Book Review - Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King

Book Review 

Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King

When it was first published in 2000, ‘Brunelleschi’s Dome’ became New York Times best seller and has received several literary awards. This is an interesting book for engineers, architects and any layman who enjoys reading narratives about history, design, innovators, and innovation.

For more than 100 years, the biggest cathedral of Florence had a huge hole in its roof, hurting the honour of the Florentines. Until he appeared, Filippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi was able to build the most colossal dome in Europe, which still dominates the landscape of Florence from any point of view in the city.

In this short and beautifully researched book, the author Ross King presents the genius of Filippo Brunelleschi in a lucid, engaging, and lively manner replete with history, drawings, and images. The book is essentially a work of non-fiction and describes the construction of the largest brick dome of Santa Maria Del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower), in Florence , Italy. The cathedral's dome is about 115 meters (372 ft) in height and 45 meters (147 ft) in width.

The first chapter in the book starts with this beguiling announcement:

“ ON AUGUST 19, 1418, a competition was announced in Florence, where the city’s magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, had been under construction for more than a century:

 Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome of the Cathedral under construction by the Opera del Duomo — for armature, scaffold or other thing, or any lifting device pertaining to the construction and perfection of said cupola or vault — shall do so before the end of the month of September. If the model be used, he shall be entitled to a payment of 200 gold Florins.”

The author explains “ Two hundred florins was a good deal of money — more than a skilled craftsman could earn in two years of work — and so the competition attracted the attention of carpenters, masons, and cabinetmakers from all across Tuscany. They had six weeks to build their models, draw their designs, or simply make suggestions how the dome of the cathedral might be built. Their proposals were intended to solve a variety of problems, including how a temporary wooden support network could be constructed to hold the dome’s masonry in place, and how sandstone and marble blocks each weighing several tons might be raised to its top.”

These starting paragraphs certainly heightens curiosity and excitement to read this delightful book. The author describes the history of Florence, the various famous architecture, culture, politics, brinkmanship, drama, and life during the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of Renaissance period. He introduces us to Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith and clock maker and how over sixteen years, Brunelleschi would dedicate himself to designing and constructing the marvelous dome. The author reveals various facets of Brunelleschi personality - intelligent, problem solver, innovator, adventurous, researcher, knowledgeable, confident, ambitious, competitive, authoritative , conceited, master of illusions, generous and yet being poor at his own personal finance management.

Brunelleschi died in 1446, kept the secrets of its construction until death and hence for over 500 years the construction of this engineering marvel has been an intriguing mystery and subject of many architectural and engineering research. The book compels readers to imagine the various challenges of 15th century and succinctly presents Brunelleschi’s designs and innovations of construction, clocks, hoists and lifting machines which were very far ahead of time.

Interestingly domes were built during Mauryan Empire and became more popular as Stupas in 3rd century as part of Buddhist architecture built by Emperor Ashoka. Domes are also commonly seen in Islamic Structures. Apparently, there are structural ( technical) and architectural differences between Stupas and Domes. While stupas are solid and semi-spherical , Domes are hollow and must withstand lateral forces and thrust all around.

Brunelleschi's major innovation was to build the Dome without centering ( wooden formwork) a supporting structure. The Dome consists of two distinct domes: one internal, more than two meters thick, with a deeper angle than the other and consisting of large arches held together by ribs and made of bricks arranged in a "herringbone" pattern. In building this dome, Brunelleschi reinvented the field of architecture. Brunelleschi is also the inventor of Perspective Drawing widely used in Architecture and Civil Engineering. 

While reading the book I found the long Italian names little taxing but after few pages you get used to it. Although the book is not technical, I suspect readers without engineering background might find few of the technical stuff little irritating but eventually will get the drift and enjoy the authors delightful narration. It will certainly benefit if you read the book and watch the various YouTube videos featuring the construction of dome, just to visualize and fathom the enormity of challenge in the Dome’s design and construction.

