Romanesque Regionalism in Durham

Bahri · October 23, 2022, 2:39am

The Romanesque takes on an unmistakable regional tone with the Norman’s Durham Cathedral in England. The design basis comes from the Norman’s interpretation of the Romanesque, and has a very similar vault structure to St. Étienne in France, but the overall proportions and craft of the building are particular to England.

The French strove to build as tall as possible during the Romanesque period, but this was not the case in England. This is apparent in the broadness and stoutness of Durham Cathedral. The structure has buttresses, but not flying buttresses like St. Étienne’s. The cathedral was crafted by Norsemen, and these craftsmen picked up on many local English traditions of building and incorporated them well. The rib vaulting is characteristic of the Norman Romanesque, and Durham is one of the first buildings along with St. Étienne to use quadrant pointed rib vaults.

Another unique element of Durham Cathedral is its seven part vault layout, based on an alternating double bay system. This was an early experimental design seen only rarely, but is not particular to England. The structural expression of this building is nothing like one would find in a comparable French building from this time. It was the tradition of the French to design with a strong structural unity, tying all elements together rationally. Ste. Madeleine, in Vezelay, France, illustrates this intention with rib vaults that span the full height of the walls. By tying the ribs to the floor in this way, the interior visual experience is framed by the literal structural integrity of the vaults.

In Durham Cathedral, however, the rib vaults end where the walls begin, and are supported by intermediary arches and partitions that break the overall visual unity of the space. This makes the vaults appear to float strangely in space. The English were not concerned with the visual representation of structure nearly as much as they were with surface decorations, which are apparent everywhere with geometric intricacy. The English decorative style, which includes subtleties and juxtaposition of geometry, is quite different to typical French decorative elements, which are rich with layers of religious meaning.

Durham Cathedral is an English building, built by Normans and inspired by the Romanesque. The proportions are English, and the details are English, as the intention was for them to be. This is a great illustration of how deeply the Normans embedded themselves into the culture of England; they respected and celebrated the local traditions, while bringing in new ideas incorporated at monumental new scales.

bluenose · October 23, 2022, 3:11pm

Does the design allow for resonance from music? I’m thinking along the lines of ‘house of healing’. Perhaps I’m in the wrong era.

Bahri · October 23, 2022, 5:26pm

I don’t have access to a lot of academic sources on that right now because I’m not currentley a university professor, but I applied for a research gate account since I’m at least Alumni and have my own company maybe that will be approved so will be able to read this full article on that here’s the abstract:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336526970_Singing_with_Durham_Cathedral_exploring_the_relationship_between_architecture_and_singing

“Acoustically, cathedrals can be challenging spaces. The long reverberation lengths created make singing well without prior knowledge of the building an almost impossible task. It is necessary then to understand and work with the building to achieve the sounds expected during services. Taking influence from the question of whether architecture can be heard, the article explores how singers in Durham Cathedral maintain an embodied awareness of their relationship with the building. Furthermore, it argues that the music used in Durham Cathedral developed symbiotically, emerging from a material engagement between singers and the building. The article concludes that the sound of worship cannot simply be a performance in Durham Cathedral, but a performance with Durham Cathedral as the singers works through an embodied knowledge of the architecture and its unique traits.”

Bahri · October 23, 2022, 7:57pm

Here’s another paper with Jstor:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26476234

(This also requires a login to view full paper)

Abstract

There is little contemporary evidence concerning the building of England’s medieval cathedrals, and none concerning the cathedral in Durham. The twenty first century researcher is forced to rely on such facts as can be gleaned from the site and its environment, from the building itself, and from knowledge of construction practice, albeit construction practice limited by the tools and methods available to the medieval builder. In this paper the authors seek to apply their knowledge and experience to address the difficulties encountered by those given the task of building Durham Cathedral and to suggest how some of these difficulties could have been overcome at this particular site at that particular time. They consider the effect of contemporary politics, the constraints of the site, the local geology, and the availability of building materials - in short, those problems, engineering and logistical, which any project manager must solve before building work can begin, problems to be solved whether the start date is 2016 or 1093. They discuss the difficulty of quarrying, carting, and handling the stone, and show how these difficulties impinge on necessary labour levels and the programme of works, and on the range of skills required of the workforce and its managers. There is, of necessity, some speculation here, records are none existent and project organisation leaves few archaeological traces, but the speculation is guided by what is possible, by what can still be seen, and by a conscious attempt to walk in the boots of the original project manager. The overall effect is, the authors feel, to enhance even further the reputation of those men who, given the opportunity to raise some of the greatest buildings in the world, succeeded so magnificently.

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