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Tag Archives: cathedral construction sequence

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Cathedral of Beauvais: Sublime Visions; Thwarted Ambitions; A Sketch

  25 December 2021 , ,
Of all the stories of the greatest Gothic cathedrals, the tale of Beauvais is the most exciting. Construction of the Gothic cathedral began in 1225 at a time of bitter turmoil when France was establishing itself as a nation within its familiar modern geographical bounds. Beauvais, the tallest cathedral in France, was never completed, having endured two major collapses and a series of structural crises that continues to this day. Our Sketchup animation follows this dramatic narrative, allowing the viewer to experience and understand the famous collapse that brought down the upper choir in 1284 as well as the underlying design features that led to that disaster. Particularly intriguing is the visualization of the short-lived crossing tower constructed in the mid-sixteenth century and the rivalry between S-Pierre of Beauvais and Saint Peter’s in Rome.
It is hoped that besides appealing to a general audience of cathedral fans, this movie will be useful in the context of the classroom at high-school and university levels.

Directed by Stephen Murray

Produced by Myles Zhang

Special thanks to Étienne Hamon

Explore more

Further reading: Stephen Murray. Beauvais Cathedral: Architecture of Transcendence. Princeton University Press, 1989.
Visit Mapping Gothic for further photos and a panoramic tour of the cathedral interior.
Visit this link to download image stills of the cathedral at various stages of completion, for reuse in print publications.

Source files

Creating this animation required creating a computer model of the entire cathedral at all stages of construction. This model is shared below; click and drag your cursor to move around this virtual space.

Email [email protected] and [email protected] for access to source files.

High-resolution image stills from construction sequence

1220s fire to 1284 collapse
1225
1225
1232
1232
1240s
1240s
1240s
1240s
1250s
1250s
1250s Section
1250s Section
Before vs. after 1284 collapse
Before 1284 Collapse
Before 1284 Collapse
After 1284 Collapse
After 1284 Collapse
After 1284 collapse vs. after 1300s rebuilding
After 1284 Collapse
After 1284 Collapse
After 1300s Rebuilding
After 1300s Rebuilding
1284 collapse to 1550s transept
After 1284 Collapse
After 1284 Collapse
1500s
1500s
1510s
1510s
1520s
1520s
1530s
1530s
1540s
1540s
Proposals for completing cathedral
1600s Proposed
1600s Proposed
1600s Proposed with Notre-Dame Type Facade
1600s Proposed with Notre-Dame Type Facade
1600s Proposed with Late Gothic Facade
1600s Proposed with Late Gothic Facade
1600s Proposed with Late Gothic Facade
1600s Proposed with Late Gothic Facade
Proposed cathedral vs. actual extent of construction by 1573 collapse
1573 Proposed
1573 Proposed
1573 Actual Extent of Construction
1573 Actual Extent of Construction
Contemporary
Contemporary View
Contemporary View
Contemporary View
Contemporary View
Contemporary Section
Contemporary Section

Image sources

Hand-drawn image textures used in this model are based on actual scanned drawings of the cathedral: floorplan, choir section, choir elevation, and hemicyle section.

Audio sources

High medieval music: Viderunt Omnes by Pérotin, 1198
Late medieval music: Ave Maria by Josquin des Prez, c.1475
Contemporary cathedral: Pierre de Soleil by Philip Glass, 1986
Sound of material buckling
Sound of structural collapse

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Notre-Dame of Paris Construction Sequence

  12 January 2021 , ,
Created with architectural historian Stephen Murray
As featured in:
1. Notre Dame’s official website
2. Open Culture, May 2021
2. Rebuilding a Legacy, hosted April 2021 by the French Embassy, view recording
3. Restoring a Gothic Masterpiece, hosted May 2021 by the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and Town Hall, view recording
4. Visual investigations of architecture by the French daily paper, Le Monde, December 2024, view film

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1. Construction time-lapse

This construction time-lapse illustrates the history of Notre-Dame from c.1060 to the present day, following ten centuries of construction and reconstruction. Model is based on actual measurements of the cathedral and was peer reviewed for accuracy by scholars at Columbia University’s art history department and at the Friends of Notre-Dame of Paris.
The film was created in the computer modeling software SketchUp, based on hand-drawn image textures. The ink drawings of nineteenth-century architect Viollet-le-Duc were scanned and applied to the model surfaces, so as to transform the two-dimensional artwork into the three-dimensional digital. I believe computer models should preserve a certain handmade quality.

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Music: Pérotin, Viderunt Omnes

View animation with music only.

Read text of Stephen Murray’s audio narration.

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2. Virtual reality computer model

Explore the interior and exterior of Notre-Dame in virtual reality.
Give thirty seconds for browser to load. Link opens in new window.
Complete model of Notre-Dame inside and out. Download includes simulation of cathedral construction sequence.

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Fire on 15 April 2019

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3. Research method and work flow

Learn how this model was created – and how to create similar models of your own – with my series of online tutorials shared to this page.

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4. Computer model and construction sequence sources

– Dany Sandron and Andrew Tallon. Notre-Dame Cathedral: nine centuries of history.
– Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. Drawings of Notre-Dame. From Wikimedia Commons.
– J. Clemente. Spire of Notre-Dame. From SketchUp 3D Warehouse.
– Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Ferdinand de Guilhermy. Notre-Dame de Paris. From BnF Gallica.
– Caroline Bruzelius. “The Construction of Notre-Dame in Paris” in The Art Bulletin. From JSTOR.
– Michael Davis. “Splendor and Peril: The Cathedral of Paris” in The Art Bulletin. From JSTOR.

