Gothic Architecture (c.

1120-1500)

Introduction: The Gothic Cathedral

There is no better evidence of the quality of Christian art during the Middle
Ages, than the Gothic cathedral. The Gothic architectural style first appeared
at Saint-Denis, near Paris, in 1140, and within a century had revolutionized
cathedral design throughout Western Europe. The old style of Romanesque
architecture, with its rounded ceilings, huge thick walls, small windows and
dim interiors had been replaced by soaring Gothic arches, thin walls, and huge
stained glass windows, which flooded the interiors with light. By modifying the
system of ceiling vaulting and employing flying buttresses to change how
weight was transferred from the top down, Gothic architects managed to
radically transform the interior and make it a far greater visual experience.
Everything was taller and more fragile-looking, and colonnettes often reached
from the floor to the roof, pulling the eye up with dramatic force. Outside, a
mass of stone sculpture added decoration as well as Biblical narrative, with
statues of Saints on the walls, and complex reliefs around the portals and
doors. Add mosaics, carved altarpieces, fonts and pulpits, vivid stained glass
art, exquisite Gothic illuminated manuscripts and precious ecclesiastical
metalwork, and you can understand why Gothic cathedrals amounted to some
of the greatest works of art ever made. Outstanding examples of these
structures include: Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris (1163-1345), Chartres
Cathedral (1194-1250) and Cologne Cathedral (1248-1880).

Characteristics of Gothic Architecture

Gothic art evolved out of Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th
century up to the late 16th century in some areas of
Germany. Architecturewas the main art form of the Gothic, and the main
structural characteristics of Gothic architectural design stemmed from the
efforts of medieval masons to solve the problems associated with supporting
heavy masonry ceiling vaults (arched roofs) over wide spans. The problem
arose because the stonework of the traditional arched roof exerted a
tremendous downward and outward pressure against the walls upon which it
rested, which often caused a collapse. Up to and including the preceding
period of Romanesque architecture (c.800-1150), building designers believed
that vertical supporting walls had to be made extremely thick and heavy in
order to counteract and absorb the vault's downward and outward pressure.
But Gothic designers solved this problem around 1120 with several brilliant
innovations.

Ribbed Vaulting: Flying Buttresses: Pointed Arch

First and most important, they developed a ribbed vault, made up of

intersecting barrel vaults, whose stone ribs supported a vaulted ceiling of thin
stone panels. Not only did this new arrangement significantly reduce the
weight (and thus the outward thrust) of the ceiling vault, but also the vault's
weight was now transmitted along a distinct stone rib, rather than along a
continuous wall edge, and could be channelled from the rib to other supports,
such as vertical piers or flying buttresses, which eliminated the need for
solid, thick walls. Furthermore, Gothic architects replaced the round arches of
the barrel vault with pointed arches which distributed the vault's weight in a
more vertical direction.

To put it simply, until Gothic builders revolutionized building design, the

weight of the roof (vault) fell entirely on the supporting walls. As a result, the
heavier the roof or the higher the roof, the more downward and outward
pressure on the walls and the thicker they had to be to stay upright. A
Romanesque cathedral, for instance, had massively thick continuous walls
which took up huge amounts of space and created small, dim interiors. In
contrast, Gothic architects channelled the weight of the roof along the ribs of
the ceiling, across the walls to a flying buttress (a semi-arch), and then down
vertical supports (piers) to the ground. In effect, the roof no longer depended
on the walls for support. As a result the walls of a Gothic cathedral could be
built a lot higher (which made the building even more awesome), they could
be a lot thinner (which created more interior space); they could contain more
windows (which led to brighter interiors and, where stained glass art was used,
more Biblical art for the congregation).

All this led to the emergence of a completely new type of cathedral interior,
whose tall, thin walls gave the impression of soaring verticality, enhanced by
multi-coloured light flooding through huge expanses of stained glass. Its
exterior was more complex than before, with lines of vertical piers connected
to the upper walls by flying buttresses, and large rose windows. As the style
evolved, decorative art tended to supercede structural matters. Thus
decorative stonework known as tracery was added, along with a rich
assortment of other decorative features, including lofty porticos, pinnacles and
spires.

