Thursday 9 April 2015

BA3 - Architecture Research - Gothic

To start off my research i decided to choose 3 different architectural styles and research a little bit about each and one of them, to later decide which one i want to extend my research on. I decided to start of with Gothic Architecture.


 The first architectural type that came in mind when receiving this project was Medieval architecture. I really like the aesthetics of Medieval architecture and it transfers very well into games and fantasy settings. Of course there are different types of architecture to this style and Gothic is one of them.

Gothic Architecture began in Europe around AD 1130 with the construction of  'Abbey Church of Saint-Deni'. This style spread and several cathedrals started replicating this new style, around the 13th century it had became fully developed and become a very famous architecture style in countries such as Britain, Paris and Germany.

There were two main structural innovations that really stood out when it came to Gothic, these were pointed arches and ribbed vaulting. This way they could retain the same strength as Romanesque vaults but with a lot thinner frame work.


A lot of inspiration where taken from Romanesque architecture, Gothic can be seen as a perfected and adjusted version of that.What truly helped the spread of this architecture was by the traveling architects, master masons and sculptors.

The new understanding of architecture and design as a whole led to many fantastic examples of vaulting and ornamentation. It also lead to instead of just thinking about the architecture itself we started to see lots of sculpted details and ornaments added to these architectural wonders. This was a great opportunity for the sculptors and a huge source of income. 

Example of Gothic sculpting

References:
http://www.athenapub.com/14gothic-architecture.htm
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/latin-western-europe/gothic1/a/gothic-architecture-an-introduction



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