Gloucester Cathedral (Rupert Cordeux) mit Innenraum (Eigenkonstruktion) 1:240

Between the big pillars that carry the tower at the crossing, a little chapel is hidden behind a wooden screen. Would anybody notice if I leave it out the interior? My worry is that I myself would notice and that it would be impossible to add it later. Better safe than sorry, so there we go with another Victorian glittering altar...

... which then is immediately vanishing behind the woodcarved gothic screen:

The big south window, cut out from the Cordeux model, will remain visible from the outside:

Cathedral master builders noticed that building the crossing tower was always a risky business. Often big towers were added to an existing structure and the old walls were not designed to carry the heavy stone load. Many stories about collapsing towers have survived medieval times, and Ken Folleth uses such a story in his first Kingsbridge book. In Gloucester they took preventive action and built huge flying buttresses, visible as a diagonal obstruction of my St Andrew's chapel... Another full working day hidden forever ...

The walls are strengthened and then the gothic stone screens are glued in.

With both the North and the South transept installed, the symmetry is restored, at least in terms of style. The South transept is a bit lower than the North transept, and its Gothic restyling is older.

Oktavian: You asked about the dimensions of the work. The width of what you see in the picture above, from little tower to little tower, is 20 cm. I did not rescale the original Cordeux model. The length of the total church will be some 60 cm.

Next steps: the vaults of the transepts and then the tower.

Best,

Sjak

The vault of the South transept is a lierne rib vault or net vault (Netzgewölbe). Not the most beautiful part of the cathedral, but one has to be faithful to the original... First the fourth wall at the west end needs to be added. This wall will remain open so that one has a view in the interior.

Most of the thinking work goes into the workplan for the vault, which starts from the ground plan (at the left) and the arcs at the walls (top right corner) and then derives the "crossing tunnels" that make up the vault (bottom right corner):

If all calculations are correct, this is the projection of the vault:

Made on 225 grams paper, the vault gets in shape quite easily:

And more importantly, it fits in the four walls:

Glad to see the Pentecost sun through the cathedral windows... Have a nice day.

Best,

Sjak

Following the old Romanesque abbey building, the ground plan of the North transept is the symmetric mirror image of the South transept. But the later gothic remodeling broke the symmetry. The North transept vault, in particular, is higher and quite different in design from its Southern counterpart. So I repeat steps, but all with new measurements and designs.

First the fourth wall is installed -- a "cut away wall" that allows a view into the interior:

Then the vault, my favorite part of the design. The monks ordered the North transept vault to be built after the great quire vault, and by then the master stone mason had clearly learned how design a proper net vault. My own vault making skills have developed as well in this project. I found a routine and learned to trust the calculations, draw with precision, and glue the parts together without trying to correct things…

And, indeed, all vaults fit, for now! ( Oktavian: thanks, Stefan)

The view from the west shows transepts and choir:

This part of the model remains open, separate from the model of the nave. So, apart from the missing transept floors (and the missing lady chapel, which I forgot to put in place behind the east window), this comes close to the final view. Shall I keep the grey color of the "cut away walls"?

Best,

Sjak