King's College Chapel: The geometry of the fan vault
| Author(s): |
Jacques Heyman
|
|---|---|
| Medium: | conference paper |
| Language(s): | English |
| Conference: | 6th International Congress on Construction History (6ICCH 2018), July 9-13, 2018, Brussels, Belgium |
| Published in: | Building Knowledge, Constructing Histories [2 vols.] |
| Page(s): | 749-754 |
| Year: | 2018 |
| Abstract: | A conventional survey was made in 1978 of the level of the top surface of the fan vault of King's College Chapel, and the findings were confirmed by laser scans in 2012. Instead of being horizontal, the centre-line surface of the vault slopes down, in a substantially uniform way, by over 120 mm from east to west in the length of some 88 m of the chapel. A difference of level of about 20 rather than 120 mm would have been achievable by the medieval builders, and this fact, coupled with the almost uniform slope of the ridge, indicates that the settlement was due to some systematic cause associated with the construction programme. Each of the twelve bays of the vault was built successively in three months over a total period of three years. Examination of the way in which construction may have proceeded indicates a possible explanation of the small but definite and remarkably uniform slope of the whole chapel. |
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10078236 - Published on:
15/09/2018 - Last updated on:
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