Brunelleschi: The Wave Of The Middle Ages

During all of this Brunelleschi not only built the dome in the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral (what today is still the biggest dome in the world), but mechanical marvels of worker platforms and lifts that managed to carry workers and hundreds pounds of materials hundreds feet in the air over the course of 28 years with only a single death. This showed how Brunelleschi was a mastermind in architecture and how he revived it.

The motivation behind Brunelleschi’s Dome originated from the desire to show-off Florence, Europe’s financial and cultural wealth. Later, the large dome was added to display that the church was the most beautiful and best that was ever been built.

Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the leading architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance and is best known for his work on the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Filippo was assigned the job of creating the dome of the cathedral of Florence. This work took a lot of his time and a good portion of his life and the challenge was enormous, no other dome that size has ever been built in that era. The dome didn't just become an architect problem, but also an engineering problem. They didn't have the type of tools we have today to get something like that built. Filippo also invented and patented the new hoisting machine for raising the masonry required for the dome (Mueller, T. 2014). You’ll see this on a lot of tall commercial

At the time, there was no way of raising and maneuvering the heavy material that was required to build the dome. Brunelleschi invented a oxen powered hoist system with a clutch, that would allow loads to be lowered and raised without having to change direction the oxen traveled. Brunelleschi also came up with a method

Brunelleschi was aiming to achieve to build the world's best Dome. He invented his way to success as he solved one of the greatest architectural problems. He was a man with a great ambition and has left a great legacy that even after 600 years American and European architects will follow in his footsteps. His Dome still dominates the horizon of Florence today, as it remains as a long lasting legacy to a very great architect.

The design of the dome for the cathedral in Florence was a huge architectural project. The construction of the cathedral itself took over 100 years and it didn’t have dome. A challenge was issued for the right to design and build the dome, with Filippo Brunelleschi winning. To complete the dome Brunelleschi went to study other domes, primarily the Pantheon in Rome. During the work he relied on help from Lorenzo Ghiberti for the design and construction. He was the runner up for the competition, so he was qualified but soon found that he could not do it as well as Brunelleschi. Since he was using brick he wasn’t able to support it from underneath, so he had to come up with another solution. He created a series of chains in the shape of

While construction of the cathedral in Florence, Italy began in 1296, the building still sported a large hole in the roof in 1418. The cathedral was supposed to be capped with the largest dome ever built. It was supposed to be 150 feet wide and begin 180 feet in the air, and no one knew if it was possible. They didn’t even know how to support such a large structure. In 1418, the city fathers held a contest for the best dome design and Filippo Brunelleschi won out. He faced several engineering issues. The first was how to lift his materials so high in the air. Brunelleschi invented a hoist using gears and pulleys to do the job. It was powered by oxen. He also came up with a design of a dome within a dome, which helped reduce the weight.

It took me awhile to find the right article, but after some research, I found “Brunelleschi’s Dome” in National Geographic. The first question that I looked to answer was the motivation that led to the discovery of the dome. To paraphrase what I learned from the quoted article of National Geographic, there was a hole that was the sore sight of the cathedral in Florence. The name was “Santa Maria”. In order to cover up this eyesore, the leaders of the Catholic Church held a competition in which 200 gold florins were offered to the winner that could best cover up the hole. After listening to many contestants, the Church finally chose Filipo Brunelleschi. He was a young and irate genius, but he promised that he could build an inner and outer dome-and eventually he did. There were several questions that had to be asked; among them were how to cover the whole and what techniques to use so that the dome would not collapse on itself. It was not a task that was done in a day or even a decade. From the time that Brunelleschi was little, he had tinkered around with gears and gadgets. Because of this tinkering around and his learning from being a gold smith and studying architecture, he used his knowledge of the past and came up with the idea of an inner and outer dome. It was supported by solid brick at the base and hoop ring support at the top.

I found it fascinating that during the building of the dome, Brunelleschi masterfully created a 65 foot crane to hoist the materials needed, up to the staggering height of 180 feet. It was the first of it's kind. He didn't draw his design for record but the famous Leonardo DA Vinci did. Those sketches were used during the industrialized revolution to build better machines. Not until the industrial revolution did another crane such as Brunelleschi's exist.

