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The Renaissance (15th - 18th Century)

© Shefali Kumar

With a widespread interest in Roman ruins, there was also a desire to learn from the construction principles employed by them. The Orders discussed earlier (refer "The Romans begin to Build") were now applied to buildings on a monumental scale. The principles of Roman dome construction were further refined.

This period also saw the birth of the "Architect" unique from the masons and carpenters. The construction techniques developed during the Renaissance form the basis of architecture even today. The two major building forms characterizing this period are:

• The Dome, and
• The Truss

The Renaissance Dome: Brunelleschi was the first famous architect of this period. During his work on the Cathedral of Florence, he envisaged a novel method for constructing the 42 m (138 ft) dome. For the first time in history, a scale model was made to demonstrate the concept for the dome.

The dome consists of two shells, an inner shell which forms the ceiling for the Cathedral and an outer shell which protects the inner one from the weather. Also, the outer shell allowed the exterior form of the dome to be molded to suit the external appearance desired. This assembly of two domes was supported by circular 24 half-stone ribs. These ribs were tapering in form - 2.1 m (7 ft) at the bottom to 1.5 m (5 ft) at the top. All these ribs met at the top at a "compression ring" of stone. This was a new technique not tried so far. To counteract the outer thrust of the ribs, they were stabilized using similar stone tie rings between the ribs. Later these tie rings were made of metal chains (as in St. Peter's Basilica by Michelangelo). The space between the tie rings and ribs was covered by thin outer and inner shells of stone and brick.

What was interesting about this dome was that it was constructed without any formwork. Brunelleschi understood that if the dome was constructed in horizontal layers, it would be stable and would not require any formwork.

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