What do you call a barrel vault with a dome at each end?

July 24, 2020 1:32 AM

Architecture folks: you take a barrel vault, and put a quarter-sphere dome at each end's arch. Or you take a hemispherical dome, slice it vertically, spread the halves apart horizontally, and connect / fill the gap with a barrel vault. What's this shape called?
posted by bartleby to Science & Nature (5 answers total)

Kind of similar to the Sala de la Barca in the Alhambra, although the domed parts rest on pendentives there.

Personally I don't know that I've ever heard a specific name for that particular configuration beyond "a barrel vault with domed ends".
posted by LionIndex at 3:54 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Barrel vault terminated with apses.
posted by multivalent at 5:47 AM on July 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

In game dev, a cylinder capped at each end with semi-spheres is called a "capsule" (often used for collision detection geometry) as it resembles medicinal capsules. So what you're describing could be called a semi-capsule (imagine a capsule sliced in half lengthwise.)
posted by smcameron at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

The 2D shape is called a stadium.
posted by zadcat at 8:25 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Since that Wikipedia article ends with

A capsule is produced by revolving a stadium around the line of symmetry that bisects the semicircles.

...I suggest the name for this shape is hemi-capsule.
posted by Rash at 8:30 AM on July 24, 2020 [1 favorite]