Unit Summary: Alternatives Unit

The alternatives unit encompassed designs that may have been inspired somewhat by what preceded them, but was usually the designers and architects during this time brought completely new ideas to designing – this time being the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rocco periods. For example, they began creating buildings along the horizontal instead of the vertical – the buildings spanned as far as the eye could see, not as high as one could see. Also, the landscape slowly became an important feature to building designs during the alternatives unit.

To start, Gothic Cathedrals were one of the first alternatives we discussed – these cathedrals, as well as many of the other buildings, were highly ornamented and displayed many details. For example, in a cathedral there were highly ornamented carvings which depicted stories from the bible. These details from these stories that spanned the exterior walls and doors, as well as the interior columns and walls sided in teaching the illiterate commoners who came to worship. Details were also very important for other reasons. For example, when the architect didn’t follow the original plans while building the Notre-Dame of Amiens, he made the buttresses too thin, almost causing the building to collapse. (Roth 334)

After the Gothic period, architects and designers went through a revival – the Renaissance. What was created during this time were places that followed rules more strictly, with less decoration, but the same amount of detail; the attention to detail was just used in a much different way. For example, instead of small, story-telling details, designers based their work on symmetry as well as geometrical shapes. During this time of revival, the façade of a building was crucial – the front face of buildings, especially ones that were directed toward highly populated gathering areas (those on busy street corners and surrounding a popular court), were grandly decorated to express wealth. These buildings may not have had the same expressions of detail the Gothic buildings had, but they were, as I have said, very strong symmetrical details. Also, as was the case of the Palazzo de Medici, there were different materials used to represent different levels of the building, each level was a different size, which separated floors for business, socializing and family. All of this was apparent just from the details on the front façade. (Roth 376)

There was another transition made during the alternatives unit – and that was from the Renaissance period to the Baroque and Rocco periods. During this time designers decided to break the rules and design ‘out of the box.’ This means that usually the designers disregarded any of the written design rules from the Renaissance, and made their own designs, usually more highly ornamented then anything yet. The designs were, at first, highly disliked and made fun of. Many designs, for instance, were so highly decorated that the viewer was unable to take in everything at once. (Roth 414) It required them to think deeply, and become more emotionally connected to the art. Also, other geometric forms began appearing; as a replacement for of simple circles, squares and rectangles, there were ovals – as seen in the Piazza of St. Peters – as well as hexagons instead of circular domes.