Exploring the difference between history and memory in Renaissance architecture

2020-12-08T14:57:00-05:00

ElDante Winston [...] PhD student in MIT’s History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program is keenly interested in how spaces designed for violence retain a memory of violent acts in the present day.

"These are places of violence that, when you go to them now, you just watch people mill around and eat gelato," ElDante Winston, a PhD student in MIT's History, Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art program, says about certain, prominent examples of Renaissance architecture, the subject of his research. "But years ago, someone was hanging right in the center of the piazza, if they weren’t decapitated. And we don’t really think about that, and what that means for the space."

Princeton University researchers crack secret to Italian renaissance dome construction

2020-05-22T17:44:00-04:00

As part of a recent study, researchers at Princeton University and the University of Bergamo have uncovered the engineering techniques behind the self-supporting masonry of the Italian renaissance, reports the Princeton Engineering website. "Researchers analyzed how cupolas like the famous duomo, part of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, were built as self-supporting, without the use of shoring or forms typically required," the school writes.

"The double loxodrome is comprised of rows of vertical bricks that crisscross around the dome and are filled in by horizontal bricks. Effectively, each course of bricks creates a structural element known as a plate-bande that wedges interior bricks between the vertical end caps." Image: courtesy of the researchers. via engineering.princeton.edu

Looking at structures such as the famous Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, which is the largest masonry dome standing today, the team was able to discover an intricate geometric pattern...

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Exploring the difference between history and memory in Renaissance architecture

Princeton University researchers crack secret to Italian renaissance dome construction