Kündekari

Kündekari is a Turkish woodworking technique in which small polygonal and star-shaped pieces are held together by grooved strips that interlock with them, without nails or glue. The result is a surface of continuously repeating geometric pattern. The individual pieces are often carved as well.

Why this technique?

Wood swells and shrinks with moisture and temperature. A large solid panel cracks or warps under that movement. In kündekari every piece is small and can shift slightly within its grooves, so the surface moves as a whole without splitting. The method is therefore a structural answer as much as a decorative one.

• True kündekari: pieces assembled by interlocking with grooved strips.
• Imitation kündekari: strips and pieces nailed or glued onto a flat panel to give the same look.

Where it is used

Kündekari appears most often on the side panels of minbars, the leaves of mosque and madrasa doors, window shutters, lecterns and cupboard doors. Seljuk-period timber minbars are among the best-known examples of the technique.

Kündekari in surveys and restoration

The survey records the geometric logic of the pattern, the size of each unit and the location of missing pieces. Telling true kündekari from imitation work matters for choosing the right intervention. Missing pieces are replaced in the same timber species and the same jointing logic, and new pieces are kept distinguishable from the original on close inspection. Once the pattern geometry is solved, a whole panel can be built in a 3D model from a single unit.