History and Development of Gothic Architecture

Three phases of Gothic architectural design can be distinguished: Early, High,

and Late Gothic.
Early Gothic (1120-1200)

The fusion of all the above mentioned structural elements into a coherent style
of architecture occurred first in the Ile-de-France (the region around Paris),
whose prosperous inhabitants had sufficient resources to build the great
cathedrals that now epitomize Gothic architecture. The earliest surviving
Gothic structure is the Abbey of Saint-Denis in Paris, begun in about 1140.
Cathedrals with similar vaulting and windows soon appeared, beginning with
Notre-Dame de Paris (c.1163-1345) and Laon Cathedral (c.1112-1215). A
series of four distinct horizontal levels soon evolved: ground-level, then tribune
gallery level, then triforium gallery level, above which was an upper, windowed
level called a clerestory. The pattern of columns and arches used to support
and frame these different elevations contributed to the geometry and harmony
of the interior. Window tracery (decorative window dividers) also evolved,
together with a diverse range of stained glass.

The eastern end of the early Gothic cathedral consisted of a semicircular

projection called an apse, which contained the high altar encircled by the
ambulatory. The western end - the main entrance to the building - was much
more visually impressive. Typically it had a wide frontage topped by two huge
towers, whose vertical lines were counterbalanced by horizontal lines of
monumental doorways (at ground level), above which were horizontal lines of
windows, galleries, sculpture and other stonework. Typically, the long outside
walls of the cathedral were supported by lines of vertical piers connected to
the upper part of the wall in the form of a semi-arch known as a flying
buttress. This early style of Gothic architectural design spread across Europe
to Germany, England, the Low Countries, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

For an interesting comparison with Eastern architecture, see: the 12th

century Angkor Wat Khmer Temple (1115-45) and the 11th century Kandariya
Mahadeva Temple (1017-29).

High Gothic (1200-80) "Rayonnant"

On the Continent, the next phase of Gothic building design is known

as Rayonnant Gothic architecture, whose English equivalent is referred to as
"Decorated Gothic". Rayonnant Gothic architecture was characterized by new
arrays of geometrical decoration which grew increasingly elaborate over time,
but hardly any structural improvements. In fact, during the Rayonnant phase,
cathedral architects and masons shifted their attention away from the task of
optimizing weight distribution and building higher walls, and concentrated
instead on enhancing the 'look and feel' of the building. This approach led to
the addition of many different decorative features including pinnacles (upright
structures, typically spired, that topped piers, buttresses, or other exterior
elements), moldings, and, notably, window tracery (such as mullions). The
most characteristic feature of the Rayonnant Gothic is the huge circular rose
window adorning the west facades of many churches, such as Strasbourg
Cathedral (1015-1439). Other typical characteristics of Rayonnant architecture
include the slimming-down of interior vertical supports and the merging of the
triforium gallery with the clerestory, until walls are largely composed of
stained glass with vertical bars of tracery dividing windows into sections. The
foremost examples of the Rayonnant style include the cathedrals of Reims,
Amiens, Bourges and Beauvais.

Late Gothic (1280-1500) "Flamboyant"

A third style of Gothic architectural design emerged around 1280. Known
as Flamboyant Gothic architecture, it was even more decorative than
Rayonnant, and continued until about 1500. Its equivalent in English Gothic
architecture is the "Perpendicular style". The characteristic feature of
Flamboyant Gothic architecture is the widespread use of a flame-like (French:
flambe) S-shaped curve in stone window tracery. In addition, walls were
transformed into one continuous expanse of glass, supported by skeletal
uprights and tracery. Geometrical logic was frequently obscured by covering
the exterior with tracery, which overlaid masonry as well as windows,
augmented by complex clusters of gables, pinnacles, lofty porticos, and star
patterns of extra ribs in the vaulting.

