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.
Roundels and plaques
Enrich a plain wall between the storeys with carved roundels and plaques set in it, over the windows or between them, in place of the heavy dressings of the Palladians.
Related rules
Make the architrave round a door or window as wide as a sixth part of the opening’s breadth, and dress the openings of the principal floor more richly than those of the storeys above and below, with a frieze and cornice, and on the grandest a pediment.
architrave = ⅙ × width of the light
Rusticate the lowest storey or the basement, its stones marked by deep joints, as the plainest and strongest part of the building; keep the dressed stone, the orders and the ornament for the storeys above.
Mark the level of each floor on the front with a plain flat band of stone (a plat band), or with a moulded string course where the front is richer, so that the storeys can be read from outside.
Light the hall over the front door with a fanlight: a half-round light with bars radiating like the ribs of a fan, or, after 1770, an elliptical one, often with narrow lights at the sides of the door.
Set urns or statues on the pedestals of a balustrade crowning a front, over the piers and the angles, so that the skyline is broken at regular intervals.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Roundels and plaques”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/adam-roundels. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.