Afrikaans: windveer).

BASEMENT. The lower storey or floor of a building beneath the principal one. In ordinary houses the lower storey is not called a basement unless partly below the surface of the ground. (Afrikaans: kelder).

BATTEN. Horizontal strips of timber which span from beam to beam and help to carry the roof covering. In the case of thatching grass, the bundles will be sewn onto the battens by means of twine. See also PURLIN. (Afrikaans: daklat).

BATTER. Also known as rake. A uniform slope, usually applied to a wall built out of upright or gently sloping inwards. (Afrikaans: terughelling).

BAY WINDOW. A window forming a bay or recess in a room, and projecting outwards from the wall either in a rectangular, polygonal or semicircular form. Often also called a bow- or compass-window. (Afrikaans: erker).

BEAM. Generic term applied to the principal horizontal timbers in a building. (Afrikaans: balk).

BEEHIVE DWELLINGS. See under HEMISPHERICAL GRASS DWELLINGS

BEER. (Afrikaans). See under BUTTRESS.

BELFRY. A bell tower or campanile usually forming part of a church, but sometimes detached from it. This term is also applied to the room in the tower in which the bells are hung. (Afrikaans: kloktoring).

BELL CAST ROOF. A roof where the eaves have been tilted slightly upwards. (Afrikaans: klokvormige dak).

BELL-GABLE. Also called a bell-turret or bell-cot. A church gable in which the bells are hung, usually found in small churches or chapels with no bell towers. (Afrikaans: klokgewel).

BESLAGPLAAT. (Afrikaans). See under ESCUTCHEON.

BHACA. A Nguni-speaking group originating from the Mount Frere district of the Transkei. The people are more correctly known as the amaBhaca.

BHANDAR. (Indian). The library of a Jain religious establishment.

BHOGAMANDAPA. (Indian). The hall of offerings, signifying enjoyment, wealth and possessions, in an Orissan temple.

BHULU. Nguni word derived from the Dutch boer. More properly used as amaBhulu, it is a term usually applied on the coastal region to white, Afrikaans-speaking South Africans. See also BOER and LEBURU.

BHUMI. (Indian). Used to denote the earth; the floor; the foundation; a level; stage; or story. In architecture, it denotes the levels or stories of a building or superstructure. In Buddhist thought, the stages, or spiritual spheres, through which a bodhisattva (or practitioner) moves in quest of enlightenment.

BIJA. (Indian). Seed; semen; sound essence. A mystic syllable that constitutes an essential portion of a mantra. Can also refer to the relic in a stupa.

BIDDLE. Alternative name for a leggett.

BINDBALK. (Afrikaans). See under TIE BEAM.

BINDER. See under SWAY. (Afrikaans: haaklat).

BINNEWELWING. (Afrikaans). See under INTRADOS.

BLOCK. A masonry unit larger than a brick. (Afrikaans: blok).

BLOK. (Afrikaans). See under BLOCK.

BLOCKHOUSE. Fortifications introduced at the Cape during the first British occupation of 1795. They were subsequently used by Kitchener during the South African conflict of 1899-1902 but proved a singularly ineffective counter to guerrilla tactics.

Bodilo. (seTswana). A raised compacted earth floor.

BO-EN-ONDERDEUR. (Afrikaans). See under STABLE DOOR.

BOER. Plural Boere. A Dutch word originally meaning a farmer. Since the latter part of the nineteenth century it has gained a measure of group identity which has made it interchangeable with the noun Afrikaner. It is still used by the local white farming community as an appellation for itself, although the black derivations of amaBhulu (Nguni) and leburu (Sotho/Tswana) have gained distinct pejorative undertones in more recent times.

BOER-STYLE THATCHING. The almost universal indigenous term for a method of combing the grass roof covering with a leggett (or a dekspan) to provide a smooth even finish. (Afrikaans: boerstyl-grasdak).

BOERSTYL-GRASDAK. (Afrikaans). See under BOER-STYLE or SMOOTH-STYLE THATCHING.
BOLIG. (Afrikaans). See under FANLIGHT.

