Medieval cathedral roof construction and structural aesthetics

Architecture

Naves During the Middle Ages -- Architectural Analysis

Timber Roof

From a structural perspective, the basic timber roof possesses some problems, most notably its relatively flimsy structural integrity. It is easy to construct, requiring less manpower to lift it and to construct its support network, but provides relatively little resistance to the elements of snow and the wind. It is functional in the sense that it performs the sheltering function of shielding the building's inner dwellers, and encloses the building from the open air, but aesthetically is not satisfactory in providing the sense of 'reaching up to the sky' so important in Medieval cathedrals of the era, and of some import in castles and other symbolically significant structures.

Longitudinal barrel vault

This is the simplest form of a vault, consisting of a continuous surface of semicircular or pointed sections. It resembles a barrel or tunnel that has been cut in half lengthwise.

It is more structurally sound than the timber roof, and is quite functional, particularly for providing the structure of a hallway or connecting arches. Although yet again does not provide the aesthetic sense of reaching to heaven so critical to medieval churches, it may have suitable for covering a monastery walk or covering other areas of the architecture of a building that were designed for unobtrusive reflection.

Groin vaults using semicircular arches (" domed-up")

These show the intersection of two-barrel vaults meeting as one. More functionally and structurally sound than a timber roof, though no more so than the other type of vaults, they present a softening aesthetic structure to the spikier structure of sky-reaching spires.

Ribbed groin vaults using pointed arches

Although these are the most complex to construct, and provide little extra functionality or structural support in comparison to the "domed up" system of construction, aesthetically, according to the Middle Ages' worldview, they are perhaps the most satisfying to the Christian notion of sacred 'space.' The sense of spires or arches reaching or aspiring to touch heaven was a critical aesthetic feature for most aspects of Middle Age cathedral-style works of construction.