HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IV

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
Lecture 01

Tutor: Safiya MD
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

•Time period 12th to 15th century

•Represent a complete break with

the architectural inheritance of
Greek and Rome

•Birth place was northern France

• A combination of Romanesque
Architecture and Spanish Moorish
Architecture

•Originally Known as French

Style
CHARACTERISTICS

•Airy and bright

•Focus on verticality
•Pointed arches
•Rib vaults
•Flying buttresses
•pinnacles
•Large stained glass windows,
Rose windows
•3 Parts: Arcade; Triforium,
Clerestory
•Ornaments and pinnacles
CHARACTERISTICS
CHARACTERISTICS

POINTED ARCHES

•Since the focus was on the verticality ,

they brought innovative construction
techniques to reach great height (eg:
pointed arch)

•During gothic era builders discovered

that the pointed arches will give
structures amazing strength and stability

•Builders turned from the unbroken

semicircular arch to pointed arch
CHARACTERISTICS

RIBBED VAULT

•Organic metaphor of ribs in a body ,

which support tissue

•Arches 3 pairs per rectangular bay ,

running diagonally

•Cross ribs along with outer frame

creates a complete framework of arches
along the edges and main folds of the
vault

•Ribbed vaults uses columns to support

weights

•The ribs also delineated the vaults and

gave a sense of unity to the structure
CHARACTERISTICS

FLYING BUTTRESS

• In order to prevent the

outward collapse of the
arches

• Free standing brick or stone

supports were attached to the
exterior by an arch or a half
arch
CHARACTERISTICS

PINNACLE

A pinnacle is an architectural
ornament originally forming the cap of
a buttress

The pinnacle had two purposes:

•Ornamental – adding to the loftiness

and verticality of the structure They
sometimes ended with statues

•Structural – the pinnacles were very

heavy and often rectified with lead, in
order to enable the flying buttresses to
contain the stress of the structure vaults
and roof
CHARACTERISTICS

ROSE WINDOW

• a circular window used for those

found in churches of the Gothic
architectural style and being
divided into segments by stone
mullions and tracery
CHARACTERISTICS

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS

CHARACTERISTICS

GARGOYLE

•Addition to religious figures , strange

leering creatures

•a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque

with a spout designed to convey water
from a roof and away from the side of
a building thereby erosion
NOTRE DAME, PARIS
PLANNING:
• The interior of Notre
Dame measures 130 m x
48 m and 35 m high.
• The Plan comprises of
double aisles and double
ambulatories
• Transept did not project
beyond the aisle wall
• Transept which divides
the interior into a nave
and a chevet(altar) of
nearly equal Proportion.
• High Vault- Sexpartite
vault and is 30m high
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL, FRANCE
REFERENCES
1. Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture,
Twentieth Edition, 1996

2. Spiro Kostof, History of Architecture: Settings and

Rituals, 1995