PLATFORM, in Architecture, is a row of beams which support the timber-work of a roof, and lie on the top of a wall where the entablature ought to be raised.
This term is also used for a kind of terrace or broad smooth open walk at the top of a building, from whence a fair prospect may be taken of the adjacent country. Hence an edifice is said to be covered with a platform, when it is flat at top, and has no ridge. Most of the oriental buildings are thus covered, as were all those of the ancients.