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Two drawings in lapis, terracotta and gold on paper: a section looking at one wall of a domed room, where pointed squinch arches over conical niches span the two corners below a drum and a ribbed dome, and a plan of the square with its four corner niches and the octagon they make.
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The Pattern Atlas

Squinch

No. 34 of 100 · free · 300 dpi

What you seeTwo drawings in lapis, terracotta and gold on paper: a section looking at one wall of a domed room, where pointed squinch arches over conical niches span the two corners below a drum and a ribbed dome, and a plan of the square with its four corner niches and the octagon they make.

What it meansThe squinch, used in Sasanian Iran and taken up across the Islamic world, is the simplest way to set a round dome on a square room. Corner niches of this kind later grew into the tiers of the muqarnas.

Where it worksAn architectural plate for a hallway, a study or an architect's office.

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2:3 · 7200 × 10800 px4×6 · 8×12 · 12×18 · 16×24 · 20×30 · 24×36 in
3:4 · 5400 × 7200 px6×8 · 9×12 · 12×16 · 18×24 in
4:5 · 7200 × 9000 px4×5 · 8×10 · 16×20 · 24×30 in
11:14 · 3300 × 4200 px11×14 in
A-series · 7023 × 9933 pxA5 · A4 · A3 · A2 · A1

Everything is one ZIP: every shape and size, the phone wallpaper, the SVGs and a printing guide.

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All 100 prints
A section through a domed bay in green and blue on pale sage: two piers carry the rear arch, the curved pendentives fill the corners up to a ring, the dome rises from the ring, and the sphere the pendentives are cut from is dashed in gold. Beside it a plan: the square bay, its corner piers, the ring and the dashed sphere.PendentiveNo. 35
Four square panels on paper, each filling the plane with one small leaf repeated in two colours by a different symmetry, labelled p6m, p4m, cmm and p4g, with one repeating cell shaded and outlined.Wallpaper GroupsNo. 36
A pointed arch on deep lapis with alternating gold and bone voussoirs, drawn over its construction: the springing line, the two compass centres, their arcs and the radii that meet at the apex, with smaller lancet, equilateral and drop arches set beside it on the longer formats.The Pointed ArchNo. 37
Four circles in gold line on ink, each divided by compass and straightedge and shown with its construction and the star it gives: into six by stepping the radius, into eight by bisecting right angles, into ten by Ptolemy's construction of the decagon side, and into twelve by arcs from four points.Dividing the CircleNo. 38
A field of eight-fold star pattern on terracotta: cream straps weave over and under round large sand stars, each filled with a finer pattern of small navy stars and dark four-pointed stars, among green and navy shapes.Stars within StarsNo. 39
Two diagrams in burgundy, blue and gold on soft rose: a square with four rectangles along its sides, labelled x² and 2½x, and the same figure completed into a larger square by four small corner squares of 6¼, with the equations beneath.Completing the SquareNo. 40
An iwan drawn in elevation and plan on terracotta: a pointed arch in a tiled frame opens into a deep vaulted hall with a doorway and grille at the back, flanked by two storeys of niches, with the plan below showing the hall open to the courtyard.IwanNo. 41
The plan of a four-iwan mosque in deep green on sage: a paved courtyard with a central pool, an iwan opening at the middle of each side, domed bays on a grid of piers all round, and a domed chamber behind the iwan on the qibla side.Four-Iwan PlanNo. 42

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