architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

, a hood mould, hood, label mould (from Latin ''labia'', lip), drip mould or dripstone, is an external moulded projection from a wall over an opening to throw off rainwater, historically often in form of a ''

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedim ...

''. This moulding can be terminated at the side by ornamentation called a ''label stop''. The hood mould was introduced into architecture in the Romanesque period, though they became much more common in the

Gothic period Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern Europe, North ...

. Later, with the increase in rectangular windows they became more prevalent in domestic architecture.

Styles of hood moulding

File:IMG 0817 - Perugia - Finestra - Foto G. Dall'Orto - 6 ago 2006 - 01.jpg, Circular hood moulding File:StBeesSchoolMusicBlock.JPG, Rectangular hood mouldings on a rendered Victorian building File:Mercer House 2017.jpg, Every window of the Mercer House in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later t ...

, is crowned with a cast-iron hood moulding File:Magdalene College SCR Window.jpg, Tudor-style hood mould ending in decorative label stops, Magdalene College, Cambridge

References

* Architectural elements {{Architecture-stub