The royal palace was planned with careful engineering, prioritizing straight geometric lines and continuous airflow. Designed specifically as a summer residence, the building featured numerous openings to allow breezes to pass through easily. Because of its vast array of pillars and doorways, the structure resembled a dense forest [רש״י].
A defining feature of this architecture was its strict adherence to square shapes. The primary approach among commentators is that all the doorways, doorposts, and lintels were built completely square and straight, avoiding the rounded or arched designs commonly found in other structures [רש״י, רד״ק, מצודת דוד, אברבנאל]. Expanding on this geometric precision, some explain that the doorways and pillars combined to form massive squares measuring thirty cubits in each direction, effectively dividing the interior into perfectly equal sections [רלב״ג].
The architectural features above the doorways are understood in several ways. One perspective suggests the structural framing refers to the door lintel itself, which maintained the building's square design [רד״ק]. However, the primary approach among commentators is that small, square windows were installed directly above the doors, allowing those inside to look out at anyone standing near the gates [רד״ק, מצודת דוד, מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Alternatively, this feature might have been a covering made of thin, square wooden boards placed over the openings [רש״י]. A more intricate view describes a tiered design consisting of a door lintel topped by three windows, creating four distinct vertical layers of visibility [מלבי״ם].
The interior layout was defined by perfect visual alignment. The doorways and the viewing windows above them were arranged to directly face their counterparts on the opposite side of the building [מצודת דוד, אברבנאל]. This exact parallel alignment occurred three times. This indicates either that there were three perfectly aligned doorways in each opposite wall [מצודת דוד], or that the precise symmetry repeated itself across the three spaces between the rows of pillars running the length of the hall [מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ, רלב״ג]. Taking a different approach, some suggest this mirrored alignment actually refers to the wooden paneling on the ceiling, where the ends of the boards were arranged to face each other in three distinct sections across the roof [רש״י].