Thursday, March 15, 2012

Pentagonal Orthobirotunda Pattern

Girih patterns are decorative Islamic designs in which star shapes and polygons are connected with interlacing straight lines. Girih (Persian for “knot”) can be painstakingly created with a straightedge and compass. About nine hundred years ago Islamic architects developed an ingenious method for generating girih patterns simply with tiles. The girih tiles are five decorated polygons used to create girih patterns systematically without the need for complex drafting. We can extend the girih system into three dimensions by applying the concept to the faces of polyhedra.

Here are twelve pentagonal orthobirotundi, with girih patterns.