BOLECTION MOULDING. A moulding used to cover the joint between two surfaces having different levels. (Afrikaans: paneelruiter).

Boloko. (seTswana). Clay floor plaster, often used together with cow-dung.

BOLVORMIGE VERSIERING. (Afrikaans). See under BOSS.

BOMVANA. A Nguni-speaking group originating from the Elliotdale district of the Transkei. The people are more correctly known as the amaBomvana. BOOG. (Afrikaans). See under ARCH.

Borobalo. (seTswana). The central dividing wall in a large dwelling.

BORSWERING. (Afrikaans). Also called Skuinsgewel. See under SKEW.

BORSWERINGMUUR. (Afrikaans). See under PARAPET WALL.

BOSS. A projecting ornament placed at the intersection of the ribs of ceilings; also used as a termination to weather mouldings of doors and windows. (Afrikaans: bolvormige versiering).

BOW WINDOW. See under BAY WINDOW. (Afrikaans: erker).

BRACE. A timber piece used to stiffen a joint such as the one created when a vertical timber post abuts at right angles into a horizontal timber beam (as in a post and lintel system). (Afrikaans: verspanner).

BRACKET. A projection from the face of a wall, plain or ornamented, often used to support a statue. (Afrikaans: steun).

BRANDKLEURTEEL. (Afrikaans). See under ENCAUSTIC TILE.

BRANDZOLDER. Dutch, meaning a fire ceiling. Ceiling made of reeds smeared over with pudded clay, used in Cape Dutch homesteads to protect the inhabitants from falling burning thatch should the roof cover catch alight. When more substantially built it also served as a floor to the loft. See ZOLDER.

BRHAD. (Indian). Meaning great, large or gigantic.

BRICK. Clay kneaded, moulded and baked by fire or sun. The term is currently applied to a module which conforms to certain standard measurements (220x110x75mm) but is more generally understood to refer to a wall building unit which is easily manipulated into place with one hand. Anything bigger or heavier than a brick is considered to come under the heading of blocks. (Afrikaans: baksteen).

BROACH SPIRE. Old English term applied to denote a spire springing from the tower without any intermediate parapet. (Afrikaans: agkanttoringspits).

BROKEN PEDIMENT. A pediment where the sloping sides are returned before reaching the apex. (Afrikaans: gebroke fronton).

BROW COURSE. The lowest course of thatching reed, at the eaves, which also sets the pitch of the roof. (Afrikaans: noklaag).

BUITEHOEK. (Afrikaans). See under QUOIN.

BUITEKAMER. Dutch, meaning an outside room. Room added onto the kitchen end of a three-cell Cape Dutch cottage. It was used as a bedroom for the family's eldest son, for visitors or as a resting place for a body prior to the burial.

BUITEPORTAAL. (Afrikaans). See under PORCH.

BUITEWELWING. (Afrikaans). See under EXTRADOS.

BULLNOSE SHEETING. Corrugated iron sheeting which has been given a downward or bullnose turn across the line of corrugation. Predominantly used for verandah roofing. (Afrikaans: geronde dakplate).

BUNGALOW. A single storey structure, whose name originated during the seventeenth century from the Indian term banggolo, or a Bengali peasant's hut. It subsequently came to be given to the light residential structures inhabited by British colonial administrators. As such it was transferred to other parts of the British Empire, including southern Africa, during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

BUTT. Also called a butt end. The thick or lower end of a bundle of straw or reed. The southern African indigenous thatcher usually takes the opposite view of his material and refers to the thin or seed end. (Afrikaans: stuikent).

BUTT HINGE. A common type of hinge. (Afrikaans: deurskarnier).

BUTTING. The action of dressing the butt ends of grass bundles by dropping onto a hard surface. (Afrikaans: stamp).

BUTTRESS. A masonry pier built against a wall as a strengthening measure to resist outward pressure being applied on the opposite side. (Afrikaans: beer).

BYPILAAR. (Afrikaans). See under PILASTER.

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