LA.219 MOD.4.1

INTRODUCTION

It can be easy to forget that light (and shadow) are substantial elements in the built environment, not unlike wood or stone. Not only does light serve the more utilitarian functions of letting us see what we're doing and warming a space, but it also performs symbolically to condition meaningful experiences. This module is about some of the ways light and shadow have been used in the built environment. The sites you will see come from an array of places and times in history, so be sure to remain aware of the historical context and keep your attention on the use of light and shade, even if it is not always covered in detail. 

A fundamental architectural strategy for admitting light is the clerestory. A clerestory (also spelled clearstory) is an empty volume of space in an upper level of a structure. It is literally a cleared story (floor) of a building; it is helpful to think of it as a removed floor, since that is what allows light and air to pass to other lower stories. These two primary benefits— admitting light from above, and movement of fresh air—are what originally made the clerestory valuable, and it has since evolved into a key element of architectural integration.

As you will see in this module, before the invention of glass panels, the clerestory was as much a function of natural ventilation as it was of natural light. Symbolically, light pouring down from above was a useful expression for most sacred cultures; spirits, deities, heavens, etc. were believed to be in an upper realm according to many cosmologies, and the light coming down from that realm and illuminating the darkness of our mortal world emphasized the experience of sacred places. Once fenestration (building openings) was filled with glass, the clerestory took on another dimension of symbolic expression in the form of window shapes, the shadows they cast, and the colored (stained) art in the glass itself. By the time of Gothic architecture in the 13th and 14th centuries CE, clerestories were polychromatic interfaces rendering the light of the sun a kaleidoscopic burst, turning the stone interiors of churches into colorful theaters for both worship and public gathering. Furthermore, landscape environments have utilized a variety of different strategies to achieve similar effects while using natural features, such as arcades of tree canopies shading a path in a garden.

Be curious and ask good questions of the uses of light and shade in this module:

What are the effects to the lighting of the interior? Can light have form?

What are the effects to the movement of air? Why does air need to move?

Can a clerestory embellish spiritual or sacred symbolism?

What materials and structural techniques were used to achieve the sculpting of light and shadow?

How is light and shadow used in outdoor spaces?

Which techniques for the sculpting of light and shade do architecture and landscape architecture share?

Module Learning Objectives Explore a diverse range of clerestory architectures across cultures, places, and times.

Articulate the benefits of clerestories as seen in different locations.  

Articulate material and structural strategies employed for clerestory construction.

Compare different sacred symbolisms for clerestory architectures.

Readings A Global History of Architecture, 38–40, 64–69, 367, 441–444

World Architecture, 52–53 (section 2.2), 357–364 (section 9.2)

Module Coursework Read and view all module content and media in the pages that follow.

Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.

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PLATO'S TIMAEUS

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Plato's Academy, Mosaic from Pompeii (Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus), Second style. Early first century BCE.

Philosophical thought is one of the Greeks' biggest gifts to the world. Plato, the great philosopher, mathematician, and student of Socrates, lived from roughly 424 to 348 BCE. His ideas had enormous impact on how the

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Plato's Timaeus

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landscapes and buildings during his time were organized. In one of his most famous dialogues, The Timaeus, Plato describes the physical manifestation of material things in the landscape:

Plato

"For material things to exist within the platonic cosmos, there must be regions of occupancy—chora—within the Receptacle, the fertile primary ground for world being, in which particular places—topoi—are located. The Demiurge's task (creator of the universe) is the fitting of forms, which are based upon abstract, geometrically determined, ideal forms, into topos—in other words, the location of pattern-based matter in place within regional space, or chora."

In Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers explains Plato's view of the cosmos in a more easily digestible form:

"Plato's cosmology has physical counterpart in the ordering of urban landscape space. This is evident from the earliest development of the Greek city-state beginning in the eighth century BCE when the center and

the outlying environs were conceived as the complementary components of chora, or regional space."

Greek Relationship to the Land

Previously, we've talked about two different types of relationships with the land: I-it and I-thou. Based on the two descriptions quoted above, what kind of a relationship did the Greeks of Plato's time have to the land? It seems apparent that the Greeks had an I-thou relationship. They were, after all, extremely cognizant of the placement of physical elements in the landscape. However, as they began to shape and harness the land, they were also engaged in an I-it relationship to some degree.

