Glossary · C
Coffer
Also called coffers, coffering, lacunar, lacunaria
A sunken panel, square or polygonal, set into a ceiling, vault or dome, reducing its weight and giving it a regular pattern. The Pantheon’s dome has five rings of 28 coffers.
See also: Dome
Rules that use the word
Coffers that diminish towards the lantern. Divide the inside of a dome into coffers that shrink in step with the meridians as they rise, so that their perspective deepens the dome and draws the eye to the light of the lantern.
Choose the grade of cai by the rank of the building. There are eight grades of cai, from 9 × 6 cun down to 4½ × 3 cun; use the first for great halls of nine or eleven bays and the smallest for pavilions and ceiling coffers.
Coffers in rings that shrink toward the crown. Divide the inner surface of the dome into sunk panels arranged in rings and meridians; let them diminish as they rise with the converging meridians, and stop them short of the crown so that a smooth zone surrounds the eye.
Where it appears in the book
In the chapters Domes, Renaissance and Baroque.
A feature of Baroque architecture.
Nearby in the glossary
Clerestory · Cloister vault · Close studding · Clump · Collar · Column · Commensurability · Compluvium