Renaissance Architectural Genius Essay
Arren Quigley
Architectural Genius in the Renaissance At the beginning of the Renaissance a problem was apparent in Florence. The city was trying to distinguish themselves from Milan, their rival, and had built a great cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, with this in mind. The problem was that for 122 years the church had been left open to the elements. No roof had been built. In 1418, the town fathers of Florence decided that the time had come to build a roof. The roof had to be grand and tall. It had to be the tallest dome roof constructed. It had to start 180 feet off the ground and span nearly 150 feet. (Mueller) The dimensions thwarted many notable architects who came to compete for a chance to build the dome roof.
Some of the questions that came up included “Could a dome weighing tens of thousands of tons stay up without [flying buttresses or pointed arches]? Was there enough timber in Tuscany for the scaffolding and templates that would be needed to shape the dome’s masonry? And could a dome be built at all on the octagonal floor plan dictated …show more content…
He entered the contest and won the commission to build the dome roof. Rather than build a dome from a scaffold he built the roof in concentric rings. Using heavy stone for the lower rings and lighter stone for the higher rings, he was able to balance compression strength and tension strength through the dome. (Foraboschi) Another innovative solution to getting the right balance between strength and tension was to build two concentric domes. One dome is seen from inside the cathedral and the other is seen from the outside. The space between the two acts like a honeycomb connecting the two, adding strength without the weight of solid stone. Brunelleschi also employed herringbone brick laying patterns that allowed the bricks to be laid without temporary falsework and decreased the chance of the dome splitting up the side.
Architectural Genius in the Renaissance At the beginning of the Renaissance a problem was apparent in Florence. The city was trying to distinguish themselves from Milan, their rival, and had built a great cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, with this in mind. The problem was that for 122 years the church had been left open to the elements. No roof had been built. In 1418, the town fathers of Florence decided that the time had come to build a roof. The roof had to be grand and tall. It had to be the tallest dome roof constructed. It had to start 180 feet off the ground and span nearly 150 feet. (Mueller) The dimensions thwarted many notable architects who came to compete for a chance to build the dome roof.
Some of the questions that came up included “Could a dome weighing tens of thousands of tons stay up without [flying buttresses or pointed arches]? Was there enough timber in Tuscany for the scaffolding and templates that would be needed to shape the dome’s masonry? And could a dome be built at all on the octagonal floor plan dictated …show more content…
He entered the contest and won the commission to build the dome roof. Rather than build a dome from a scaffold he built the roof in concentric rings. Using heavy stone for the lower rings and lighter stone for the higher rings, he was able to balance compression strength and tension strength through the dome. (Foraboschi) Another innovative solution to getting the right balance between strength and tension was to build two concentric domes. One dome is seen from inside the cathedral and the other is seen from the outside. The space between the two acts like a honeycomb connecting the two, adding strength without the weight of solid stone. Brunelleschi also employed herringbone brick laying patterns that allowed the bricks to be laid without temporary falsework and decreased the chance of the dome splitting up the side.