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Digital Analysis of Vaults in English Medieval Architecture
Medieval churches are one of the most remarkable creative and technical achievements in architectural history. The complex vaults spanning their vast interiors have fascinated both visitors and worshippers alike for over 900 years, prompting many to ask: 'How did they do that?' Yet very few original texts or drawings survive to explain the processes behind their design or construction.
This book presents a ground-breaking new approach for analysing medieval vaulting using advanced digital technologies. Focusing on the intricately patterned rib vaulting of thirteenth and fourteenth century England, the authors re-examine a series of key sites within the history of Romanesque and Gothic Architecture, using extensive digital surveys to examine the geometries of the vaults and provide new insights into the design and construction practices of medieval masons. From the simple surfaces of eleventh-century groin vaults to the gravity-defying pendant vaults of the sixteenth century, they explore a wide range of questions including: How were medieval vaults conceived and constructed? How were ideas transferred between sites? What factors led to innovations? How can digital methods be used to enhance our understanding of medieval architectural design?
Featuring over 200 high quality illustrations that bring the material and the methods used to life, Digital Analysis of Vaults in English Medieval Architecture is ideal reading for students, researchers and anyone with an interest in medieval architecture, construction history, architectural history and design, medieval geometry and digital heritage.
This book presents a ground-breaking new approach for analysing medieval vaulting using advanced digital technologies. Focusing on the intricately patterned rib vaulting of thirteenth and fourteenth century England, the authors re-examine a series of key sites within the history of Romanesque and Gothic Architecture, using extensive digital surveys to examine the geometries of the vaults and provide new insights into the design and construction practices of medieval masons. From the simple surfaces of eleventh-century groin vaults to the gravity-defying pendant vaults of the sixteenth century, they explore a wide range of questions including: How were medieval vaults conceived and constructed? How were ideas transferred between sites? What factors led to innovations? How can digital methods be used to enhance our understanding of medieval architectural design?
Featuring over 200 high quality illustrations that bring the material and the methods used to life, Digital Analysis of Vaults in English Medieval Architecture is ideal reading for students, researchers and anyone with an interest in medieval architecture, construction history, architectural history and design, medieval geometry and digital heritage.
292 pages, Hardcover
Published July 30, 2021
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March 1, 2022
This is the book for you if you sit at the intersection of two nerdy interests - computer modelling and medieval architecture. Fortunately I am into both. I have been 3d modelling for about 25 years (since before Blender was open source!) and first tried to write a Python script to generate gothic vaults about 20 years ago and while I haven't taken this much further, nor had any professional need yet for it, I have continued to ponder it and played about with it in Grasshopper and Sverchok.
The book works systematically through the process of setting out a vault through the plan geometry, the curves of the ribs, how the individual stones could be set out and curved, the forms of the bosses and tas de charge and finally the webs. Alongside this was discussion of survey methods to obtain a detailed model of the reality on the ground and how this was compared with models of different techniques to set out the geometry based on knowledge and tools that we believe they had at the time.
What kept being revealed was both a combination of simple techniques and a geometry that was nothing like as precise as later Victorian theoretical reconstructions would suggest. There was instead an awful lot of tweaking things to make them fit the imperfect site conditions - for example a lot of arch centres were raised or lowered from the springing level to make the curves fit neatly. But still most of this seemed to be following a simple geometric model, albeit rather pragmatically.
I was most hoping to learn from the chapter on webs (the bit between the ribs) about the secrets of how to set out their geometry, but I was disappointed. Not because the book failed to discuss this in detail, but because their research showed that there was no secret and the geometry might vary significantly between one vault and the next in the same buildings as different masons worked took different approaches to cover the space with the stones they had available.
The discussion of the modelling techniques gave a fairly high level overview, but I believe the academic papers they reference (and wrote some of) will cover these in more detail for those who are extra keen. Overall, it gave enough to understand what they were doing but not necessarily enough to reproduce their efforts easily.
If you happen to also sit at the intersection of these interests, then this is an interesting read and you won't be disappointed. And if anyone wants to commission a gothic building, I would be more than happy to try and put this all into practice!
The book works systematically through the process of setting out a vault through the plan geometry, the curves of the ribs, how the individual stones could be set out and curved, the forms of the bosses and tas de charge and finally the webs. Alongside this was discussion of survey methods to obtain a detailed model of the reality on the ground and how this was compared with models of different techniques to set out the geometry based on knowledge and tools that we believe they had at the time.
What kept being revealed was both a combination of simple techniques and a geometry that was nothing like as precise as later Victorian theoretical reconstructions would suggest. There was instead an awful lot of tweaking things to make them fit the imperfect site conditions - for example a lot of arch centres were raised or lowered from the springing level to make the curves fit neatly. But still most of this seemed to be following a simple geometric model, albeit rather pragmatically.
I was most hoping to learn from the chapter on webs (the bit between the ribs) about the secrets of how to set out their geometry, but I was disappointed. Not because the book failed to discuss this in detail, but because their research showed that there was no secret and the geometry might vary significantly between one vault and the next in the same buildings as different masons worked took different approaches to cover the space with the stones they had available.
The discussion of the modelling techniques gave a fairly high level overview, but I believe the academic papers they reference (and wrote some of) will cover these in more detail for those who are extra keen. Overall, it gave enough to understand what they were doing but not necessarily enough to reproduce their efforts easily.
If you happen to also sit at the intersection of these interests, then this is an interesting read and you won't be disappointed. And if anyone wants to commission a gothic building, I would be more than happy to try and put this all into practice!
Displaying 1 of 1 review