part 1 gothic and it architecture -- what could they possibly have in common ?

Ectropic IT Architecture

Taken from the perspective of a 12th century master mason

Shift in thinking about Architecture – Why does it happen ?

Part 1 of 2

Objective

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In explaining what architects do, we often draw comparisons between building architects.

The progenitors of modern architects were the master masons who built the great Gothic cathedrals and churches found all over western Europe today.

This presentation looks at “architecture” in one of its earliest forms and draws some parallels with how we practice architecture today.

Of the nearly 19,000 ecclesiastical buildings in England and Wales today, nearly half date to the medieval period.

The movement known as Gothic began in the first half of the 12th century, in the Greater Paris basin. It continued for the next 400 years throughout Europe. By the end of the 15th century Gothic cathedrals could be found from Scandinavia in the north, to the Iberian peninsula in the south, from Wales in the west and the far reaches of central Europe in the east.


The Gothic Enterprise


The Twelfth century was the beginning of a remarkable transformation in the way in which monumental buildings were built. This new style of architecture became known as “French” and later become known as “Gothic”.

The “master masons” were progenitors of modern architects. Much as we do today, they had to deal with an organizational hierarchy, constraints around funding and timelines.

Patrons, were the stakeholders of the day and yes there were even the beginnings of project managers, known as Operai. – but these came later.



Remarkably, this style of architecture spread over a wide geographic area in relatively short period of time and persisted for four centuries.

On each building site, communication of a design had to take place between the patrons and the master mason and between the master mason and the stone masons, carpenters and labourers who all worked on the site. Remember, that the printing press is centuries away.

So imagine it’s the middle of the 12th century, and we are meeting to discuss this new approach to architecture …


The Gothic Enterprise – Paradigm Shift

So now imagine its the 12th century . You’ve returned from France and you’ve seen a very new type of building. It was known as the French style before it became known as Gothic.


Context for Change – Growth in Monasticism

We’ve seen a rapid growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent and spreading their influence widely. Foremost are the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in England. Part of their influence was that they tend to build within towns, unlike the Cistercians whose abbeys are seen in the remote countryside. The Cluniac and Cistercian Orders are prevalent in France. In fact it was the monastery at Cluny, which has established the formula for a well planned monastic site, which has influenced monastic building for some time.


With a rise in the number of monasteries, we’ve never seen a greater demand for the building or the rebuilding abbey churches.

Current State – Feudal

Europe in the 12th century is divided into a multitude of city-states and kingdoms. Nominally under the authority of the Holy Roman Empire, local rulers exercise considerable autonomy. France, Spain and Sicily are independent kingdoms, as was England, whose Plantagenet kings rule large domains in France.[6] Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by Germany.

Throughout Europe, there is rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands have large flourishing towns that have grown in comparative peace, in trade and competition with each other, or united for mutual benefits, as in the Hanseatic League.

In these times, Civic building is of great importance to these towns as a sign of wealth and pride. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their dukes for example.


In this largely feudal society we live in today, what our patrons are looking for is something that will distinguish them from the others. In this period of rapid growth in trade, and peaceful coexistence, there is adequate funding available. There has never been a better time to introduce new ideas.

Legacy Architecture – Where we’ve been

For the last two centuries or so, Romanesque architecture, or Norman architecture, as it is generally termed in England because of its association with the Norman invasion, has established the basic architectural forms and units that have slowly evolved.

The basic structure of the cathedral church, the parish church, the monastery, the castle, the palace, the great hall and the gatehouse have all been established. Ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories, wheel windows, spires and richly carved door tympanums are standard features of our ecclesiastical architecture.


After two centuries, we have the basic structures and techniques for architecting cathedrals, but there are great limitations in what we can do.

Norman Architecture – Wall thickness

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Out of necessity, our walls are of massive thickness with few and comparatively small openings. Often the walls we build are double shells, filled with rubble.

Norman Architecture – Buttresses


Even with the massive walls, we need the additional support of buttresses. The buttresses themselves have not been a significant feature, but what if we adopted a new kind of buttress that would remove much of the need for thick walls.

Norman Architecture – Vaulted Ceilings


Yes, today we can build vaulted ceilings, but the rooms must be square. What if we could have vaulted ceilings over rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids ?

What if we could raise these vaults much higher than they are today?

Imagine the possibilities.

This vault is located in the base of the north tower of Bayeaux. These are two transverse arches. This configuration dates from before 1077.

What’s happening in Architecture …

In recent years, Abbot Suger, who we all know is a friend and confidante of the French King Louis decided in 1137, to rebuild the great Church of Saint-Denis.

Single door replaced with three large Portals

Suger began with the West front, reconstructing the original facade with its single door. He designed the façade of Saint-Denis to be an echo of the Roman Arch of Constantine with its three-part division and three large portals to ease the problem of congestion.

A Rose Window A new feature is the rose window was placed in the West portal. At the completion of the west front

in 1140.

A Chancel suffused with light

He has designed a choir (chancel) that is suffused with light. To achieve this, his architects used the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, the ambulatory with radiating chapels, the clustered columns supporting ribs springing in different directions and the flying buttresses which enabled the insertion of large clerestorey windows.


The new structure was finished and dedicated on June 11, 1144, in the presence of the King. The Abbey of Saint-Denis became the prototype, it is often cited as the first building in the Gothic style.

