# 14 Byzantine Dome base -- hassan vault design

Pendentive is the term given to a construction element that allows a dome to be placed over square or rectangular spaces. Pendentives are triangular segments of a sphere that spread at the top and taper to points at the bottom, thereby enabling the continuous circular or elliptical base needed to support the dome.

A pendentive is a triangular piece beneath a dome that allows the dome to rise high above the floor. Usually ornamented and four to a dome, pendentives make the dome appear as if it's hanging in the air, like a "pendent." The word is from the Latin pendens meaning "hanging." Pendentives are used for stabilizing a round dome on a square frame, resulting in enormous interior open space beneath the dome.

Another of workshop lesson comes simply from the sizes of the adobes. Nubian masons use two sizes of brick, a small flat brick (10"x 6"x 1&1/2")with two finger grooves made when wet for vaulting, and another heavier brick Approximately, 3"x 4"x 8" or about the size of the soft red brick used in Tucson in the 20's and 30's. These adobes weigh from 10-15 lbs and can be handled in one hand with ease. Adobes in use in Arizona and New Mexico today weigh from 30 to 40 lbs. in sizes 4"x 12"x 16" and even larger. My first reaction to these small size adobes was that it made for inefficiency in handling -- larger adobes, more mass per movement, more wall laid by each mason.

https://sites.google.com/view/new-pue...