ABSTRACT
Norman architecture may be regarded as heavy and dark with massive walls and columns resisting thrust from the semi-circular form of the roof and vault. This imposed the adoption of a square plan. However, in Gothic architecture the use of a pointed arch of varying curvature allowed the creation of a much more open structure, full of light. Here the structural forces are in equilibrium by transference from one element to another – from the web of ceiling vaulting, down columns and thence dispersed to aisle and ground via buttresses and flying buttresses weighted by pinnacles and towers, as exemplified by Exeter Cathedral. Windows are wide, only limited by the rhythm of the piers. The square plan form of Norman churches was therefore liberated to become the open rectangular plan of the Gothic through the development of the pointed arch. This allowed the cathedral builders of the early thirteenth century to develop an unfettered celebration of form, to bring light into the contained space and introduce new height without the mass and weight that had previously been a structural necessity. If Romanesque was austere then Gothic was exuberant.