The focus on image rather than structural substance may have been
influenced by political events in France, after King Charles IV the Fair died in
1328 without leaving a male heir. This prompted claims from his nearest male
relative, his nephew Edward III of England. When the succession went to Philip
VI (1293-1350) of the French House of Valois, it triggered the start of the
Hundred Years War (1337), which led to a reduction in religious architecture
and an increase in the construction of military and civil buildings, both royal
and public.

As a result, Flamboyant Gothic designs are evident in many town halls, guild
halls, and even domestic residences. Few churches or cathedrals were
designed entirely in the Flamboyant style, some notable exceptions being
Notre-Dame d'Epine near Chalons-sur-Marne and Saint-Maclou in Rouen. Other
important examples include the north spire of Chartres and the Tour de Beurre
at Rouen. In France, Flamboyant Gothic architecture eventually lost its way -
becoming much too ornate and complicated - and was superceded by the
classical forms of Renaissance architecture imported from Italy in the 16th
century.

Gothic Architectural Sculpture

Gothic sculpture was inextricably linked to architecture - indeed it might even

be called "architectural sculpture" - since the exterior of the typical Gothic
cathedral was heavily decorated with column statues of saints and the Holy
Family, as well as narrative relief sculpture illustrating a variety of Biblical
themes. It was a huge source of income for sculptors throughout Europe, many
of whom travelled from site to site. During the Early Gothic, statues and reliefs
were little changed from Romanesque sculpture in their stiff, hieratic forms -
witness the figures on the Royal Portal of Chartres Cathedral (1145-55). But
during the 12th century and early 13th century, they became more true-to-life,
as exemplified by the figures at Reims Cathedral (c.1240), who possess
individual facial features and bodies, as well as natural poses and
gestures. Sculpture assumed a more prominent role during the period 1250-
1400, with numerous statues and other carvings appearing on the facades of
cathedrals, typically in their own niches. Then, from around 1375 onwards, the
courtly idiom known as International Gothic Art ushered in a new era of
refinement and prettiness, which rapidly led to an over-the-top artificiality in
all types of art including International Gothic illuminations and painting as well
as sculpture. From about 1450, Gothic sculpture in France was increasingly
influenced by Renaissance sculpture being developed in Italy, although
traditional styles - notably in wood carving - persisted later in Germany and
other areas of northern Europe.

See also: English Gothic Sculpture (from roughly 1150 to 1250) and German
 Gothic Sculpture (from 1190 to 1280).

Gothic Revival Movement (19th Century)

After first reappearing in late-18th century architecture (in Horace Walpole's Strawberry Hill home)
Gothic designs experienced a major revival during the period of Victorian architecture (c.1840-
1900), notably in England and America. Championed by the art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) and
employed principally for its decorative and romantic features, Gothic Revivalism gave a significant
Victorian art thanks to buildings like: the Houses of Parliament (completed 1870),
designed by Charles Barry and August Pugin; and Fonthill Abbey, designed by James Wyatt. In the
United States, the style is exemplified by New York's Trinity Church (1840), designed by Richard
(1802-78), and St Patrick's Cathedral (1859-79), designed by James Renwick(1818-95). For
the influence of Gothic architecture on modern buildings in England and America,
Architecture 19th Century.

Modern architecture
 Modern architecture, or modernist architecture was based upon new and innovative
technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel and reinforced concrete; the
idea that form should follow function; an embrace of minimalism; and a rejection of
ornament.[1] It emerged in the first half of the 20th century and became dominant after World
War II until the 1980s, when it was gradually replaced as the principal style for institutional
and corporate buildings by postmodern architecture.[2]

The Crystal Palace, 1851, was one of the first buildings to have cast plate glass windows
supported by a cast-iron frame
 

The first house built of reinforced concrete, designed by François Coignet (1853) in Saint-
Denis near Paris

The Eiffel Tower being constructed (August 1887-89)

