i need more info on medieval archetecture!?

Question

I NEED INFO ON THE ARCHITECTURE MORE THAT WAT I HAV GOTTEN. Here is wat i got from some1 else....Most building constrution was done based on architectural plans, although the engineering stand points, also performed by the chief architect, was more or less guess work.

Few, if any, people had chimneys until the later middle ages.

Glass was a luxury item which was rarely ever used outside of Cathedrals and the palaces of the wealthy.

Romanesque Churches have one massive support in the crypt which represents Christ as the churches foundation.

Churches typically had the alter on the east side of the church, facing away from the devil, who was said to live in the west, and by facing east the congregation would all face the direction from which Christ was said to arrive from during his second coming.

I need this info by the end of the day on Turesday
I NEED INFO ON THE ARCHITECTURE MORE THAT WAT I HAV GOTTEN. Here is wat i got from some1 else....Most building constrution was done based on architectural plans, although the engineering stand points, also performed by the chief architect, was more or less guess work.

Few, if any, people had chimneys until the later middle ages.

Glass was a luxury item which was rarely ever used outside of Cathedrals and the palaces of the wealthy.

Romanesque Churches have one massive support in the crypt which represents Christ as the churches foundation.

Churches typically had the alter on the east side of the church, facing away from the devil, who was said to live in the west, and by facing east the congregation would all face the direction from which Christ was said to arrive from during his second coming.

Answer 1

The Latin cross plan, common in medieval ecclesiastical architecture, takes the Roman Basilica as its primary model with subsequent developments. Also, cathedrals influenced or commissioned by Justinian employed the Byzantine style of domes and a Greek cross (resembling a plus sign), centering attention on the altar at the center of the church.

The term Romanesque, like many other stylistic designations of periods in architecture, was not a term contemporary with the art it describes, but an invention of modern scholarship to categorize a period. The term "Romanesque" attempts to link the architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries in medieval Europe to Roman Architecture, based on similarities of forms and materials. Romanesque is characterized by a use of round arches, barrel vaults, cruciform piers supporting vaults, and groin vaults.

The important pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela (Way of Saint James), in Galicia (present-day northwestern Spain) also generated and spread some aspects of the Romanesque style. The Romanesque style attempted to revive the styles of the art of classical antiquity, but it also drew heavily on ancient Christian Celtic and Byzantine arts.

A combination of masonry, arch and piers are the basis of the Romanesque style. The main concept for buildings was the addition of pure geometrical forms. The new concept of stone vaulting required stronger walls for support. Because of the lack of knowledge of the building statics, it was necessary to build strong, thick walls with narrow openings.

Columns are subsequently replaced by piers, or are transformed to better support the masonry arches. There is also one new element in the capitals developed during the Romanesque period—the impost, a trapezoid form that stands between capital and arch.

Two types of alternation of supporting elements appeared during the Romanesque:

1. Simple alternation - 1 column (circular) is followed by 1 pier (rectang
3. Triple alternation - 3 piers stand between every column ular)
2. Double alternation - 2 piers stand between every column

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture, particularly associated with cathedrals and other churches, which flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. In Gothic architecture, new technology stands behind the new building style. That new technology was the ogival or pointed arch. Other features developed as the consequence of the use of the pointed arch.

The Gothic style emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, ribbed vaults, clustered columns, sharply pointed spires, flying buttresses and inventive sculptural detail such as gargoyles.

Internally there is a focus on large stained-glass windows that allow more light to enter than was possible with the previous Romanesque style. To achieve this lightness, flying buttresses were used between windows as a means of support to enable higher ceilings and slender columns. As a defining characteristic of Gothic Architecture, the pointed arch was introduced for both visual and structural reasons. Visually, the verticality suggests an aspiration to Heaven. Structurally, its use gives a greater flexibility to Architectural form. The Gothic vault, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. The other advantage is that the pointed arch channels the weight onto the bearing piers or columns at a steep angle.

In Gothic Architecture the pointed arch is utilized in every location where a vaulted shape is called for, both structural and decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting above spaces both large and small is usually supported by richly molded ribs. Rows of arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary are a major external feature. The pointed arch leant itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the large windows that are characteristic of the style.

In Gothic architecture, new technology stands behind the new building style. Other features developed as the consequence of the use of the pointed arch.

The Gothic style emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, ribbed vaults, clustered columns, sharply pointed spires, flying buttresses and inventive sculptural detail such as gargoyles.

Internally there is a focus on large stained-glass windows that allow more light to enter than was possible with the previous Romanesque style. As a defining characteristic of Gothic Architecture, the pointed arch was introduced for both visual and structural reasons. The Gothic vault, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. In Gothic Architecture the pointed arch is utilized in every location where a vaulted shape is called for, both structural and decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting above spaces both large and small is usually supported by richly molded ribs. Rows of arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary are a major external feature. The pointed arch leant itself to elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the large windows that are characteristic of the style.

Surviving examples of medieval secular architecture mainly served for defense. Castles and fortified walls provide the most notable remaining non-religious examples of medieval architecture. Crenelated walls (battlements) provided shelters for archers on the roofs to hide behind when not shooting.

In architecture a corbel (or console) is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels support a projecting wall or parapet, has been used since Neolithic times. It is common in Medieval architecture and in the Scottish baronial style.

A cul-de-lampe is a kind of bracket-corbel supporting a vault.

The term embrasure, in architecture, refers to the opening in a crenellation or battlement between the two raised solid portions or merlons, sometimes called a crenelle; also to the splay of a window. The purpose of embrasures is to allow weapons to be fired out from the fortification while the firer remains under cover.

The etymology of embrasure expresses widening.

A distinction was made between vertical and horizontal embrasures or loopholes, depending on the orientation of the slit formed in the outside wall. However to sweep from side to side the weapon (and its firer or crew) must bodily move from side to side to pivot around the muzzle, which is effectively fixed by the slit. A merlon, in architecture, forms the solid part of an embattled parapet, sometimes pierced by embrasures.

The two most notable European variants in Middle Ages merlons shape were the Ghibelline and the Guelph merlon: the former ended in the upper part with a swallow-tailed form, while the latter term indicates the normal rectangular shape merlons (wimperg). After falling out of favour when the invention of cannon forced buildings to take a much lower profile, they re-emerged as decorative features in buildings constructed in the neo-Gothic style of the 19th century.

Jettied floors are also termed jetties.

A jetty is an upper floor that depends on a cantilever system in which a horizontal beam, the jetty bressummer, supports the wall above and projects forward beyond the floor below (a technique also called oversailing) .

Answer 2

these links may help, as well as the links someone has listed for you in Wikipedia (they are excellent for finding the ANSWERS for yourself)

http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/gothic_arch.html
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/medieval/architecture/medarch.htm
http://www.greatbuildings.com/types/styles/medieval.html
http://historymedren.about.com/od/architecuture/Medieval_Architecuture.htm