What is Pendentive and Squinch?

Pendentive and squinches are architectural elements that help support a dome. They fit into the corners of a space and bridge the difference between a dome and the square room on which it sits. Both forms developed around the 5th century and were first used in Byzantine and Islamic architecture.

What is a Squinch vault?

Squinch, in architecture, any of several devices by which a square or polygonal room has its upper corners filled in to form a support for a dome: by corbelling out the courses of masonry, each course projecting slightly beyond the one below; by building one or more arches diagonally across the corner; by building in …

What is a Squinch in architecture?

In architecture, a squinch is a construction filling in (or rounding off) the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome.

What is Squinch mean?

1 : to screw up (the eyes or face) : squint. 2a : to make more compact. b : to cause to crouch down or draw together. intransitive verb. 1 : flinch.

What are squinches and pendentives in architecture?

Pendentive and squinches are architectural elements that help support a dome. They fit into the corners of a space and bridge the difference between a dome and the square room on which it sits. A squinch, the more basic of the two, is a wedge that fits into the top corner of a space.

Which is the best definition of a squinch?

A squinch in architecture is a construction filling in the upper angles of a square room so as to form a base to receive an octagonal or spherical dome.

When did squinches start to be used in architecture?

Think of squinches as diagonal supports constructed across corners. The four squinches turn the square into an octagon, which enables a dome to rest on top of it. The squinch developed in the Middle East and ancient Rome around the 5th century AD, and it was often used in early Islamic and Byzantine architecture.

How is a squinch related to a dome?

A dome could then be placed on this surface, though it would lack support at the corners of the square. This was rectified by adding a small arch to the inside of each corner; each arch is known as a squinch. 1 Though squinches solve the problem of connecting a dome to a square frame, a much more elegant solution was developed by the Byzantines.