It is not until we see built examples of Greek polis and its sub-urban counter parts that we can fully understand the meaning behind Plato's dialogue. However, before we delve into specific sites, let's first explore the cultural needs and principles of the time leading up to the creation of sites like Delphi, the Acropolis, and the Agora.

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KING DJOSER'S (ZOSER'S) FUNERARY COMPLEX

King Djoser funerary complex, 2630 BCE

Saqqara, Lower Egypt

Let us look at the entry hall to the complex. It is the rectangular volume furthest left in the image above (there is an opening at its bottom you can almost see). The images shown help to reveal the approach sequence. First, notice how small the entry is relative to the rest of the site in the site plan (the entry hall is at the bottom-left). Looking at the plan, photos, and drawings, we can see and feel the ebb and flow of the entry hall. Note how columns appear at regular spacing, creating a rhythm, and they are not free-standing but, rather, engaged to walls (they are called "engaged columns"). As those engaged columns compress toward the center and then recede back to the boundary walls, a repetitive contraction-and- expansion of space is felt, like exhaling and inhaling with our lungs. The hall is mostly symmetrical, so this rhythm is the dominant effect of the sequence. Also felt is the symbolic entrance of light from above; it enters from a clerestory (empty volume at the top of the structure), which also allows hot air to escape while being replaced by cooler shaded air. One

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King Djosers Funerary Complex

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would not be able to resist noticing and interacting with the many engaged columns, and we can see how their fluting (the vertical carvings) is convex (pushes outward); this is the inverse of what we will see in Greek columns, which have concave (pulling inward) fluting. The Egyptian use of convex fluting is a representation in stone of the way the columns were made out of branches bundled together into one "column" of many round verticals.

The clerestory is an essential component in this architectural sequence. The long entry hall would be extremely dark without it, and our eyes would not be able to discern the contours of the fluted columns. The rhythmic penetration of light augments the anatomical metaphor of the expansion- and-contraction spatial sequence. With special spiritual importance given to the sun, the fact that it illuminates the space from high above, crossing through the tops of the columns, heightens the sacred experience. Simultaneously, the hot air rises and is allowed to escape out the clerestory, while the cooler shaded air is more than willing to replace it, creating a natural cycle of ventilation.

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Detail of existing columns, King Djoser Mortuary Complex (2780-2680 BCE, by

Imhotep)

Description:

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King Djoser Mortuary Complex, site plan, Entry Hall at #10 (2780-2680 BCE, by

Imhotep)

Description:

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TEMPLE OF AMON AT KARNAK

The temple of Karnak covers roughly a square mile with gates, courts, temples, and other buildings. At its center is the great temple of the god Amun ("the Hidden One"). Three areas are to be distinguished: the Precinct of Amun, the Precinct of Montu (the hawk-headed Theban war god) in the north, and the Precinct of Mut in the south. The main temple was accessed through a canal coming from the river. Through the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes, one would reach the first pylon marking the entrance. These pylons, one on each side of the central entry, were left unfinished and would have reached enormous proportions.

In the middle of the temple complex is a grand hypostyle hall (space with grid or other array of many columns). The central portion of the hall is raised and supports the clerestory. The images below show how different orders of columns were used for different heights in the hypostyle hall. The rectangular openings in the clerestory—filled with stone "screens" in

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Temple of Amon at Karnak

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Karnak: Hypostyle Hall Lotus Column Title:

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Karnak ground plan Title:

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Hypostyle Hall of Temple of Amon, Karnak; clerestory in top central section

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View looking up into the clerestory of the Temple of Amon, Karnak

the drawing—would have admitted light into the space while letting hot air escape. Light would bounce off the many columns and their painted hieroglyphics. This is thus a space where one would spend much time meandering and circulating while reading the images depicted on the column shafts.

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LAURENTINUM

Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger

One of the most well-known Villa Marittimas belonged to the wealthy landowner Pliny the Younger. Pliny owned both a Villa Marittima (Laurentinum) and a Villa Urbana (Tusci).