Modern architecture emerged at the end of the 19th century from revolutions in technology,
engineering and building materials, and from a desire to break away from historical
architectural styles and to invent something that was purely functional and new.
The revolution in materials came first, with the use of cast iron, plate glass, and reinforced
concrete, to build structures that were stronger, lighter and taller. The cast plate
glass process was invented in 1848, allowing the manufacture of very large windows. The
Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was an early example of
iron and plate glass construction, followed in 1864 by the first glass and metal curtain wall.
These developments together led to the first steel-framed skyscraper, the ten-story Home
Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884 by William Le Baron Jenney.[3] The iron frame
construction of the Eiffel Tower, then the tallest structure in the world, captured the
imagination of millions of visitors to the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition.[4]
French industrialist François Coignet was the first to use iron-reinforced concrete, that is,
concrete strengthened with iron bars, as a technique for constructing buildings. [5] In 1853
Coignet built the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four-story house in the suburbs of
Paris.[5] A further important step forward was the invention of the safety elevator by Elisha
Otis, first demonstrated at the Crystal Palace exposition in 1852, which made tall office and
apartment buildings practical.[6] Another important technology for the new architecture was
electric light, which greatly reduced the inherent danger of fires caused by gas in the 19th
century.[7]
The debut of new materials and techniques inspired architects to break away from the
neoclassical and eclectic models that dominated European and American architecture in
the late 19th century, most notably eclecticism, Victorian and Edwardian architecture, and
the Beaux-Arts architectural style.[8] This break with the past was particularly urged by the
architectural theorist and historian Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. In his 1872 book Entretiens sur
L'Architecture, he urged: "use the means and knowledge given to us by our times, without
the intervening traditions which are no longer viable today, and in that way we can
inaugurate a new architecture. For each function its material; for each material its form and
its ornament."[9] This book influenced a generation of architects, including Louis
Sullivan, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Antoni Gaudí.[10]

Early modernism in Europe (1900–1914)

The Glass Pavilion in Cologne by German architect Bruno Taut(1914)

At the end of the 19th century, a few architects began to challenge the traditional Beaux
Arts and Neoclassical styles that dominated architecture in Europe and the United States.
The Glasgow School of Art (1896-99) designed by Charles Rennie MacIntosh, had a
facade dominated by large vertical bays of windows.[11]The Art Nouveau style was launched
in the 1890s by Victor Horta in Belgium and Hector Guimard in France; it introduced new
styles of decoration, based on vegetal and floral forms. In Barcelona, Antonio
Gaudi conceived architecture as a form of sculpture; the facade of the Casa
Battlo in Barcelona (1904–1907) had no straight lines; it was encrusted with colorful
mosaics of stone and ceramic tiles [12]
Architects also began to experiment with new materials and techniques, which gave them
greater freedom to create new forms. In 1903–1904 in Paris Auguste Perret and Henri
Sauvage began to use reinforced concrete, previously only used for industrial structures, to
build apartment buildings.[13] Reinforced concrete, which could be molded into any shape,
and which could create enormous spaces without the need of supporting pillars, replaced
stone and brick as the primary material for modernist architects. The first concrete
apartment buildings by Perret and Sauvage were covered with ceramic tiles, but in 1905
Perret built the first concrete parking garage on 51 rue de Ponthieu in Paris; here the
concrete was left bare, and the space between the concrete was filled with glass
windows. Henri Sauvage added another construction innovation in an apartment building
on Rue Vavin in Paris (1912–1914); the reinforced concrete building was in steps, with
each floor set back from the floor below, creating a series of terraces. Between 1910 and
1913, Auguste Perret built the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a masterpiece of reinforced
concrete construction, with Art Deco sculptural bas-reliefs on the facade by Antoine
Bourdelle. Because of the concrete construction, no columns blocked the spectator's view
of the stage.[14]
Otto Wagner, in Vienna, was another pioneer of the new style. In his book Moderne
Architektur (1895) he had called for a more rationalist style of architecture, based on
"modern life".[15] He designed a stylized ornamental metro station at Karlsplatz in Vienna
(1888–89), then an ornamental Art Nouveau residence, Majolika House (1898), before
moving to a much more geometric and simplified style, without ornament, in the Austrian
Postal Savings Bank (1904–1906). Wagner declared his intention to express the function of
the building in its exterior. The reinforced concrete exterior was covered with plaques of
marble attached with bolts of polished aluminum. The interior was purely functional and
spare, a large open space of steel, glass and concrete where the only decoration was the
structure itself.[16]
The Viennese architect Adolf Loos also began removing any ornament from his buildings.
His Steiner House, in Vienna (1910), was an example of what he called rationalist
architecture; it had a simple stucco rectangular facade with square windows and no
ornament. . The fame of the new movement, which became known as the Vienna
Secession spread beyond Austria. Josef Hoffmann, a student of Wagner, constructed a
landmark of early modernist architecture, the Palais Stoclet, in Brussels, in 1906–1911.
This residence, built of brick covered with Norwegian marble, was composed of geometric
blocks, wings and a tower. A large pool in front of the house reflected its cubic forms. The
interior was decorated with paintings by Gustav Klimt and other artists, and the architect
even designed clothing for the family to match the architecture.[17]
In Germany, a modernist industrial movement, Deutscher Werkbund (German Work
Federation) had been created in Munich in 1907 by Hermann Muthesius, a prominent
architectural commentator. Its goal was to bring together designers and industrialists, to
turn out well-designed, high quality products, and in the process to invent a new type of
architecture.[18] The organization originally included twelve architects and twelve business
firms, but quickly expanded. The architects include Peter Behrens, Theodor Fischer (who
served as its first president), Josef Hoffmann and Richard Riemerschmid.[19] In 1909
Behrens designed one of the earliest and most influential industrial buildings in the
modernist style, the AEG turbine factory, a functional monument of steel and concrete. In
1911–1913, Adolf Meyer and Walter Gropius, who had both worked for Behrens, built
another revolutionary industrial plant, the Fagus factory in Alfeld an der Leine, a building
without ornament where every construction element was on display. The Werkbund
organized a major exposition of modernist design in Cologne just a few weeks before the
outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. For the 1914 Cologne exhibition, Bruno
Taut built a revolutionary glass pavilion.[20]

