The diamond vaults of Central Europe are among the most original yet little-known creations of medieval architecture: ceilings so complex that, as their name suggests, they recall the facets of a cut gemstone. First appearing in 1471 at the palace of Albrechtsburg in meissen, Germany, they were employed for almost a century in locations as far part as Gdansk on the Baltic to Bechyne in southern Bohemia (today's Czech Republic).
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Book Description
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About the Author
Zoe Opacic is lecturer in History and Theory of Architecture at Birkbeck, University of London, and has also taught at Morley College and the Courtauld Institute of Art.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
lost building craft,
By
This review is from: Diamond Vaults: Innov and Geometry (Paperback)
This is an excellent review of a rare and little known innovation in a special type of vault work in interior spaces called diamond vaults. Apparently it emerged as a result of the initiative of one architect, Arnold von Westfalen, in the new construction for the Albrechtsburg castle in 1471. This sharp-edged, ribless plaster vault has the peculiar quality of folded paper, or some other monolithic material with sharply folded edges, and this very particular kind of late medieval building craft made its way through Poland and Czechoslovakia. But this is not irrelevant art history fetishism. The work provided by the author is an excellent contribution to the subject, the only one in english, and the dazzling effect of this architecture is reason enough to enjoy. But there seems to be an interest in this type of formmaking precisely because we see a formal relevance to these vaults and the forms architects are experimenting with today.
Whether or not you are interested in finding ways to link the formal sensibilities of medieval craftsman with architectural form in the digital age, you will nonetheless be amazed at this beautiful, innovative, little known, rarely seen architecture. Highly recommended.
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