The construction of the Florentine Cathedral was one of much drama and scientific ingenuity. The Cathedral- one of the many proud aspects of Florence- was one with one obscure problem- the iconic dome had a great hole in the center: exposing the inside of the cathedral to the elements. The Government of Florence decided to have a contest to redesign the dome. Ultimately, after thousands of ideas were presented, one idea stood out due to its superior ideas and concepts. Indeed, the creator, Filippo Brunelleschi, was a genius who had studied the methods of architecture, math, science, and even the very methods of art. He spent his life in the pursuit of knowledge. His idea for the construction of the dome was unique. He had the idea that there

An example of the Medici support to artists involves The Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. The dome of the chapel was built so large that no architect knew how to complete the rooftop structure and was a humiliating point in Florentine history. A contest to see who could develop a solution to complete the dome was won by a Florentine engineer named Brunelleschi, who felt he had found the solution. With the successful completion of the chapel, support from Cosimo de Medici and the holy consecration performed by the Pope, a great structure was once again a source of pride to the Florentines and the

The result is the creation of the world’s first self-supporting dome. It consisted of an inner hemispherical dome within the cathedral’s octagonal dome, with a second ovoid brick dome placed on top held together like a drum by nine sandstone beams. This structure allowed the dome to be as light as possible by creating a hollow space, by using this approach and the inside skeletal structure each time the dome was being raised up or added to it was becoming stronger and locking itself into place. The Pantheon dome was a structure that Brunelleschi admired and studied in order to understand how it held itself up, but it had almost the exact opposite structure by having very thick walls. His innovative thinking and complex architectural design sets Brunelleschi years before his time. His works were ingenious master pieces that were a completely new way of

This material was concrete. Romans created a concrete mixture consisting of several materials such as lime and volcanic sand. The Romans had created a very strong and durable type of concrete. This substance combined with the design of the arch created a very strong building. Walls could also be built from the concrete. Along with bricks concrete would be place with in the wall to hold the bricks together making a more ridged structure. Aqueducts where then created which provided water to the cities. This made architects interested in the material and later on lead to larger and different structures. Soon several cultures adopted the Roman arch. Other cultures adapted the Roman arch and developed it further. Experimentation lead cultures to design pointed, scalloped, and horseshoe arches to symbolize mosques and palaces. The Roman arch was a very important solution to a very important issue of construction. The Roman arch also caused the Romans themselves to make further architectural developments. They combined arches to form ceilings or roofs called

It was based in the typical structure used for the first Christian buildings, the basilica. However, it was much more difficult to build that a normal one. From the view that it is available on the picture, we can see the south view of the basilica. It is possible to appreciate a solid construction where details are not as important as are on the inside of the building. The façade has a red tone which is darker on some areas. It is noteworthy that all openings to the outside were constructed using semi-circular arches. The dome, one of the most iconic features of St Sophia, is located in the middle of the structure. There can be seen large counterweights that help to support the heavy weights of the dome. One of the aspects that are most noteworthy are the hard lines of the structure, which give the building a solemn and serious appearance. In addition, one of the most important aspects is the mixture of two different styles, the traditional basilica and the circular structure, which is extremely similar to the Pantheon. The basilica construction provides a dynamic and longitudinal look. The circular one attracts the attention to the centre of the building, the dome. If the first predominated, the dome may not have the emphasis it has and would be relegated to a secondary role; if the second prevailed, the static effect would be greater and around the dome space would be ordered, nullifying all

In 1418, a group of Catholic fathers in Florence Italy met to discuss a troubling issue with the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. This Cathedral had a hole in the top that was horrible for the scorching sun and the heavy rains that penetrated Florence. This motivated the fathers to hold a competition to see who could construct a dome that would not only have to be 150 feet across but also would have to start being constructed 180 feet atop the existing walls. The architect with the best plan would be the one to supervise the building of a new dome for this cathedral. Out of all the leading architects, the winner was a blacksmith named Filippo Brunellschi, a blacksmith who promised to build not one, but two domes without using expensive scaffolding.