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5. Exterior still images from model

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West facade
West facade
West facade towers
West facade towers
West facade
West facade
West facade
West facade
West facade rose window
West facade rose window
West facade rose window
West facade rose window
Notre-Dame West Facade and South Facade
South side of nave
South side of nave
Buttresses on south side of nave
Buttresses on south side of nave
Buttresses on choir
Buttresses on choir
Spire and western towers
Spire and western towers
Spire
Spire
Spire
Spire
South facade
South facade
South side of nave
South side of nave
Buttresses on hemicycle
Buttresses on hemicycle
Hemicycle
Hemicycle
Hemicycle
Hemicycle
South transept rose window
South transept rose window

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6. Interior still images

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Nave towards choir
Nave towards choir
Clerestory windows of nave
Clerestory windows of nave
Choir
Choir
Choir towards nave
Choir towards nave
Rafters inside roof
Rafters inside roof
Rafters inside roof
Rafters inside roof
South transept rose window
South transept rose window

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7. Dynamic angles

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Cross Section of Transept and Choir
Cross Section of Transept and Choir
Cross Section
Cross Section
Notre-Dame Plan of Nave from East
Notre-Dame Plan
Plan of western towers
Plan of western towers
Plan of western end of nave
Plan of western end of nave
Notre-Dame Plan and Hemicycle
Notre-Dame Plan and North Facade
Notre-Dame Plan and South Facade Detail
Notre-Dame Plan and South Facade
Plan of crossing
Plan of crossing
Notre-Dame Plan from Southwest
Plan of nave
Plan of nave
Notre-Dame Plan from Northeast
Cross Section of South Transept
Cross Section of South Transept
Cross Section of Transept and Nave
Cross Section of Transept and Nave
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St. Paul’s Cathedral Dome: a synthesis of engineering and art

  16 April 2020 , ,
Developed with James Campbell, architectural historian at the University of Cambridge
Inspired by taking George Deodatis’ lectures on The Art of Structural Design
at Columbia University’s Department of Civil Engineering

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In 1872, Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, the French author and architect celebrated for restoring Notre-Dame of Paris, wrote in his Lectures on Architecture that the form of the Gothic cathedral was the synthesis of the early Christian basilica and the Romanesque three-aisled church. In this analysis, Viollet-le-Duc reasoned that a thesis (early Christian) plus an antithesis (Romanesque) produced the synthesis (Gothic).

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Animation from Stephen Murray
Although the history and origins of Gothic are more complex than Viollet-le-Duc’s formula, this formula provides a method to dissect the Renaissance and Enlightenment counterpart to the medieval cathedral: the Greco-Roman basilica, as embodied by St. Paul’s Cathedral, constructed from 1675 to 1711 by Christopher Wren (1632-1723). St Paul’s is a symbol of Enlightenment-era London, built to rival its medieval counterpart of Westminster Abbey.
In this essay, and in my analysis of this neoclassical cathedral, I will parallel Viollet-le-Duc’s analysis of the medieval church. The thesis is that St. Paul’s is a work of techno-scientific engineering. The antithesis is that this building is a work of art that speaks to the larger cultural moment of Enlightenment London. The synthesis is the dome of St. Paul’s that merges these two forces of engineering and art into a unified and impressive creation.

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Thesis: ENGINEERING
The engineering of this dome is more complex than meets the eye.

In this animated construction sequence, view how the dome was engineered.

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Music from the organ (William Tell’s Overture) and bells of St Paul’s (recorded 2013)

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St. Paul’s Cathedral features an innovative triple dome structure. On the circular drum, the inner dome rises and is visible from the cathedral interior. Above this inner dome, a brick cone rises to support the 850 ton lantern. This brick cone also supports the wood rafters and frame of the outer dome, which is covered in wood and lead. This three dome system allows the cathedral to support such a heavy lantern, all the while maintaining the great height needed to be a visible London landmark.
  • Inner dome – visible from inside and purely for show; height 225 ft (69m)
  • Middle brick cone – a brick cone that is invisible from below but supports the 850 ton lantern above; height 278 ft (85m)
  • Outer dome – a wood and lead-roofed structure visible from the cathedral exterior; height 278 ft (85m)
  • Lantern – an 850 ton stone lantern and cross, whose weight is carried to the ground via the middle brick cone 365ft (111m)
The inner and outer domes are decorative, while the brick cone is the true weight-bearing support. The model below is created from measured plans and is accurate to reality.

Read More

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Virtual Reality Model
(click to play)

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Amiens Cathedral Construction Sequence

  27 March 2018 ,
Supervised by Stephen Murray, historian at Columbia University
Presentation delivered March 2018 at St. Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford

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My goal is to recreate Amiens Cathedral digitally. My method is to build an interactive and open-source computer model of the entire cathedral that is accurate to the foot and photo-realistic. This project would be impossible without the guidance of medievalist Stephen Murray, who introduced me to Amiens in his fall 2016 seminar at Columbia University.

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Related Projects

This project is published to Columbia’s website. I expanded on Amiens Cathedral for my senior thesis about the medieval church of St. Denis, and I continued building computer models as a research assistant at Columbia University’s Media Center for Art History.
I also researched the construction sequences of:
– The Eiffel Tower
– Burford Church near Oxford, England
– St. Paul’s Cathedral dome in London
– Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon
– Notre-Dame in Paris (forthcoming)