The Engineering of Medieval Cathedrals

Courtenay, Lynn T.

doi:10.4324/9781315239989

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The first are the oldest flying buttresses, while the second are the most used because, from a mechanical point of view, they perform better than the first [6]. The flying buttresses appeared for the first time in Durham Cathedral around the year 1100 as an evolution of the hidden buttress in the triforium, where an opening is made that allows a longitudinal route parallel to the main nave [9]. In Durham, the buttress did not yet have the function of balancing the lateral thrusts of the vaults; its mission was to support the roof that covers the triforium ( Figure 1C).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In Spain, for example, there are the original flying buttresses of the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, made up of two rampant arches of one and two circumferential arches, integrated into a single flying buttress ( Figure 3B) [15]. The rampant arches consisting of two circumferential arches The flying buttresses appeared for the first time in Durham Cathedral around the year 1100 as an evolution of the hidden buttress in the triforium, where an opening is made that allows a longitudinal route parallel to the main nave [9]. In Durham, the buttress did not yet have the function of balancing the lateral thrusts of the vaults; its mission was to support the roof that covers the triforium ( Figure 1C).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Rampant Arch and Its Optimum Geometrical Generation

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gothic art was developed in western Europe from the second half of the 12th century to the end of the 15th century. The most characteristic Gothic building is the cathedral. Gothic architecture uses well-carved stone ashlars, and its essential elements include the arch. The thrust is transferred by means of external arches (flying buttresses) to external buttresses that end in pinnacles, which accentuates the verticality. The evolution of the flying buttresses should not only be considered as an aesthetic consideration, but also from a constructive point of view as an element of transmission of forces or loads. Thus, one evolves from a beam-type buttress to a simple arch, and finally to a rampant arch. In this work, we study the geometry of the rampant arch to determine which is the optimum from the constructive point of view. The optimum rampant arch obtained is the one with the common tangent to the two arches parallel to the slope line. A computer program was created to determine this optimal rampant arch by means of a numerical or graphical input. It was applied to several well-known and representative cases of Gothic art in France (church of Saint Urbain de Troyes) and Spain (Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca), establishing if they were designs of optimal rampant arches or not.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%