Pliny wrote extensively about Laurentinum, which was only a short distance outside of Rome.

Heliocaminus

His favorite spot in the villa was the heliocaminus, a heated sunroom in which he was able to sunbathe even on a cold winter's day. It was adjacent to a series of private rooms in which he could rest and enjoy views of the ocean from every corner.

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Laurentinum

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From descriptions such as these, you can really appreciate the spa/resort- like nature of the Villa Marittima.

Villa Laurentinum: Pliny the Younger's Villa Marittima on the outskirts of Rome

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RENAISSANCE DESIGN PRINCIPLES IN FRANCE

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Image of topiary and clipped boxwood hedges at the gardens of Versailles

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Renaissance Design Principles in France

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Capture of Florence 1494 by Charles VIII

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Charles VIII

In 1492, King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy in hopes of expanding the French Empire. Even though his invasion lasted a short six months, it was enough time for Italian Renaissance landscape design to leave a long- lasting impression on the king, to the extent that he decided to export design ideas from them to the design of the imperial palace gardens in France.

Castel del Uovo in Naples

Charles VIII captured the Castel del Uovo in Naples and was enamored by the variety of spaces that were created on the grounds using elements like fountains, tree plantings, canals, aviaries, and hunting parks.

Allees

Rows of straight trees called allees approach the castle and mark the gateway entrance into the space, while orchards of fruit trees (especially citrus trees) were planted in and around the grounds.

Even though Charles was defeated in Italy, he returned to France with a crew of Italian artists, craftsmen, and gardeners, which he employed in the creation of many chateaux all around France.

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Castel de Uovo, Naples

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An allee of trees: a double row of regularly planted trees that delineate a pathway or approach

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EARLY FRENCH RENAISSANCE GARDENS

Louis XII

Soon after his return from Italy, Charles the VIII died suddenly, however, the beginnings of the French garden renaissance did not die with him. His nephew Louis XII, a garden aHcionado greatly inIuenced by his uncle, became his successor.

Chateau Blois

Louis XII inherited Chateau Blois, where he made many great garden improvements. One of the Hrst improvements to this chateau was the expansion of the garden's size. The enlargement of this garden was achieved in a way that did not follow Italian Renaissance garden principles, as it was physically and visually disconnected from the main chateau and did not align itself on an axis. The garden grounds were laid outside of the chateau walls and lacked design uniHcation.

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BLOYS

ELECASTENDEBANTERENTETURDINS ETHORTORVA

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Early French Renaissance Gardens

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Formalized boxwood planting areas at Chateau Blois in geometric forms create a feast for the eyes.

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Formalized boxwood planting areas at Chateau Blois in geometric forms create a feast for the eyes.

Chateau Blois: Visual disconnection between Chateau and gardens and lacks design uniBcation with the Chateau.

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Chateau Blois was home to many French kings. It was also the location where Joan of Arc was blessed by the archbishop before Bghting the British in Orleans.

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Chateau Blois Gardens used Italian Renaissance design elements such as the loggia, the secret garden, water fountains, and formalized boxwood planting areas.

Francis I

Louis XIII was succeeded by his cousin Francis I, who also had an appetite for conquering Italy, much like his great uncle, Charles VIII. Francis was captured by the Emperor of Spain, Charles V, and spent a year in prison there before returning to France. Upon his return, Francis decided to move from his ancestral home of Chateau de Blois and rebuild Chateau Fontainebleau on the outskirts of Paris.

Chateau Fontainebleau

Chateau Fontainebleau

It was at Chateau Fontainebleau that we see an even greater departure from the Italian Renaissance design ideals. The formally geometric boxwood hedge areas within an Italian garden were changed into a rectilinear or square carpet of green lawn known as tapis verte.

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Chateau Fontainebleau aerial view of tapis verte

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Grotto des Pins

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Grotto des Pins

Even though the overall form and design of Fontainebleau was a departure from Italian Renaissance garden design principles, Italian Renaissance themes can still be found. They are especially prominent in areas such as the Grotto des Pins, as well as the decorations in and around the chateau, where Italian artists and craftsmen were hired for their Italian design sensibilities.

