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Architecture vocabulary · Building Elements and Structure

Cantilever

Meaning in architecture, with examples

/ˈkæntɪliːvər/nounCommon term

In architecture, cantilever means: A beam, slab or part of a building that projects outwards and is supported at only one end, with nothing holding it up at the other end.

In Turkish: konsol

How it is used

Used for balconies, canopies and dramatic upper floors. Parts of a building cantilever out over a street or slope, so the word is both a noun and a verb. Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is a famous example of cantilevered terraces.

Example sentences

  1. The upper floor cantilevers six metres over the entrance, creating a covered porch.

  2. A cantilever that long will need a very stiff steel structure.

Common collocations

  • cantilevered balcony
  • cantilever out
  • long cantilever
  • cantilevered canopy
  • beamA horizontal structural member that carries loads across an opening or between supports and transfers them to columns or walls.
  • slabA flat horizontal structural element, usually of reinforced concrete, that forms a floor or roof and spreads loads to beams, walls or columns.
  • structural systemThe set of connected elements, such as foundations, columns, beams, walls and slabs, that carries a building's loads safely down to the ground.
  • steel frameA structure of steel columns and beams joined together, which carries the floors and roof and makes large open spaces and tall buildings possible.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Building Elements and Structure

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