Structural Archaeology A New Methodology for the Study of Historical Architecture

Abstract

The nature of the design methods used to create the great-spanned temples and baths of the late Roman era and the light, soaring structures of the High Gothic cathedral at the end of the 12th century has been one of the more persistent puzzles of architectural history. But structural modeling of historical buildings – for which there is practically no primary documentation on construction, except for the extant structures – has added a new approach to the standard methods of architectural historiography that affords fresh insights into the early builders’ art. This new research is here illustrated by three studies. First, a study of the original Gothic nave of Notre-Dame de Paris, with its seminal flying buttresses, revealed modes of information transfer that led to the relatively rapid development of High Gothic structure. Secondly, an investigation to explain the sudden transition from six-part to four-part vaulting in High Gothic churches disproved accepted theories, based on stylistic and constructional arguments, thus clearly pointing to a structural reason for the obsolescence of the earlier system. Thirdly, the modeling of the Roman Pantheon yielded several surprises. A cracked model was shown to simulate closely the behavior of the actual dome, which was seen to act as an array of arches instead of the monolith assumed by most modern historians.