Romanesque

Romanesque (800 - 1150) - It means Roman style of art that arose in Italy and southern France.

Frankish ( Germanic ethnic group) started to establishing a stable centralized authority.  It is very clear that you can see their design style of furniture as well as architectures shows their power and sophistication of society.

Throne of Dagobert (1125 - 1150, France)





Dagobert I (605 - 639 C.E.) was ruler, who left great achievement not only as ruler but also as successful in metalwork.  This chair is completely made of metal.  It is very new that chairs made of all metal, instead of wood or combination of various materials.  I think the chair shows that power of the ruler, sophistication of the appearance of shiny metal, and X-shaped chair which draws people's eyes to the middle where king sat.


Odo Von Metz, Palatine Chapel (792 - 805, Germany)





The design of interior is just breath-taken.  All the decoration, complexity and angled walls definitely emphasizing sophistication of this time period. I love learning history, because of many design aspects in past greatest architectures have unintentional success.  I am currently learning how to incorporate daylight into space without bringing the glare from outside.  Glare is the major issue today in design, but have to utilize as much natural light as possible in order to design sustainably.  If you look at this interior, they have large enough clerestories to let the light come down only to second floor.  Those lights are sufficient enough to bring dimmed light into first floor, where people gathered.  It might have been intended, but maybe building stability issue, they did not throw windows in second floor area.  I was completely astonished when I thought about how amazing historical designs were. 


The famous American architect may have been attracted to Romanesque style as same reason as mine.

Henry Hobson Richardson; who thought the Romanesque as the best way to expres modern age.  He worked almost exclusively in a Romanesque revival style in 19th century.




The exterior round walls mimicking theRomanesque churches, how they had round apses in each side of the building.  Interior is very open concept just like church from Romanesque time period; they started to enlarged the interior space so more people can fit in inside.


Current Application



It is very clear that Romanesque styles are still admired by many people today.  The biggest reason could be their sophistication and very powerful appearance.