Grotto des Pins

The Grotto des Pins—much like the grottos that we saw in Italian Renaissance gardens such as Villa d'Este or Villa Lante—is decorated with nymphs and designed as a space that incorporates water play.

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HAGIA SOPHIA

The Hagia Sophia, or "Church of the Holy Wisdom" in English, was built by Emperor Justinian on the site of two older early Christian basilicas. It was designed by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus.

Emperor Justinian initiated the building of the Hagia Sophia—or the "Church of the Holy Wisdom," in English—on the site of two older early Christian basilicas in Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) from 532 to 537 CE. Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus designed the structure.

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Hagia Sofia

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Often referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world," the Hagia Sophia is one of the greatest monuments of Byzantine architecture still standing. In creating this first masterpiece of the genre, Justinian's basilica fused the best architectural elements of late antiquity with the emerging tenets of Byzantine art, foreshadowing the impending split between Byzantine and Romanesque architecture. It is the fourth largest cathedral in the world and has influenced more than a millennia of Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Muslim holy buildings.

The interior is filled with elaborate mosaics, marble pillars, and tapestries, but it is the Hagia Sophia's dome that has sparked critical adulation throughout the centuries. The dome is 102 feet in diameter and 184 feet high, making it slightly smaller than that of the Pantheon, and marks an early use of pendentives—the triangular corner arch elements that allow the round dome to transition gracefully to the square shape of the piers below, thereby solving the problem of how to set a circular form on a rectangular base.

The use of pendentives also allowed for the dome's second innovation: 40 arched windows that shed light into the nave below. The design works because the dome is shaped like the inside of an umbrella, with supporting ribs that extend from the top of the dome to its base. These ribs cause the dome's weight to be a load that is held up with the mass between the windows, travels down the pendentives, and eventually ends at the foundation. Click on image number six in the gallery above; see how the light floods in through the openings at the base of the dome? This is a clever and dangerous place for a clerestory! The aesthetic effect is that the massive dome floats above light, but the structural challenges were considerable.

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Hagia Sofia, interior detail, carved capitals, upper gallery Description:

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Hagia Sofia plan, relation to Theodosian basilica Description:

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Pendentives drawing and Hagia Sophia pendentives

Damaged by an earthquake in 558 CE, the dome was rebuilt in 563 with a higher arch, which afforded greater stability because the lateral forces would not be as strong and the weight of the dome would flow more easily down the walls. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1435 CE, the Hagia Sophia became a mosque. It was then a museum for much of the twentieth century before recently being restated as a mosque.

Roth writes:

The plan was centralized but axial as well, for along the principal axis, the inner square was extended in deep semicircular apses rising to half-dome vaults below the main dome, and these apses were further extended by barrel-vaulted extensions on the axis and arcaded exedrae on the diagonals. On the cross axis, the walls were flat and pierced with many windows. In fact, all the wall surfaces on the vast church were extensively pierced, with windows in the exterior walls and screens.

Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning

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LATE BYZANTINE ARCHITECTURE

Most Byzantine churches built after Justinian followed a prescribed form: the quincunx, or cross-in-square plan, a rectangular or square building divided into nine bays. In this plan, four barrel-vaulted, rectangular bays flank the central bay, a large domed square. The four remaining bays, which are smaller but also domed, each reside in a corner. See if you can identify the clerestories in these buildings, and ask yourself what they learned from the Hagia Sophia.

Hosios Loukas (Holy Luke), Phocis, 1020 CE

The monastery of Hosios Lukas, or Holy Luke, of 1020 at Phocis, northwest of Athens, exemplifies this plan. The complex works with the strong contrasts of light vs. shade and solid vs. void, as well as the juxtaposition of smooth marble sheathing and faceted mosaics. Builders constructed two churches adjacent to the monastery's shrine, which is situated on the tomb of St. Luke, a local hermit who died in 953 CE. The smaller of the churches features three apses and was dedicated in 1000 CE to the Theotokos, which is Greek for "mother of god." This church consists of squared stones surrounded by brick and includes a central dome positioned on a drum and groin vaults over the corner bays. The interior does not currently exhibit any mosaics, frescos, or marble facing,

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Late Byzantine Architecture

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but it was most likely more finished in the past. The larger church—or katholikon, which is the main temple in an Eastern Orthodox monastery— was built immediately to the south of the Theotokos church in the subsequent decades.

