Laws and measures of early

Renaissance space
Architecture as space
The first volume of a two volume history of art always
close on Gothic, the second one start with the renaissance
15 century show the
discovery of
• America
• Perspective
• Printing press
But not Renaissance
architecture it’s origin
goes back to 11th century
 In 13th and 14th century
Italy anticipate the new
humanistic attitude

on Italian school
independent theme
evolved

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The figure of
Renaissance architecture
is Brunelleschi

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He built

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Renaissance has been the
subject of two antithetical
conceptions For a long
time the :
• according to one, the
Renaissance was an absolute
novelty with respect to the
preceding period and so can not
be brought into historical
framework;
• the other conception reduces the
Renaissance to a "neo-ism," a
revival of Roman architecture,
depriving it of any claim to
creative vitality.
What then is the new element which makes its appearance
with Brunelleschi in 15th-century architecture?
• It is essentially a mathematical conception developed from
Romanesque and Gothic metrics
• In terms of space, the thought and humanism of the 15th century
may be summed up by this experience: if you were to enter S.
Lorenzo or S. Spirito, in a matter of a few seconds, whether or not you
are familiar with the metrical law involved, you could fully measure
their internal space, so governed are they both by that readily
grasped law. From a psychological and spiritual point of view, this
represented a radical departure.
With Brunelleschi, for the first time,
it was no longer the building that
took possession of the observer, but
the observer who, by apprehending
the simple law governing its space,
possessed the secret of the
building.
Those who speak of medieval
transcendentalism and Renaissance
immanence are making literary allusion to
the fact that in the Renaissance man was no
longer propelled by Early Christian rhythm,
In S. Lorenzo moves about with the clear
feeling of being at home in a house
constructed by an architect who has not
been swept away by religious exaltation but
rather pursues rational, human methods that
hold no mysteries, at ease in a house
conveying the calm precision of the humanly
universal.

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the great achievement of the 15th century
was to transfer the human feeling which
animated the Greek temple to the field of
interior space or, more exactly, to translate
into spatial terms the metrics which in the
Romanesque and Gothic periods had been
limited to the plans.

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Superficial observers accuse the Renaissance
of a mere nostalgic imitation of past culture,
whereas it was actually the cradle of the
most advanced modern research and
experiment.

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 • our social axiom of the city planned for
man; our conception of the house in
terms of modern material, psychological
and religious needs-all of these
immanent, organic, spiritual attitudes of
ours can be traced in a direct line of
descent from the architecture of the 15th
century,

• The entire effort of the Renaissance

consisted in emphasizing man's
intellectual control of architectural space;

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• Brunelleschi found it necessary to
minimize the importance of the
longitudinal axis and to create a circular
movement around the cupola. A number
of other new features of 15th-century
architecture can be similarly explained
and justified as replying to the same
spatial needs.
• Every decorative factor of medieval
dispersion was eliminated.
 The end
Design studio assignment

Name Id
Yordanos Abebaw 1309062
Samuel Tamene 1307926
Marshet Shimels 1311631
Kena tufa 1308149