Moving Forward – A new form of architecture

Abbot Suger and his architects have shown us the way into a new form of architecture, allowing a much greater expression of form, one that allows us as architects to offer new kinds of solutions to our patrons (stakeholders) and more adaptability to changing requirements.What we are proposing here is the adoption of this new approach to architecture. We must break away from the tradition of massive masonry and solid walls penetrated by small openings, and replace it with a style where; “light appears to triumph over substance”.

I am proposing the adoption of several new features including;

• The flying buttress with pinnacles• Traceried windows• Ribbed vaults• Pointed arches


The new Architecture – Flying Buttress and Pinnacles


An example of flying buttresses which arch externally from the springing of the vault across the roof of the aisle to a large buttress pier projecting well beyond the line of the external wall. These piers are often surmounted by a pinnacle or statue, further adding to the downward weight, and counteracting the outward thrust of the vault and buttress arch.

These flying buttresses and pinnacles eliminate the need for massive walls we built in the past.

The new Architecture – Windows and Stained glass


Due to the versatility of the pointed arch, the structure of windows have developed from simple openings to immensely rich and decorative sculptural designs.

The new Architecture – Windows and Stained glass


The larger window openings can now be filled with stained glass which adds a dimension of colour to the light within the building, as well as providing a medium for figurative and narrative art

The new Architecture – Vaulted Ceilings


Remember, the vaulted ceilings in the Romanesque style. Look at what we can achieve with this new style of architecture.

In one case, at Beauvais we have a cathedral with an internal height of 48 metres.

Here we have a nave that is considerably taller than it is wide, but different ratios are possible.

The extreme is reached at Cologne with a ratio of 3.6:1.

Most significantly notice the large increase in size of the windows.

Architecture based on Patterns


These are the patterns available for reuse, they are proven in that have been successfully used. These provide a visual vocabulary for communicating our designs.

They are prescriptive in nature and can be adapted to almost unlimited number of unique designs.

This is a modern sketch, but the approach to architecture at the time was very much based on reusing patterns in new and innovative ways. How these design ideas were communicated, when paper was prohibitively expensive, literacy was almost non existent and the printing press was centuries away is another area of great interest.

What’s possible – Bayeux


What’s possible – Mont St. Michel


What made “Gothic” so successful

• Evolutionary (not revolutionary)

• Reusable patterns

• Greater flexibility in meeting changing requirements


Patterns

Patterns were an important element in the communication of ideas, and undoubtedly led to the spread of this new form of architecture. They provided a visual vocabulary. Patterns that could be drawn in the sand or plaster and were an important way of communicating ideas about architecture.

Patterns provided the elements of design, but allow the builder great freedom in how they those elements are implied in the design of a building. A Gothic building design is a composition of selected and proven architectural patterns of the Gothic style.

Patterns are prescriptions. For example, if you wanted high vertical walls with large openings for windows; use flying buttresses and arched window openings.


Patterns are about the reuse of higher level concepts of design and architecture. Architecture without the application of patterns, is inefficient. Its about not reinventing the wheel over and over again. Further the application of patterns allows us to focus on the truly interesting parts of a solutions, that is the parts for which a pattern does not apply yet.

Evolutionary ideas

Gothic represented an significant evolution in design. Evolutionary ideas, where the builders did not have to go back to first concepts, allowed for the ideas to be spread more rapidly. All of the elements, of what we refer to today as Gothic, had been used before.

Evolutionary ideas are more easily accepted and adopted.

Even the buildings themselves were often evolutionary, in that it is not uncommon to see a building started in the Norman style, but by the time it was completed, the newer parts would be done in the Gothic style.


In IT architecture there a two kinds of shifts in thinking; evolutionary and revolutionary the most common are the evolutionary. Occasionally we get shifts in the way we think about design and architecture that are more revolutionary in nature. The former are more easy to adopt, the latter tend to have a more lasting impact.

Any new paradigm has to have real value to persist for close to four centuries

“It is one of the chief virtues of Gothic builders that they never suffered ideas of outside symmetry or consistencies to interfere with the real use and value of what they did. If the wanted a window they opened one, a room they added one, a buttress they built one … “ Ruskin continued in the chapter: The Nature of Gothic.


This suggests that this new approach allowed builders using this new paradigm flexibility in expressing the needs of the stakeholders, specifically the ability to handle last minute and incremental changes to an original design in a more timely manner.

Is this so different from today ? Do paradigms that allow more agility and freedom of expression always supplant the paradigm that came before it in a kind of evolutionary fashion.

Historical Note on the term “Gothic”

Originating in 12th-century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as "the French Style" (Opus Francigenum). The term Gothic first appeared during the latter part of the Renaissance as a stylistic insult. Its characteristic features include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.

The term "Gothic", when applied to architecture, has nothing to do with the historical Goths. It was a pejorative term that came to be used as early as the 1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric. At the time in which Vasari was writing, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Classical architectural vocabulary revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement.

In English 17th-century usage, "Goth" was an equivalent of "vandal", a savage despoiler with a Germanic heritage and so came to be applied to the architectural styles of northern Europe from before the revival of classical types of architecture.


How have we judged it today …

“It is in the great churches and cathedrals and in a number of civic buildings that the Gothic style was expressed most powerfully, its characteristics lending themselves to appeal to the emotions. A great number of ecclesiastical buildings remain from this period, of which even the smallest are often structures of architectural distinction while many of the larger churches are considered priceless works of art and are listed with UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. “


part 1 gothic and it architecture -- what could they possibly have in common ?

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