Hosios Loukas (Holy Luke), view from the gallery, Phocis, 1020 CE

In 1390, only sixty years after it was built, the remains of the Byzantine Empire were effectively in Turkish hands. Sultan Mehmed sealed the victory of Islam with his triumphant entry into Constantinople in 1453 CE. The Byzantine culture had a strong impact on the West, cities like Venice who had strong trade relationships with Constantinople, and the eastern Mediterranean region. This connection is evident when looking at examples like the church of San Marco (Saint Mark) in Venice, started in 830 and rebuilt after 1063. San Marco's purpose was to house Saint Mark's remains, which had somehow been moved to Venice from Alexandria.

Roth writes:

San Marco is a good example of the Greek cross, five-dome church, in which four square arms project from a central, slightly larger square, each square covered by a dome (the vestibule to the west was added later). Here, the walls were covered entirely in gold-backed mosaic, presenting figures of the apostles, saints, and angels.

Understanding Architecture: Its Elements, History, and Meaning

Further Information

http://www.basilicasanmarco.it/?lang=en

San Marco

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The 15th-century gilded Lion of St. Mark Description:

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Aerial view of St. Mark's Square and the church of San Marco Description:

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THE QUR'AN AND THE DESIGN OF PARADISE GARDENS

Islamic "Jinnah" (Heaven)

The Qur'an is the holy book of the Muslim faith. As such, it had a tremendous influence on the design of paradise gardens in Muslim cultures.

The various religions of the world have always given descriptive accounts of what "Eden" or "Paradise" held within it. In the Qur'an, paradise is clearly described as having four metaphorical rivers flowing with honey and milk. It is clearly outlined that the blessed will benefit from this paradise:

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The Qur'an and the Design of Paradise Gardens

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"[R]eclining upon soft couches, they shall feel neither the scorching heat nor the biting cold. Trees will spread their shade around them, and fruits will hang in clusters over them. They shall be served with silver dishes, and beakers as large as goblets; silver goblets which they themselves shall measure: the cups brim full with ginger- flavored water from the fount of Selsabil. They shall be attended by boys graced with eternal youth, who to the beholder's eyes will seem like sprinkled pearls. When you gaze upon that scene you will behold a kingdom blissful and glorious."

            —Qur'an, verses 76.13–20

This verse makes clear the importance given to shade and plentiful drink in the Qur'an's concept of paradise. This was considered a highly appropriate reward for those inhabitants of the dry and arid region of the Middle East.

Paradise gardens also offered a place for lovers to meet. In Hakim Ferdowsi's Shah-Nameh (Book of Kings), the physical attributes of lovers were likened to various flowers and fruits that grew in gardens:

"She was like ivory from head to toe, with a face like Paradise and a figure as graceful as a tree. Her cheeks were as red as pomegranate blossoms and her lips its seeds, while two Pomegranates grew from her silver breast. Her eyes were like the narcissus in the garden, and her eyebrows stole the blackness from the crow's feathers. She is Paradise to look upon."

Gulshan These types of symbolic and poetic verses were the impetus behind Persian gardens being known as "gulshan":

"Gul" meant "flower."

"Shan" meant "place of."

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OTTONIAN ARCHITECTURE

Ottonian architecture evolved during the reign of Emperor Otto the Great of Germany, which spanned from 936 to 975 CE. The style, which closely followed the Carolingian era in Europe, evolved in Germany and lasted from the mid-10th century to the mid-11th century. This more political period saw the Holy Roman Empire solidify its strength.

Examples of Ottonian architecture, which gradually developed its own idiosyncrasies, include the following churches:

St. Gertrude, circa 1046 CE, in Nivelles, Belgium

St. Michael, circa 1010 to 1033 CE, in Hildesheim, Germany

The Abbey Church of Gernrode, Germany, circa 959 to 963 CE

These Christian buildings followed very different plans than those of the old Greek-speaking territory based in Constantinople. How do their manifestations of the clerestory differ?

