Gothic Architecture Origins - France 1122 A.D. (the Medieval Period)

Gothic Architecture Origins - France 1122 A.D. (the Medieval Period)

Gothic architecture is a further development on Romanesque architecture, which had piers, vaulting, arches & buttresses.

Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, had influence in politics & building through the Royal Church of France. Earlier churches had heavy construction with small windows & were dark. Suger envisaged a building of 'Light'. This form of building was inspiration for City Cathedrals.

L-R: Exterior and interior North Transcept 'Rose' window (stained glass)

Gothic architecture varied from region to region, country to country & over time.

There were no set formulae & orders as in Classical Greek & Roman architecture. In fact, the stone masons were creative & individualists. They competed with each other and also admired their fellow masons work.

New techniques had to be developed to get stones to high places. This was equivalent to the new technologies, that had to be developed for space flight.

Exterior Aisle Window. Pointed arch & hood mould above arch.

NCathedrals in medieval times were the only large covered buildings spaces. They were also used for secular activities, such as trade fairs.

Cathedrals usually had holy relics of Saints and were included in a pilgrim's travels.

Gothic Revival - England 1840 A.D. (the Victorian Era)

St John's Cathedral is a Gothic Revival Church designed by John L. Pearson Architect circa 1896 A.D. (he died in 1897). Gothic Revival architecture developed out of a search to find the most appropriate 'style' of Church buildings.

During the 'Industrial Revolution' in England, there was mass migration of people to cities. Religious & other authorities were concerned, that the new people were being lead 'astray' in the cities. Laws were passed & taxes collected to build more churches for worship & social purposes. A massive building progam occurred in England from 1840 onwards.

Gothic Construction

"The medieval structure carries pure compressive engineering to its penultimate degree". The principles of Gothic construction are simple and visible. There are three elements - walls, roofs, openings. The walls don't do much work in supporting the roof forces. The roof encloses the space and is supported on a stone skeleton of ribs & vaulting. That weight is sustained by the piers.

View Cathedral Cross Section here detailing walls, roofs and openings.

Current Technology

The principles of Gothic architecture still apply today for load bearing stonework. Structural engineers have analysed earthquake forces. Additional stainless steel reinforcement has been used to resist shear forces in the structure.

The computer drawings can be printed to a small scale so the masons can see the overall design. Drawings can also be printed at actual full size for use as the mason's template for stonework. Computer drawings can be converted to be used to profile stones on a stone cutting machine at St John's Quarry at Helidon, Queensland.

Computer drawing West End 'Basket Weave' (stonework cut on RobotWire machine at quarry for CAD profiles).

More information

Using computers has aided construction, reducing the amount of time needed to make the stonework. It also has reduced the amount of wasted stone by cutting away excess stone. The original architect's drawings have been scanned as computer file images. They are inserted over the computer drawings to check that the original design is followed.

Recently computer generated surveying equipment has become available. The instrument has a laser scanner, that digitizes the existing buildings form as a three dimensional object. The scanned object can be inserted into a 3D computer drawing. This information is useful when doing restoration of stonework.