ARC423 Advanced Building Systems

Lecture Notes for Monday, February 3, 2003

• Duomo as architectural form and technological advancement.
• Gothic construction was the standard method of building at the time the Duomo was being constructed.
• The average lifespan at the time was 35 years. Knowledge is experiential.
• Buildings took hundreds of years to build.
• Geometry is used extensively in determining/controlling construction.
• Traditionally, churches started their construction at the intersection of the crossing.
• It enabled shelter for the altar.
• St. Maria del Fiore started at the front doors and worked towards the crossing.
• The reasoning was that the technology at the time could not resolve the problem of the dome.
• The major difficulties were that it was the largest clear span over the crossing as well as the height of the vault was considerable.
• The beginning height of the dome (the spring point of the arch) was 160 feet.
• There was a prohibition of buttresses as well as internal tie rods by the church.
• Centering was the traditional and accepted method of creating arches. The only problem is that the structure remains unstable until the arch is complete and there are not enough trees in the Florence are to create the copious amounts of centering required.
• Internal aesthetic of the church is very simple, Italian gothic styling.
• Double tie rods are used in the vault of the nave.
• The construction of the nave’s roof is traditional king post trusses.
• The crossing is a ‘segmented’ drum causing uneven distribution of loads, concentrating loads on the vertices.

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