Problem
There are few cases in traditional architecture where builders have not used some roof detail to cap the building with an ornament.
Solution
Choose a natural way to cap the roof—some way which is in keeping with the kind of construction, and the meaning of the building. The caps may be structural; but their main function is decorative—they mark the top—they mark the place where the roof penetrates the sky.
Related Patterns
… and this pattern finishes the Roof Garden (118) or the Roof Vaults (220). Assume that you have built the roof vaults - or at least that you have started to build up the splines which will support the cloth which forms the vault. Or assume that you have begun to build a roof garden, and have begun to fence it or surround it. In either case - how shall the roof be finished?
Finish the roof caps any way you want, but don’t forget them - Ornament (249) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 1084.