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Thread: You didn't think I was done with Pentagons...did you?

  1. #1

    Wip You didn't think I was done with Pentagons...did you?

    Ok, so I loved the idea of a pentagonal tower (after constructing the pentagonal pyramid) and decided to try and mock up what a taller pyramid would look like.

    Essentially I wanted to turn the pyramid into a tower by stretching it up and giving it some interesting character.

    petagonal-pyramid-tower-02.png
    So first I stretched the basic pentagonal pyramid into a taller structure to give it some height. Then I cut cross sections out to make the pyramid less like a pyramid and, hopefully, more like a tower or a pagoda.

    I have no idea if the weight of the stone levels would be able to be supported on that central core of the tower but it seemed to look cool so I went with it.

    petagonal-pyramid-tower-01.png
    I then placed the pentagonal pyramid tower thing on a pentagonal base figuring the foundation to support such a massive construction would need to be fairly hefty. Additionally I liked the idea that you didn't walk up to the front door to this tower on 'street' level. You had to walk up the ramp which brought you at least one or two stories above everyone else around you before you even -began- to go into the tower.

    Yes...size does matter.

    petagonal-pyramid-tower-003.png
    Each layer of the pyramid is wider at the base than at the top but I wanted to put some kind of surrounding wall on each later so that people could walk out on them like patios in an apartment building. Based on the size of the door (around ten feet tall) on the ground level, each level of the pyramid tower would be 25-ish feet in height with an additional five feet of perimeter wall so you wouldn't fall off.

    orthanc-top.jpg
    The last addition was sort of a toss up. How to 'finish' the top of the pyramid. Originally I had the top of the tower simply ending in a point. Nothing fancy just a point.

    And then I remember that in LOTR: FOTR, Sauroman was seen casting at the top of Orthanc and the four points of the tower were around him almost like antenna. I loved the idea so I decided to work that into the design somehow.

    petagonal-pyramid-tower-004.png
    So I used the top of the pyramid temple and just copied it over for the tower.

    Whatcha think?

    -GP

  2. #2
    Guild Expert jbgibson's Avatar
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    It looks cool, no doubt about it. From an engineering / strength of materials standpoint there's no way you could get something built up from individual stones to hang together when cantilevered like that. Stone buildings' strength is mostly vertical, flying buttresses notwithstanding. BUT you do see natural rock formations vaguely like that - differentially eroded layers, or big-on-little. The more monolithic (ha: literally "one rock") it is the better I would thing it would stand. Could it be a single pillar hollowed out and notched? Maybe your people LIKE the aesthetic of built-up stonework, so they carve the outside to look more like many pieces went into it?

  3. #3

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    You know - I never really thought about the idea that it was one big hunk of stone. That's a very interesting concept.

    Ideally, in a world with magic (D&D) you could create the single stone pillar and then modify it like you said.

    All things are possible.

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