The Textbook of Architecture

The Cabinet of Models

The timber pagoda

A multi-storey pagoda: storeys diminishing upwards, deep eaves on bracket sets, a central pillar and a bronze spire of nine rings.

The timber pagoda Open in Models ↗

Illustrates: Chinese · Japanese · Korean

The rules it illustrates

Diminish the pagoda upward. Make each storey of a pagoda narrower than the one below and derive all from the bay of the first storey; in the oldest Japanese pagodas the top storey is about half as wide as the first.

The central pillar stands free. Run a single great pillar up the centre of the pagoda to carry the spire, but do not let the storeys rest on it: each storey stands on its own frame, stacked around the pillar.

Where it appears in the book

In the styles Korean, Japanese.

In the chapters China, Japan and Korea.

The terms it shows

Pagoda · Shinbashira