Early American modernism (1890s–1914)[edit]

See also: Frank Lloyd Wright

William H. Winslow House, by Frank Lloyd Wright, River Forest, Illinois (1893-94)

)
Frank Lloyd Wright was a highly original and independent American architect who refused
to be categorized in any one architectural movement. Like Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies
van der Rohe, he had no formal architectural training. In 1887-93 he worked in the Chicago
office of Louis Sullivan, who pioneered the first tall steel-frame office buildings in Chicago,
and who famously stated "form follows function." [21] Wright set out to break all the traditional
rules. Wright was particularly famous for his Prairie Houses, including the Winslow
House in River Forest, Illinois(1893–94),;Arthur Heurtley House (1902) and Robie
House (1909); sprawling, geometric residences without decoration, with strong horizontal
lines which seemed to grow out of the earth, and which echoed the wide flat spaces of the
American prairie. His Larkin Building (1904–1906) in Buffalo, New York, Unity
Temple (1905) in Oak Park, Illinois and Unity Temple had highly original forms and no
connection with historical precedents. [22]
Early skyscrapers[edit]
Main article: Early skyscrapers

The Woolworth Building and the New York skyline in 1913. It was modern on the inside
but neo-Gothic on the outside.

At the end of the 19th century, the first skyscrapers began to appear in the United States.
They were a response to the shortage of land and high cost of real estate in the center of
the fast-growing American cities, and the availability of new technologies, including
fireproof steel frames and improvements in the safety elevator invented by Elisha Otis in
1852. The first steel-framed "skyscraper", The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, was
ten stories high. It was designed by William Le Baron Jenney in 1883, and was briefly the
tallest building in the world. Louis Sullivan built another monumental new structure,
the Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company Building, in the heart of Chicago in 1904-06. While
these buildings were revolutionary in their steel frames and height, their decoration was
borrowed from neo-renaissance, Neo-Gothic and Beaux-Arts architecture. The Woolworth
Building, designed by Cass Gilbert, was completed in 1912, and was the tallest building in
the world until the completion of the Chrysler Building in 1929. The structure was purely
modern, but its exterior was decorated with Neo-Gothic ornament, complete with decorative
Inbuttresses, arches and spires, which caused it be nicknamed the "Cathedral of
Commerce." [23]
.

