Western European Architecture

This paper is based on the architecture of Medieval Period from 500AC – 1400AD and its styles such as Byzantine, Early Christian, Romanesque and Gothic. Moreover, the paper also covers certain examples from South Florida and the famous buildings standing there. Although a lot of time has passed since the medieval times, we can still see some buildings that were built in the medieval times. Most of the houses that were built during this time were mostly those that belonged to the rich merchants. However, in most of the places the construction done earlier has been replaced as these buildings have been rebuilt and remodeled.
The town houses that were built during this time were partially similar to their rural counterparts and they were basically designed due to the lack of space. This is because, previously, land especially in the towns was considered to be very important. The normal town plot in the medieval times was long and narrow and it ran back from the front of the street. Features of the medieval town houses The houses that were planned in the medieval times were basically rectangular in shape and they had a gable end or a wing that faced towards the street.
The front part of the house that was on the ground floor was usually used for the purpose of doing trade or used to be used as a shop. Behind the shop, used to be a hall or the main living area and this was further extended to two more storeys and at the back of the house, used to be a counting house or an office along with stores and warehouses as well and an additional accommodation on the upper floor mainly above all the other rooms. The kitchen was separated from the main house and it was an isolated structure at the rear near the courtyard.

The upper storey adjoined the street and it used to overhang the street and this gave more space to the upper story than the space at the ground floor, however there was a disadvantage of this as well because the overhanging of upper floors increased the risk of fire spreading. Halls, solars and privies Most of the houses were framed with timber and had wattle walls and the houses for the rich people were built with stone walls. The main element of the houses in the medieval times was the halls that were divided by screens that formed a passageway that led from the pantries and a kitchen area.
The hall extended the full height of the building and the hall was used as a general living room by everyone who lived in the house. Privacy was very little and the family members needed a place to keep warm and for recreational purposes. In the hall, there used to be a blazing fire and its smoke used to escape through a hole that was present in the roof that was covered by louvre. The fireplaces and the chimneys were also one of the important features of the medieval times. The domestic chambers that were also known as solars and were used as sleeping rooms and it was located above the passage.
At times, these were also fronted by a gallery that overlooked the hall. Even during the middle ages, the timber frames were being used extensively. There were no proper sanitation facilities in the medieval houses and the privies or garderobes were made in the thickness of the walls of larger town houses or as projecting jetties. Garderobes used to get discharged through pipes and gutters into a pit and the chamber pots were used in ordinary dwellings. Furniture and fittings Not much furniture was used in the houses by the people who lived in the medieval times.
The only furniture that used to be present in the houses was a table that used to be covered with a linen cloth. Moreover, they had benches or forms, a chair, stools, chests, small cupboards, shelves housing cups, jugs, pewter, knives and spoons, bowls and plates. The people stored their food items in the small cupboards. The poor in the medieval times used palettes to sleep on. These were bags that were filled with dried ferns, rushes or heather, however the people who were well-off used wooden bedsteads to sleep on and it was very rare that the people possessed proper beds, curtains and hangings.
Byzantine architecture This is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire and it emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity and today, it is referred as the Roman Empire after AD 330 and at this time the Roman Empire shifted its capital from Rome to Byzantium. This empire that continued for more than a hundred years influenced the Medieval and Renaissance era architecture in Europe but later in 1453, the capture of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks led directly to the architecture of the Ottoman Empire. Early Christian Architecture
This flourished from the third to the seventh century and it was produced for the unsplited Christian church. During the Late Antique period, Roman art and architecture extended in the late second till the seventh century and the Byzantine art and architecture existed from fifth till the seventh century. Christianity was made the state religion of the Roman Empire before the Edict of Milan. However, the art adopted by the Christians was restricted as they just used to decorate the hidden places of worship and most of this was derived from Roman art and was developed accordingly to suit the religion.
The ideals of perfection used to get rejected by the artists, instead they used to draw images that reflected spiritual significance. In order to envisage the Christian concepts, an iconography was also formulated. In the beginning, the Christians only used to express their arts in terms of transmitting their faith and belief and not as a way of expressing beauty. Later onwards, in the fourth century, the early Christian architecture flourished under the imperial sponsorship. There used to be mainly two types of buildings. . The longitudinal hall – basilica 2. The centralized building – a baptistery or a mausoleum. The exteriors of Early Christian buildings were plain and unadorned; however on the contrary, the interiors were richly decorated and had marble floors and wall slabs, frescoes, mosaics, metal works, hangings, and sumptuous altar furnishings in gold and silver. Early Christian illuminated manuscripts are of an unusually high quality, however nowadays such kind of architecture is rarely seen.
Romanesque architecture This term was used to describe the architecture of Middle Ages Europe which evolved into the Gothic style beginning in the 12th century and this terms means “descended from Roman” and was used to describe the style from the early 19th century, however there is no specific date that is there as a proof from which this type of architecture came into existence but it ranged from the sixth century till the 10 century.
Since the Imperial Roman architecture, the Romanesque architecture is known as the first pan-European architectural style, moreover this style in England is usually named as Norman architecture. The Romanesque architecture basically is a combination of the features found in the Western Roman and Byzantine buildings, furthermore it used to have substantial quality with thick walls and round arches along with sturdy piers, groin vaults, large towers and decorative arcading.
The Gothic building followed the Romanesque architecture but comparing the two, the buildings of the Romanesque architecture had clearly defined forms and they were regular based on a symmetrical plan. The overall appearance of the buildings was simple and could clearly be identified all over Europe although the material and the characteristics in different parts of Europe were different and a lot of castles have been reported to be built during this period. Gothic Architecture
It is already mentioned in the previous section that the Gothic architecture followed the Romanesque architecture. This flourished mainly during the late medieval period and was succeeded by the Renaissance architecture. Gothic architecture originated in the twelfth century and lasted till the sixteenth century and during this period the Gothic architecture was known as the French style. The main characters of Gothic architecture include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.
Most of the people are able to recognize the Gothic architecture. This is because most of the great cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches of Europe are built using the features of this. It also has many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities, however the private dwellings were not much extensively built. The Gothic architecture was expressed most powerfully in the churches and cathedrals and some of the civic buildings as well and its characteristics normally expressed the emotions.
Many religious buildings were built during this period and the smallest buildings are often differentiated from the other architectural designs. However, the larger churches are considered invaluable works of art. These buildings are also listed with UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. The Gothic revivals began in the mid-18th century starting from England and it spread through 19th-century in Europe that continued till the 20th century and this was largely based on the religious building and the universities.