Quoin

This article is about the architectural technique. For other uses, see Quoin (disambiguation).

File:RomaPalazzetto.jpg

Quoining on the corners of Palazzo Aragona Gonzaga, Rome

File:Quoins at the Templehouse Walled Garden, Dunlop, East Ayrshire (cropped).jpg

Alternate horizontal quoining on a wall in East Ayrshire

File:1993-1994-Giardino Giusti (Verona)-testo e photo Paolo Villa-nA04 (light and perspective corrections) -tesi Accademia Belle Arti Bologna-cortile e portico di Palazzo Giusti-Kodak EKTACHROME ELITE 200 5056.jpg

Porch quoins, Palazzo Giusti, Verona

Quoins (/kɔɪn/ or /kwɔɪn/) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, these imply strength, permanence, and expense, all reinforcing the onlooker's sense of a structure's presence.

Stone quoins are used on stone or brick buildings. Brick quoins may appear on brick buildings, extending from the facing brickwork in such a way as to give the appearance of generally uniformly cut ashlar blocks of stone larger than the bricks. Where quoins are decorative and non-load-bearing a wider variety of materials is used, including timber, stucco, or other cement render.

Techniques

File:1993-1994-Giardino Giusti (Verona)-testo e photo Paolo Villa-nA2-tesi Accademia Belle Arti Bologna-portone di Palazzo Giusti.jpg

Rustic quoins and keystone on the main entrance to the Palazzo Giusti, Verona

Ashlar blocks

In a traditional, often decorative use, large rectangular ashlar stone blocks or replicas are laid horizontally at the corners. This results in an alternate, quoining pattern.

Alternate cornerstones

Courses of large and small corner stones are used, alternating between stones of different thickness, with typically the larger cornerstones thinner than the smaller.

Alternate vertical

File:St Benet's Cambridge stylesofarchitec00rick 0382 (cropped).jpg

Tower of St Bene't's, Cambridge, showing long and short work

The long and short quoining method instead places long stone blocks with their lengths oriented vertically, between smaller ones that are laid flat. This load-bearing quoining is common in Anglo-Saxon buildings such as St Bene't's Church in Cambridge, England.