)
  Hôtel Martel rue Mallet-Stevens, by Robert Mallet-Stevens (1926–1927)
The dominant figure in the rise of modernism in France was Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, a
Swiss-French architect who in 1920 took the name Le Corbusier. In 1920 he co-founded a
journal called 'L'Espirit Nouveau and energetically promoted architecture that was
functional, pure, and free of any decoration or historical associations. He was also a
passionate advocate of a new urbanism, based on planned cities. In 1922 he presented a
design of a city for three million people, whose inhabitants lived in identical sixty-story tall
skyscrapers surrounded by open parkland. He designed modular houses, which would be
mass-produced on the same plan and assembled into apartment blocks, neighborhoods
and cities. In 1923 he published "Toward an Architecture", with his famous slogan, "a
house is a machine for living in."[24] He tirelessly promoted his ideas through slogans,
articles, books, conferences, and participation in Expositions.
To illustrate his ideas, in the 1920s he built a series of houses and villas in and around
Paris. They were all built according to a common system, based upon the use of reinforced
concrete, and of reinforced concrete pylons in the interior which supported the structure,
allowing glass curtain walls on the facade and open floor plans, independent of the
structure. They were always white, and had no ornament or decoration on the outside or
inside. The best-known of these houses was the Villa Savoye, built in 1928–1931 in the
Paris suburb of Poissy. An elegant white box wrapped with a ribbon of glass windows
around on the facade, with living space that opened upon an interior garden and
countryside around, raised up by a row of white pylons in the center of a large lawn, it
became an icon of modernist architecture.[25]

porary buildings are designed to be noticed and to astonish. Some feature concrete
structures wrapped in glass or aluminum screens, very asymmetric facades, and
cantilevered sections which hang over the street. Skyscrapers twist, or break into
crystal-like facets. Facades are designed to shimmer or change color at different times
of day.
Whereas the major monuments of modern architecture in the 20th century were mostly
concentrated in the United States and western Europe, contemporary architecture is
global; important new buildings have been built in China, Russia, Latin America, and
particularly in the Gulf States of the Middle East; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was the
tallest building in the world in 2016, and the Shanghai Tower in China was the second-
tallest.

Contemporary architecture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contemporary architecture is the architecture of the 21st century. No single style is
dominant; contemporary architects are working in a dozen different styles,
from postmodernism and high-tech architecture to highly conceptual and expressive styles,
resembling sculpture on an enormous scale. The different styles and approaches have in
common the use of very advanced technology and modern building materials, such
as Tube structure which allows construction of the buildings that are taller, lighter and
stronger than those in the 20th century, and the use of new techniques of computer-aided
design, which allow buildings to be designed and modeled on computers in three
dimensions, and constructed with more precision and speed.
Contemporary buildings are designed to be noticed and to astonish. Some feature concrete
structures wrapped in glass or aluminum screens, very asymmetric facades, and
cantilevered sections which hang over the street. Skyscrapers twist, or break into crystal-
like facets. Facades are designed to shimmer or change color at different times of day.
Whereas the major monuments of modern architecture in the 20th century were mostly
concentrated in the United States and western Europe, contemporary architecture is global;
important new buildings have been built in China, Russia, Latin America, and particularly in
the Gulf States of the Middle East; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was the tallest building in the
world in 2016, and the Shanghai Tower in China was the second-tallest.
Most of the landmarks of contemporary architecture are the works of a small group of
architects who work on an international scale. Many were designed by architects already
famous in the late 20th century, including Mario Botta, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, Norman
Foster, Ieoh Ming Pei and Renzo Piano, while others are the work of a new generation born
during or after World War II, including Zaha Hadid, Santiago Calatrava, Daniel
Libeskind, Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, and Shigeru Ban. Other
projects are the work of collectives of several architects, such as UNStudio and SANAA, or
giant multinational agencies such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, with thirty associate
architects and large teams of engineers and designers, and Gensler, with 5,000 employees
in 16 countries.