Orient the principal axis of the monument on the rising or setting of the sun at a solstice, so that the architecture frames it.
Rules · Capitals · Columns · Light
Open flowers in the light, buds in the shade
Give the columns of the tall, clerestory-lit central aisle open papyrus capitals and those of the lower aisles closed buds.
This is how the Karnak hypostyle and several other halls are arranged, and it is often read as an image of the marsh at dawn: the plants nearest the light have opened. The open campaniform capital, broad as a table, also gives the widest bearing to the heavy architraves of the central aisle.
Related rules
Arrange the temple on a single axis (pylon, open court, hypostyle hall, sanctuary) so that at each threshold the floor rises, the roof descends and the light diminishes, until the god’s shrine is reached in darkness.
In a great columned hall make the columns of the central aisle taller than the rest, and fill the difference in height with stone grilles, so that light enters high up over the side aisles.
Model the column on a plant of the Nile (a papyrus stem or bundle, a bundle of lotus, a palm trunk), bound at the neck with five bands, standing on a round base disc and carrying a small square abacus.
Cut a shaft with sixteen shallow flutes or facets, give it a square abacus and a low round base: the “proto-Doric” column of the Middle Kingdom rock tombs at Beni Hasan.
Turn the principal rooms and the columned portico of a house to face north, towards the cool prevailing wind, and keep the walls to the south and west blank against the sun.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Open flowers in the light, buds in the shade”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/papyrus-open-closed. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.