Tilework of the Qasr Nadira

The Lapis Courtyard

An eight-pointed star is two squares that refused to choose a single direction. Pass your hand across the wall and each star turns an eighth of the way toward you.

Two squares, one star

Each tile begins as a single square turned through forty-five degrees and laid over itself. The points that result meet their neighbours tip to tip, and the space left between them becomes a ground of quiet crosses.

Inside, a smaller star and a rosette of eight petals alternate between two glazes. Turn a tile by one eighth and the star looks unchanged, but the petals trade colours, so the wall keeps a memory of every hand that passed by.

Click any tile to send a ripple through the wall