ABSTRACT
Sometimes we are surprised because nature builds its structures as if they were our own designs. Really we are who copy them, but whatever are the sources of our inspiration there is no doubt that we remember experiences of forest and jungles. Gothic architects made their designs according with nature and without knowing it also making use of the fractal theory. Their first designs are absolutely structural like the Notre Dame in Paris vaults. Ribs are well organized along longitudinal, transversal and diagonal edges (Figure 1). But just in the same construction appears a new more geometric than structural concept. The rose windows are illogical structures because they act as pre-stressed stone fabric to load transverse forces. Here the architects introduced an elementary fractal design shown in figure 2 where two or three level divisions are considered. It took some time to introduce the fractal concept in the design of vaults but then they were done with an unsurpassed mastery, first in wood inspiration (Figure 3) and later directly from rose window geometry (Figure 4).
