Triangulature
The triangulature ("triangular", from Latin triangulum, "triangle"), also triangulation , was a historical method for determining the proportions of buildings, the inherent relationship of the length, width and height of a building, a facade or one Component to each other, was accepted in the Romantic era to this day. This view was refuted by research by the building historian Konrad Hecht.
Triangulature
The triangulature is said to have been used mainly by the builders, mostly using an isosceles triangle for building structures in the Gothic style . The definition or construction of a building or individual parts of it should be done with the help of ropes, straight lines and compasses .
In its simplest form, this procedure is said to have been used as follows: In order to determine the width and height of a building, the width was first determined by points A and B. This segment is defined as a leg and if the identically long segment AB is connected from point A and B to point C, an isosceles triangle is created. The vertical line on the bisector AB is half the length of the building on the one hand and the height of the building on the other. If a segment is shifted parallel to AB through C, the result is segment DE, which has the same length as AB. In a three-aisled basilica, the aisles are quarter-length and the main nave is half the length of AB. If the points D and E are connected to the center of AB, intersections are created that quarter the length of the structure. This simple procedure is called triangulation. Eleven methods of triangulation are known.
Konrad Hecht checked the proportions of the Freiburg Minster using eleven methods of triangulation and came to the conclusion that the Gothic builders did not orientate themselves on the proportions of the triangulation. Not a single method of triangulation was used. Some of the deviations were considerable when Hecht applied these procedures to reality. “ The Gothic architect knew neither" magic agents "nor" beauty creators ". On the construction site as well as on the drawing board, he used measure and number as the only reliable resource; For everything that he created, for everything that still concerns us today as an achievement of Gothic, these aids were indispensable for him ” .
It was further assumed that the proportioning of pinnacles , ciliates , finials and gables was done either by means of quadrature or triangulature.
As the book of the pinnacles justice of Matthew Roritzer (1486), the cathedral architect was in Regensburg, was rediscovered, was adopted in the romance, the masons in the Gothic were able, the proportions of the cathedral building basis at any time the dimensions of all other Identify the building blocks they had to build. Hecht also refuted this view: “The image sources do not show any proportions. They show the constriction of escapes [..]. The Italian sources had given no historical basis. It is no different with the German and French sources. "
literature
- Karl Birker: The geometric structure of the east side of the Gewandhaus in Braunschweig. Attempt at an interpretation, Braunschweig 1984.
- Konrad Hecht: Measure and number of Gothic architecture . 3 parts in 1 volume (reprint of the Göttingen edition 1967–72), Olms Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 1997.
- Theodor Fischer: Two lectures on proportions, Oldenbourg 1956.
- Lexicon of art, architecture, fine arts, applied arts, industrial design, art theory. Volume V, p. 217, ed. v. Ludger Alscher , Günter Feist, Peter H. Feist, Verlag Das Europäische Buch, West Berlin 1984.