The Alfonso X’s patronage of Gothic architecture

This article examines the architectural patronage of King Alfonso X and the notion of a ‘Court Style’ in thirteenth-century Gothic architecture. Following brief consideration of problems of evidence, I briefly sketch common characteristics of the architectural patronage of Alfonso’s royal rivals and allies across Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. This prompts reassessment of the king’s relationships with mendicant and Cistercian orders, and then detailed consideration of his financial contributions to the cathedrals of Toledo, Burgos and León. Although royal heraldry and imagery is prominent in all three cathedrals, I argue that Alfonso probably did not play a significant role in promoting rayonnant architecture in his kingdom. The most distinctive feature of his patronage lies in his support for work on the converted mosque-cathedrals of Seville and especially Córdoba. Finally, I consider a number of projects associated with Alfonso in Seville, notably the Gothic palace in the Alcázar.

Decoding the Urban Plan of the City of Pilsen (Plzen)

The historic centre of the city of Pilsen in western Bohemia, today a region of the Czech Republic, was constructed at the end of the thirteenth century, at a time when Gothic architecture was universal across most of western and central Europe. The Gothic style had emerged and developed during an era when social and economic changes were favouring the development of new urban settlements, and when the translation of ancient Greek natural philosophy, including astronomy, was giving rise to a new intellectual movement. This revival of the natural sciences was inevitably bound up with the Roman Catholic Church, since much of this knowledge had been preserved within monastic institutions and was now being used by theologians/natural philosophers who wanted to apply reason to theology. This paper’s analysis of the urban plan of the historic centre of Pilsen is an attempt to investigate the possible influence that the science of astronomy had on architectural thought and creativity in western Bohemia, and how this was represented in the light of scientific advancement.

Vitrine-Gothic: A Secular Revival Of The Gothic

<p><b>Gothic for a time was the architectural style that represented all of Western civilization, in subsequent centuries it has been reasserted as the Western style in periods of cultural, national, and religious revivals. The thesis identifies the current societal conditions as conducive to potentially another such revival, this is the niche the thesis explored architecturally. To consider Gothic architecture in the context of modern secular society, using fractal based computational design to realize this ‘new secular Gothic’, a ‘Vitrine-Gothic’.</b></p> <p>The concept of a Vitrine-Gothic was explored through the development of tool sets and design processes, experimenting with the best methods for integrating fractals as a secular substitute for traditional Gothic symbolism. The tools aimed for maximal adaptability, and design control, which were tested by how well they responded to a range of secular user requirements derived from spiritual concepts. Demonstrated architecturally in the creation of experimental pavilion’s, illustrating the validity of the developed tools, and the cultural relevancy of the architectural results in aesthetic, and functional terms.</p> <p>The research suggests that there is an opportunity for merging digital tools with traditional architecture, to re-examine the fundamentals of traditional architecture in terms of aesthetics, function, symbolism, etc, in relation to the cultural and technological realities of modern society. Thus producing architectural results with greater cultural relevancy.</p>

Vitrine-Gothic: A Secular Revival Of The Gothic

<p><b>Gothic for a time was the architectural style that represented all of Western civilization, in subsequent centuries it has been reasserted as the Western style in periods of cultural, national, and religious revivals. The thesis identifies the current societal conditions as conducive to potentially another such revival, this is the niche the thesis explored architecturally. To consider Gothic architecture in the context of modern secular society, using fractal based computational design to realize this ‘new secular Gothic’, a ‘Vitrine-Gothic’.</b></p> <p>The concept of a Vitrine-Gothic was explored through the development of tool sets and design processes, experimenting with the best methods for integrating fractals as a secular substitute for traditional Gothic symbolism. The tools aimed for maximal adaptability, and design control, which were tested by how well they responded to a range of secular user requirements derived from spiritual concepts. Demonstrated architecturally in the creation of experimental pavilion’s, illustrating the validity of the developed tools, and the cultural relevancy of the architectural results in aesthetic, and functional terms.</p> <p>The research suggests that there is an opportunity for merging digital tools with traditional architecture, to re-examine the fundamentals of traditional architecture in terms of aesthetics, function, symbolism, etc, in relation to the cultural and technological realities of modern society. Thus producing architectural results with greater cultural relevancy.</p>

Die Capella Speciosa in Klosterneuburg 2. Teil: Vergleichende Studien zur Pfalzkapelle Herzog Leopolds VI. von Österreich

The Capella Speciosa has to be seen as an exportation of the type of Gothic architecture that characterised the architecture of the royal court in France at the time. As the work of French architects, the chapel occupies a unique position within the medieval architecture of Austria. The close similarities to the choir chapels of the cathedral at Reims and the details found in the cathedral at Auxerre enable a precise dating. If we trace the development of chapels in France, we see that there was a distinct intensification of architectural narratives at that time. The veneration of relics in private devotion went from being a mere testament to scholasticism to being a mystical experience. The Capella Speciosa thus has to be understood in the same way as the French Saintes-Chapelles. Its refined structures, like the walkway in which relics were displayed, the exquisite nature of the building materials and the quality of the architectural sculptures combined to facilitate a more spiritual form of veneration within an all-encompassing work of art. For Duke Leopold VI, the Capella Speciosa was not only a magnificent shrine in which to house his collection of relics but was also a place in which he experienced a mystical beatific vision. In the second part of this book, French works of architecture built near the royal court in Hungary are presented, in which High Gothic forms can be discerned from as early as around 1220. Is there a connection between these central European works of architecture? What historical circumstances led to them being built? What do we know about the people who commissioned the buildings and the master builders? What do the connections between the structural elements and the details reveal? And what does the mysterious figure of Villard de Honnecort and his momentous journey to Hungary have to do with all of this? Tibor Rostás explores the subject in nine chapters, taking a variety of approaches. The appendix to the book contains a summary of the results of research into red marble.