f you don’t speak Arabic, you might call this space a shaft. And on paper, it shares a similar function, bringing light and air into denser parts of a building or in this case a home. But much is lost in this translation. For instance, it’s size, as they average the space between these four columns.

This formal framing of the masqat marginalizes its use. Drawings of Egyptian homes exacerbated this dilemma by drawing the shafts in Egyptian homes as x’ed out rectangles. But it is so much more than what has been written or typically drawn.

The Masqat is essential to how a home functions, it is a space worthy of being drawn, considered architecture, and cared for through design.