Transcript Sutherland Open House February, 2014 Body Building – The

Sutherland Open House
February, 2014
Body Building – The Human
Cathedral
(Architecture from Romanesque to Gothic)
Kevin J. Benoy
Social Studies Department
The Plan
• First we will look at a
few Medieval
architectural
developments.
• Then we will
demonstrate those
principles using people
as building blocks.
From Darkness to Light
Autun Cathedral
Romanesque interiors
were heavy and dark
Chartres Cathedral
Gothic interiors were light
and airy.
Suger’s New Style
• At St. Denis (Paris),
Bishop Suger
wanted to bring
“the light of God”
into his Church.
• The engineering
techniques were not
new, but were never
employed together
to this effect before.
Suger’s New Style -Pointed Arches
Romanesque (Norman)
Arches at Gloucester
Gothic Arches at St. Denis
• Gothic pointed arches
directed weight
downward in a more
focused way – the result
was that vertical supports
could be spaced more
widely apart than the old
rounded arches allowed.
• Walls no longer need bear
so much weight.
Suger’s New Style – Ribbed Vaults
• Romanesque design
took the rounded arch,
extending it through
space to form a barrel
vault where the weight
was supported by thick
walls.
• The Gothic style added
a stone skeleton of
ribbed vaults to focus
overhead weight onto
supporting piers. Walls
that no longer bore
loads could be filled
with glass.
Suger’s New style – Flying Buttresses
Romanesque Buttresses, Autun
Flying Buttresses transferring
Weight – Notre Dame, Paris
• Builders have long known
that adding outside
supports to a wall gave
additional strength. Thick
Romanesque walls were
bolstered by frequent
buttressing.
• The flying buttress
allowed weight to be
transferred to supports
pushed outside the
building.
Suger’s New Style - Gothic
•
•
•
•
Pointed Arches
Ribbed Vaults
Flying Buttresses
Together, these features
allowed for a new, light,
airy, larger, open-plan
space that awed
medieval viewers and
continues to awe
people today.