Plate XXVI. Octagonal Plans for Internal Effect

Plate XXVI. — The advantages of the octagonal plan as a feature of internal design are obvious when its principles are applied to points of interest, either at the meeting of passage ways or for the novel treatment of a single room. No. I shows the design of a hall or vestibule used as a centre of circulation with a domed ceiling and the light admitted through a lantern at the top. No. II has a lofty coved ceiling and is lighted from the sides, and No. III is a variant of No. I with a coved ceiling and lantern light. The system followed in No. IV is similar to that of No. III with the difference that an Order including a full entablature supports the coved ceiling and lantern. In the vestibule shown in No. V, advantage has been taken of the plan form to develop a system of intersecting vaults which finish against the rim of a circular domical skylight. In the octagonal vestibule shown in No. VI the octagon is repeated above a flat ceiling and continued vertically as a crowning lantern. The octagon is seldom used for ordinary apartments, but in the case of writing-rooms and rooms in the external angles of buildings this plan can be introduced with considerable effect.