Opus Modernum Analysis

“Opus modernum,” meaning “the modern style” was known to be what is now called Gothic architecture within the twelfth century. It was developed by the Politician, Philosopher and mathematician Abbot Suger who directs his focus towards letting the maximum amount of light into a chuch or cathedral. He starts to question himself, and develops a method of construction that kicked off “opus modernum” building programs all throughout France and even stretches all far out to other areas. He developed the rib vault which allows the load to be distributed equally and allows the ribbed vault to carry heavy loads, this assists suger in fulfilling and studying his own focus; allowing as much light as possible into the cathedral to resemble or mimic the …show more content…
The arcade is a series of arches supported by a series of piers and columns, the presence of piers on this level is extremely important since it is these piers that are able to carry and withstand the load of the building, gothic cathedrals are also made to be extremely tall buildings due to the presence of the flying buttresses, the pointed arches and the ribbed vaults which all contribute to the height and scale of any gothic cathedral. The arcade is then followed by a Triforium, which is comprised of a gallery with shallow archways, it is sometimes used as a passageway but it may also be used as a decorative feature. The triforium is followed by the clerestory which contains a series of windows, the gothic style clerestory contains both rose windows and lancet windows. However, looking at Sainte Chapelle’s cathedral, the gothic bay was modified and evolved into something more meaningful, the effect of using such a bay leaves a huge impact upon the pilgrims who happened to visit one of the most important relics in the history of …show more content…
The use of this specific bay contributes to the weightlessness of the interior in stark contrast to its heavy exterior, having such an exaggerated contrast may pertain to the religious allusion of heaven and how we can only have access to it and see it on the interior of a church, going into a church for prayer and worship is what will take you to heaven, and being inside that space would give a feeling of ‘reward’ symbolizing that of salvation. Exaggerating the clerestory windows that much allows a huge amount of light into the space, and this is directly related to the principles of Gothic architecture set up by Abbot Suger, the father of this form of architecture. Light coming into the building at such a huge amount leaves a huge impact on the interior of the space, since the clerestory windows contain stained glass, the light that enters the cathedral reflects the colors onto the walls of the