St. Michael's Church (1010–1033 CE)

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Ottonian Architecture

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St. Michael's Church (1010–1033 CE), plan

Ottonian basilicas, such as St. Michael at Hildesheim, are simple, block- like, symmetrical structures with wide aisles and vast expanses of bare wall. Interior decoration was more for aesthetic effect than structural support. St. Michael's incorporated and advanced Carolingian ideas through its "double-ended" form, which featured two terminal apses and two matching transepts.

Ottonian religious sculpture was monumental in scale and executed with clear, round forms and highly expressive facial features. Ornate relief bronzes were cast for the cathedral doors.

St. Michael's Church (1010–1033 CE), interior

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Saint-Denis (1135– 1144 CE), France

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Saint-Denis (1135–1144 CE), France

ORIGINS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE: SAINT-DENIS

Many historians agree that the Gothic style originated at the abbey church of Saint-Denis, outside Paris. Abbot Suger had the desire to recreate the heavenly sphere in a vertical, linear style that would make symbolic use of light and color. This is what distinguishes the Gothic from the Romanesque style that came before. Whereas Romanesque designs emphasized the more terrifying, grotesque aspects of heaven and hell, the Gothic style chose to revel in the crystalline and spiritual effects of light. The style would flourish from the 12th to the 16th centuries. Suger and his architects initiated architectural elements that were different from what was seen in Romanesque churches before: pointed arches and rib vaulting.

Suger served the French kings first, and so the new style would be called "French or modern style." More churches of this style, including Chartres, Amiens, Reims, and Bourges, were built within the king's domain. Saint- Denis, for its part, became the symbol of the partnership between the royal house and the national church. Suger himself designed the facade of

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Origins of Gothic Architecture: Saint-Denis

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Saint-Denis. He transformed an aging building for the first time in three centuries, and in so doing, knowingly changed its current form and usage. To Suger, there was an ineffable aspect to God that might be conveyed in the material world through refractive, light-filled effects created with precious stones, stained glass, and an architecture that reduced matter and aimed to make the walls transparent. Walls were allowed to turn into layers of stained glass, filtering and transforming sunlight; the new architecture expressed a positive and new outlook.

The first truly Gothic invention was the church choir, located behind the crossing of the nave and transept; with thin columns, stained-glass windows, and a vertical design, the choir at Saint-Denis laid down the fundamental design elements that would come to characterize the Gothic style.

Saint-Denis (1135-1144 CE), interior showing clerestory above the apse

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Saint-Denis (1135–1144), plan

In A History of Architecture, Spiro Kostof describes the choir plan as follows:

Look at the plan and compare it to the choir plan of Cluny or St.-Foy at Conques. We have a double ambulatory at Saint-Denis from which radiate nine chapels. But the outer ambulatory and the chapels actually merge, and the radial alignment of the piers and columns form a single center within the apse, [which] makes it possible to bring exterior light to the apse unobstructed. In fact, the curves of the chapels are opened almost in their entirety to the outside. They swing between wedge-shaped buttresses that continue the radial lines of the columns of the apse and the first ambulatory. Each chapel curve has one more slim pier in the middle—and that is all the solid matter of the choir's exterior outline. The rest is light, or more accurately many pieces of stained glass that are fitted together into religious paintings.

A History of Architecture

Conques Abbey (1050–1120 CE), France

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HIGH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE: AMIENS CATHEDRAL

Amiens Cathedral (1220–1288 CE), France

The development of the Gothic style was non-linear. Indeed, the style manifested itself differently according to the region and country. At Amiens Cathedral, architects followed the Chartres model and created a calm interior in a soaring, vertically articulated space. The architects created this verticality by integrating crossing piers into the overall configuration of the interior structure and appearance. Note how the added verticality enabled more surface area for glass, and thus the clerestory admitted enough light to illuminate the interior more than the previous Gothic cathedrals.

Amiens has been the seat of a bishop since around 340 CE, and a church has stood on the site since at least 850 CE. Several successive edifices were built over time; the last one (previous to the current Gothic cathedral) was a Romanesque version that began in 1137 and was consecrated in 1152.

