Gothic

The Gothic era began with the royal abbey, founded in the fifth century. The Abbot Suger was the head of the monestery of St. Denis. When he had the church remodeled, an architectural movement started that redifined religious architecture, known as Gothic. At this point in time, Paris was the center of the Gothic world. Later, about 50 years it would spread to England.  Churches were still a prominent feature of the design movement. However, some of the main points in the Gothic time period that existed in these cathedrals were the pointed arch, ribbed vault, and flying butress.  Gothic architecture was important because it is an entire arcchitectural system including plans, sections, facades, and details. Each of these components all came togetehr to create the overall effect of the Gothic style. In addition, the civic ingrastructure was developed and more and more towns were built. Urban design became more notworthy in the Gothic time and there was more emphasis on civic government and its architectural infastructure, such as libraries, town halls, hospitals, and universities.



 

Flying buttress- The flying buttress started out as a correction to prop up a leaning wall. The butress holds the wall in place and helps maintain stability. It became revised with a smalled profile and not attaching to the wall. This allowed for the area of the wall to be devoted to glass. The flying buttress allows the wall to be supported as well as the roof.

 

Pointed Arch

 

Ribbed vault- (which resembled an umbrella)

Another important feature of the Gothic style was stained glass windows. The rose window was popular in many cathedrals. Below you can see what the stained glass rose window looked like. The portions that hold the stained glass in the pattern is called tracery. It is almost like a spider web. There are two types of tracery most common, trefoil and quatrefoil. The Romanesque people thought of walls to be solid and windows were just holes puched in to them. The tracery allows for windows to become solid elements while the glass in held in place, being made out of stone or metal.

 

 

Some say the Gothic period marked the beginning of the Renaissance in England because of its technical achievements and spatial innovation.

 

 Current Applications

The  modern skycraper mullion, or glass-to-glass pressure connections stems from Gothic tracery.

 

 

 The wallpaper on the left shows what relates to the rose window in the Gothic cathedral.

Here you can see the pointed arch used in modern-day design.