Glossary · S
Setback
Also called setbacks
The stepping back of the upper part of a building from the street line, required by zoning laws to let light and air reach the street.
See also: Zoning envelope
Rules that use the word
Setbacks behind a sloping plane. At the street line a building may rise to a multiple of the street’s width; above that it must stay behind a plane drawn from the centre of the street, stepping back as it rises.
A tower on a quarter of the lot. Over one quarter of the lot area, a tower may rise to any height, free of the setback planes.
Carve the building out of the envelope. Treat the largest mass the zoning law allows as a block to be sculpted: cut it into setbacks that give usable, well-lit floors, and gather the remaining height into a tower that ends in a crown.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters The Modern Movement.
A feature of Art Deco architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Semicircular arch · Semidome · Şerefe · Serliana · Sexpartite vault · Shaft · Shakkei · Shaku