Enfilade, the word

What is an enfilade?

An enfilade is a series of rooms whose doorways line up on a single axis, so that one view runs through them all, from the first room to the last. The word is French, from enfiler, to thread: the rooms are strung on the line of sight like beads on a thread.

Plan of an enfilade: a hall, salon, library, dining room and garden room in a row, their doorways on one axis, so one line of sight runs from the front door to the garden window

The meaning

In architecture, an enfilade is a suite of rooms laid out in a row, each opening into the next through a doorway set on the same line. Stand at one end and you see through every room to the far wall, or out through a window at the end.

In a true enfilade the rooms are the route. There is no corridor beside them: you reach each room by walking through the one before it, so moving through the suite becomes a procession, each room framed by the doorway ahead.

Where the word comes from

Enfilade is French, from the verb enfiler, to thread, as in threading a needle or stringing beads, from fil, thread. In English it is said EN-fuh-layd, or closer to the French, EN-fuh-lahd.

The same picture gives the word its military sense. Enfilading fire runs along the length of a line of troops rather than across it, and its opposite, defilade, is cover from such fire. Both senses describe one long, straight line.

In French homes the word also names a piece of furniture: a long, low sideboard with a row of doors, things in a line again.

Famous enfilades

The Palace of Versailles. The state apartments of the king and of the queen each run as a line of rooms, door after door, made to be walked in order.
Vaux-le-Vicomte. The château that inspired Versailles, with its reception rooms set out en enfilade.
The Catherine Palace, near St Petersburg. Its Golden Enfilade runs through the state rooms, gilded door frame after gilded door frame.
Chatsworth House and Blenheim Palace, England. Country houses whose state rooms were laid out in enfilade, to be walked through in order of rank.
Dulwich Picture Gallery, London. John Soane's top-lit rooms, each opening into the next, a model for picture galleries ever since.
The National Gallery, London. Galleries linked in long enfilades, so a visitor sees painting after painting framed in doorway after doorway.
Paris apartments. Haussmann-era flats often set the salon, dining room and study en enfilade along the street, with tall double doors that open them into one long room.
The shotgun house. The American vernacular cousin: rooms one behind the other, doors in a line, so that, the story goes, a shot fired through the front door would leave by the back.

Why architects still use it

A longer view. A line of sight through several rooms makes a home feel larger than its floor area.
Light from the ends. Daylight from a window at one end carries along the line, through every room on it.
A sense of arrival. Each doorway frames the next room, so walking through the house becomes a sequence.
Rooms that open up. With wide or sliding doors, living, dining and study can be one space for a party and three for every day.

The cost is privacy. When every room is also a passage, nobody can be alone in the middle one. Many plans pair the enfilade with a corridor alongside, or keep it to the rooms for receiving guests and put the bedrooms elsewhere.

A ground floor plan in Enfilade, every room marked and named

Drawing a good enfilade

Centre every doorway on the same axis, and check it on the plan, not by eye.
End the line on something worth seeing: a window, a garden, a work of art.
Keep the openings generous and alike, so the frames read as a rhythm.
Carry the floor through the thresholds, so the line reads as one.
Decide where privacy starts: which doors close, and where the line stops.

Related words

Suite. Rooms used together, not necessarily in a line.
Axis. The line an enfilade is built on.
Vista. A long, framed view, indoors or out.
Promenade architecturale. Le Corbusier's idea of a building understood by walking through it.
Defilade. In military use, cover from fire along a line, the opposite of enfilade.

Why our software is called Enfilade

Enfilade presents a home to the people who will live in it the way an enfilade does: room by room, in one line of sight, from the first room to the last. Architects and interior designers use it to turn a floor plan and mood boards into a design book their clients walk through on a phone and approve, room by room.

Read what Enfilade does, or open a live design book.

A client's design book on a phone: the plan, a room's mood board, and the room approved

Questions

What is an enfilade in architecture?

A series of rooms whose doorways line up on a single axis, so that one view runs through them all.

How do you pronounce enfilade?

EN-fuh-layd in English, or EN-fuh-lahd, closer to the French.

What is the difference between an enfilade and a corridor?

In an enfilade the rooms are the route: you walk through each room to reach the next. A corridor runs beside the rooms, so each can be reached on its own.

Is enfilade a military term?

It is both. In military use, enfilade is fire directed along the length of a line of troops. The architectural and military senses share the image of one long, straight line.

What is an enfilade in furniture?

In French, an enfilade is also a long, low sideboard with a row of doors, named for the same idea of things in a line.