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High Gothic Architecture: Amiens Cathedral

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Choir and its altar Transept and stained glass

The original purpose of the grand Amiens Cathedral was to house a sacred relic: the alleged head of St. John the Baptist, the man who baptized Jesus. The head was brought back from the Crusades in 1206 CE and still resides at the current incarnation of Amiens Cathedral.

A fire destroyed the original cathedral in 1218 CE, and construction on a new cathedral began only two years later, in 1220. Builders completed the towering nave by 1236, and by 1269, only the tops of the towers remained unfinished. Various parts of the sculptures decorating the cathedral were made in different workshops; the idea of distributing work in this way was unprecedented.

Amiens Cathedral took a total of 68 years to complete—an amazing feat for that time—and the relatively fast construction gave Amiens an unusual harmony of style, one of its most celebrated characteristics. It is pure, unadulterated High Gothic, little influenced by later architectural fads. In fact, the only subsequent change to the cathedral's appearance was the addition of two unequal towers, the south one in 1366 and the north one in 1402. The renowned architect Viollet-le-Duc then restored the cathedral in the 1850s.

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Amiens Cathedral plan

A "road to God" called the Sacred Maze was drawn on the floor to represent a long pilgrimage, and people would wander, stray, and get lost until they reached the center of the maze, a sacred place.

Further Information

learn.columbia.edu/Mcahweb/index-frame.html

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/162

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THE ALHAMBRA'S HALL OF TWO SISTERS

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Alhambra Palace, 11th–14th centuries CE, Granada, Spain; Hall of Two Sisters ("Sala de las Dos Hermanas") located at #18

Cordoba, Spain had been conquered by the Christians, and Muhammad Ibn al-Ahmar (1232–1273) founded the Almohad empire in Granada. The Alhambra is testimony in Granada of the artistic skills of craftsmen and artists at the time. It is the oldest preserved Islamic palace in the world. It is positioned adjacent to the citadel to its north walls, featuring two complexes surrounding rectangular courtyards. One court is known for the Court of Myrtles, or Alberca, featuring a large pool surrounded by living quarters.

Immediately adjacent to the Patio de los Leones ("Patio of Lions") was the Hall of Two Sisters. This intricately carved room features a spectacular dome interior gently lit by a subtle clerestory of paired windows (see

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The Alhambra's Hall of Two Sisters

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below). The octagonal base of the clerestory supports the dome, and the octagon rests on a cubed volume. The light that enters is multiplied due to the increase of surface area in the dome; plaster was often shaped into stalactite-looking concave and pointed forms called muqarnas. They give the impression that the entirety of the dome is not static but dynamic, slowly melting down like the most complex candle ever made. The Hall of Two Sisters represents a high point of development in the relationship between clerestory and the form out of which it has been cleared.

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Hall of Two Sisters, Alhambra, muqarnas in dome above and below clerestory of paired windows (1350 CE)

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CONCLUSION

By now you should be more attuned to the ways light and shade have been used in architecture and landscapes both for functional means and for symbolic effect. Speci@cally, the two primary bene@ts of clerestories—admitting light from above, and movement of fresh air—are what originally made it valuable, and it has since evolved into a key element of architectural integration.

Symbolically, light pouring down from above was a useful expression for most sacred cultures; spirits, deities, heavens, etc. were believed to be in an upper realm according to many cosmologies, and the light coming down from that realm and illuminating the darkness of our mortal world emphasized the experience of sacred architectures. Once fenestration (building openings) was @lled with glass, the clerestory took on another dimension of symbolic expression in the form of window shapes, the shadows they cast, and the colored (stained) art in the glass itself. Landscape design has utilized topography and all sizes of planted elements to further sculpt light and shadow, blurring the lines between inside and outside while transforming and ordering our paths through each.

Continue to ask good questions of the clerestory architectures in this module:

What are the effects to the lighting of the interior? Can light have form?

What are the effects to the movement of air? Why does air need to move?

Can a clerestory embellish spiritual or sacred symbolism?

What materials and structural techniques were used to achieve the sculpting of light and shadow?

How is light and shadow used in outdoor spaces?

Which techniques for the sculpting of light and shade do architecture and landscape architecture share?

Module Coursework Complete all items in any Graded Coursework, Other Activities, and Quizzes and Exams areas included in this module.

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