Britain's Greatest Buildings: Durham Cathedral (Used Advanced Engineering a Century ahead of its time). 1 Hour. Blighty.
by Simon Zohhadi on Monday, 27 September 2010 at 02:13 ·
Benedictines (St Augustine) brought Christianity to Britain. Worked with masons to build Durham Cathedral in the 11th Century.Also a suggestion of Islamic influences in its design. Believed that muslim craftsmen worked along christians. Examples of 13th Century Islamic art within the building. Also freemasonry etchings including circles, triangles, pentangle etc. Architects were known as the `masters of the compass'.
Built by trial and error. Monument to engineering. It was modern for its period. First foundation stone placed 11th August 1093 and Cathedral was completed 40 years later. Construction was quick due to pre-fabrication and then assembled on site. Walls and colums were hollow and were filled with builders rubble and lime motar (took a long time to harden and was flexible). Examples of timber shuttering still in place. Scaffolding was made out of timber.
Needed to support stone roof (at such height and width) to house St Cuthbert's remains. The masons understood that stone could be strengthened by its form and shaping it correctly. Stone ribs were used before but not at such a level. Provided a `skeleton for the body of the cathedral'. Technical problem with ribs that take a semi-circular form. Rounded arches were the tradititional way of supporting loads but they didn't cope well with the immense mass of a cathedral roof. The solution was for the first time to use pointed arches instead of rounded arches. Flying buttress provided further stabilty to counter the horizontal outer thrust. Gothic architecture 20 years before it was "first discovered in France". Cathedral walls could be less substantial than before and windows bigger allowing extra light.
Needed to support stone roof (at such height and width) to house St Cuthbert's remains. The masons understood that stone could be strengthened by its form and shaping it correctly. Stone ribs were used before but not at such a level. Provided a `skeleton for the body of the cathedral'. Technical problem with ribs that take a semi-circular form. Rounded arches were the tradititional way of supporting loads but they didn't cope well with the immense mass of a cathedral roof. The solution was for the first time to use pointed arches instead of rounded arches. Flying buttress provided further stabilty to counter the horizontal outer thrust. Gothic architecture 20 years before it was "first discovered in France". Cathedral walls could be less substantial than before and windows bigger allowing extra light.
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