Birth of a style-02

Coming back to the birth of a style, it is not the technology or the religious background or any such factors that generate a new style. They are important, no doubt, but as facilitators-the background needed for a style to be created & sustained. But what creates a new style is an idea-imagination of a creative genius-which may get converted into a poem, a piece of literature, and thence into a painting or sculpture or architecture.


The Gothic Cathedral came into existence as an extension of belief in the greatness of the Church as the house of God. It was not an architect, but a Bishop, who came up with the idea of a church with huge interior space full of light-and the Gothic architecture followed this thread of imagination.


Hence, it is not the pointed arch which made Gothic Architecture-it so happened that the pointed arch-with its vertical character-was found most suitable for creating the effect of a huge interior space with its three storeyed nave-without enlarging the actual area of the Church.


Secondly, to make the Church full of light, the window area had to be enlarged. The flying buttresses came in useful to transfer the load of the roof directly to ground. Already in the Romanesque style the rib & panel construction of roof had separated the frame & the panel. The Gothic Architects extended this principle to the walls. The columns (like the ribs in the roof) could stand independently and did not need a wall for support. And thus the walls absolved of their role of supporting the structure could be made of glass-fulfilling the design objective of a large transparent surface to fill the interior with light.


But interestingly enough, the walls of Gothic Cathedral did not give a view to the outside. They contained large stained glass portraits which provided a mosaic of coloured light in the interior-illuminating & mystifying it at the same time. As a third world architect, I look on this as a generic issue, related to the harsh, cold climate of the place, where for six months in a year(because of the snow), there is nothing to look at through the window. But it may also have been done with a purpose.


In the tropical places of worship you try to shun the harsh outdoor light & heat by closing the temple with thick walls & thick roof, allowing very little light in the interior which is both very dark & cool. Once in the interior of the temple, you are physically comfortable, but have no view of the outside-making for better concentration on the worship of the deity. And in case of Mosques-though there is no deity-the exterior is closed for view and inside of the mosque all that you see is the Quibla and the other worshippers.


It is very important for a place of worship to create a feeling of secluded space. This can not be achieved if the light and view is available at the human height-upto 2.00 m. from floor level. The highly acclaimed 'Lotus Temple' in New Delhi fails exactly on this count-you can not concentrate in the interior hall because of all the light coming in at low level.


The best source of light in a place like this is above the human eye level of 1.50 M. But if you place the source of light much higher-eliminating the view of the outside except the sky-as would happen in a Mosque-you obtain the best of the result architecturally speaking.


The Gothic stained glass windows serve this purpose beautifully. And moreover, the paintings deal in religious subject-emphasising the religious connotation of the place. It is exactly for this reason that the temples are full of sculptures and Mosques with all the writings from religious texts. Once inside-the interior seeks to enhance the effect of the place.


I used to wonder why the great painters of the day like Michelangelo would spent their efforts in painting the ceilings when it is well nigh impossible to think that people in a Church would have to bend their heads to look at them-not a very comfortable position to admire a painting. It may have been also due to lack of a clean vertical background in a colonnaded place, but I prefer to think that it is an extension of the thought process detailed above. Once inside a Church, everywhere you can see-all that you see is a religious text or painting. So you may or may not be looking directly at any specific painting-but you know instinctively that they have a religious theme.

The thought process thus precedes any new style in architecture. And even in the middle ages-where new thoughts (outside the official religious beliefs) were virtually banned, even within the limited scope of thinking, it is the creative thoughts which led to the birth of a new style.