Cantilever is a rigid structural element that projects horizontally, supported at only one end.
A cantilever is a beam, slab, or other structural member that extends horizontally into open space while being anchored and supported at only one end, relying on that anchor to resist the bending force created by its own unsupported length. The technique lets architects create dramatic overhangs, balconies, and floating volumes with no visible support beneath them. Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater (1935) is the canonical modern example — its concrete terraces reach out over a Pennsylvania stream, appearing to hover with no column in sight. Cantilevers appear throughout architectural history in more modest forms too, from the corbelled eaves of Japanese temples to the jettied upper floors of medieval European townhouses, wherever builders wanted extra floor space or shelter without extending a structure's footprint.