Muqarnas

  I suspect you saw the title and wondered about it?  I did when I stumbled across the topic in the latest Make magazine. 

The simplest way to describe muqarnas is they are three dimensional renderings of two dimensional geometric design.  In addition, there are two types - North African (Middle Eastern) or Iranian Style.  The School of Islamic Geometric Design has a short explanation on the differences between the two styles.

The idea behind muqarnas is that they smooth transitional zones between one area to the next.  The interesting thing about these is they can be made out of cement or wood.

This slideshare provides a great introduction to the topic.  It includes information on muqarnas themselves, the people who helped create them, types, and even the history of them. It is well done and shows lots of examples.

So where does one go to find instructions for use in your classroom.  This 13 minute is a great introduction to making one out of cardboard.  The creator takes people through the creation process showing everything step by step.  Unfortunately, the measurements are a bit vague in that he states its what he chose but he takes time to show everything in detail.

In addition, this 24 page pdf has greater detail with hand drawn patterns so a person can see how certain ideas are created. Some of the information appears in the slide share but the reason I recommend this one is there is a whole chapter beginning on page 11 which goes into great detail on going from design to the muqarna itself. 

It discusses how the arrows meet with shapes, the 5 basic rules to keep in mind when creating a muqarna, and even reading muqarna graphs and subgraphs.  Everything you need to create a unit in geometry.  I could not find any lessons already created but this is a fascinating topic. 

Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear from people.  Thanks for reading.