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The Da Vinci Code vocabulary
7 architecture terms
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undercroft
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tags: [architecture]
► definition
Definition:traditionally a cellar or storage room, often brick-lined and vaulted, and used for storage in buildings since medieval times. In modern usage, an undercroft is generally a ground (street-level) area which is relatively open to the sides, but covered by the building above.[...]Undercrofts were commonly built in England and Scotland throughout the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. They occur in cities such as London, Chester, Coventry and Southampton. The undercroft beneath the Houses of Parliament in London was rented out to the conspirators behind the Gunpowder Plot.In modern buildings, the term undercroft is often used to describe a ground-level parking area that occupies the footprint of the building (and sometimes extends to other service or garden areas around the structure). This type of parking is, however, discouraged by some urban design guidelines, as it prevents the ground floor from having activities (shops, restaurants or similar) that provide for a lively streetscape.text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike
photo 1: by Stavros1, CC0photo 2: by Ingolfson, CC0
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Uses:
Then in spring they would vault the undercroft, floor the hall above it, and put on the roof.
Ken Follett. The Pillars of the Earth, p.24 (1990)
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Blackadder: [...] when I was a small boy, I used to watch the marsh warblers swooping in my mother's undercroft, and I remember thinking, "Will men ever dare do the same?" And you know . . .
Darling: Oh, you want to join the Royal Flying Corps?
BBC. Blackadder, season 4: Private Plane
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