Build each stage of a platform as a sloping talud surmounted by a vertical tablero: a rectangular panel framed by a projecting border and cantilevered slightly over the slope below; repeat the pair at every stage.
Teotihuacan: tablero taller than talud (often ≈ 1½–2 × its height)
Treat the stepped pyramid as a platform whose purpose is to lift a small temple towards the sky, reached by a single steep stair on its principal face; enlarge it by building a new shell over the old.
To make a small temple dominate the skyline, build a tall crest of masonry on its roof, set over the heavy rear wall and pierced with openings to lighten it; model it in painted stucco with the figure of the ruler or god.
Align the principal avenue and every building of the city to a single bearing (at Teotihuacan about 15½° east of north) so that the whole city shares one orientation with its great pyramids.
In a corbelled vault each course may project only a little beyond the one below, and each overhanging half must have its centre of gravity behind the inner face of its wall; load the tails of the stones with heavy hearting until the capstone is set.
stable if Σ W·x (behind the springing edge) > Σ W·x (in front)
Keep the span of a corbelled room to about three metres or less and make it long instead of wide; to enlarge a building, add parallel galleries rather than widening them.
Maya room spans ≈ 1.5–3 m; vault rise ≈ 1–1½ × span
Give doors, windows and niches sides that lean inward, so that each opening is narrower at the top than at the bottom, and span it with a single stone lintel.
top width ≈ ⅘ of bottom width
Batter every wall a few degrees, thicker at the foot than at the top, and round its outer corners.
batter ≈ 3–5°
For the most sacred buildings lay rectangular blocks in level courses that diminish in height towards the top of the wall, with pillowed faces and joints closed without mortar.
Frame the doorway of a temple, palace or royal precinct with a second, larger recessed trapezoid, so that the opening steps back in two planes; keep the single jamb for ordinary buildings.
A beam is squeezed along its top and stretched along its bottom; stone resists squeezing well but stretching badly, so a stone lintel must be deep in proportion to its span and cannot be long. Doubling the span quadruples the stress from its own weight.
σ ≈ ¾ ρ g L² ⁄ d (self-weight) · + ≈ 0.43 ρ g L³ ⁄ d² (a wall above)
In a bonded masonry wall the courses above an opening corbel over it of their own accord, so the lintel carries roughly the triangle of wall with sides rising at 60° from its ends; everything above that triangle arches onto the jambs.
load ≈ equilateral triangle on the span: W ≈ 0.43 · L² · t · ρ g