 If you are further curious and wish to learn the secret behind Brunelleschi’s dome, you can refer to the link below:

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2020/05/21/double-helix-masonry-researchers-uncover-secret-italian-renaissance-domes

The book is comprehensive and not to be missed. There is no doubt that towards the end readers will learn about architecture, engineering, innovation and agree with the author that “ Architectural marvels like Filippo’s dome often become sites of scientific inquiry because their unique structures and dimensions can serve as testing grounds for new theories and technologies.”

Having read the book, I yearn to visit Florence and climb up to the top of this magnificent Dome.

 

 

Kiss the Frog – To Zinda Ho Tum!...

You have probably heard this story of a frog being kissed by a princess. There is another story of a young man who also heard a frog calling out, “Please kiss me, I’ll become a beautiful princess and be yours for a day.” He quickly picked it up and put it in his backpack. The poor frog pleaded for a kiss and kept increasing the reward from a day to a week to month to a year, but to no avail. Finally when the young man did not react to an offer of a lifetime of companionship, the frog finally asked as to why it was not being kissed. The young man casually walked on and said “Look I am an engineer … a talking frog is really cool as far as I am concerned.”

‘Kissing the Frog’ to get the handsome prince is a metaphor for all the intimidating opportunities in your life that you would rather avoid than explore. It also implies moving out of your comfort zone.

Undoubtedly, engineering college was one place that made me feel alive, excited and helped shape my character. The auspicious occasion of Indian engineering day is perhaps the perfect time to reminisce some of the student experience.

The initial days at engineering college is like entering a rabbit hole where a different world begins to unfold. You come across some wonderful people and make new friends from various parts who are brilliant, ambitious, opinionated, arrogant and as years go by, they become humble. The stimulating discussions quickly end in debates that generate diverse perspectives. Opinions are constantly challenged and an eternal quest to find scientific, logical, analytical answers for everything including your own existence begins. Students from urban area blame their circumstances, while students from rural areas create circumstances, seize opportunities and even motivate you to study using lanterns.

Life in engineering college is full of surprise. Every week there is a new time table but things rarely happen as per the plans. The lecturer has already started the fourth chapter even before you have understood the earlier chapters. Even before you soak in the new environment, it’s time for submission of term work. Like a chameleon, your grades also change every semester. The professors and staff, who welcomed you with a broad smile, will smile during the valediction ceremony. Each moment reminds you of the immortal quote from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, “Reeling and writhing, of course, to begin with, and then the different branches of arithmetic -- Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.”

By the end of the first year, many students are in a state of shock. The academic probation (read ATKT) induces a change in personality. Extroverts become introverts and introverts are on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. Although ATKT provides some respite, students start refraining from attending family functions and marriages. Well Shit Happens! However, failure instills discipline, dedication and determination so as to savour the joy of success. You become resilient and realize that both engineering and life are governed by a sinusoidal curve.

The workshops are an interesting place where you develop skills in filing, carpentry, welding and learn accuracy and precision. You get to experience the hardships encountered by workers in the factories and start respecting dignity of labour. Engineering inadvertently helps to conquer your inhibitions and subtly reminds to continuously improve your own performance. Make many friends Kyunki Har Ek Dost Zaruri Hota Hai. You need their support, guidance and certainly as proxy. The group exercises make you realize that success largely depends on effective collaboration.

The standard books were always out of stock and therefore some of us had to borrow books authored by unknown authors. The atmosphere was so competitive that some of the toppers in the class would ridicule you for referring to unknown books. Some of these unknown books featured wealth of information, replete with beautiful illustrations and incisive research. Instead of generating curiosity, encouraging critical approbation of different books and research papers, the faculty promoted education based on rote. These unknown books do cultivate varied reading habit.

Some of us were overawed with designing various girders, bridges and cantilevers, while the chemical engineering students struggled with Stoichiometry equations and the coulometer measuring various constants – Avogadro, Rydeberg, and Planck. Students from electronics engineering grappled with AM/ FM signals, microprocessors 8080/8085 despite the advent of Pentium. Having friends from different engineering disciplines subtly increases your awareness about other subjects which can be useful while working on multi-discipline projects and especially in today’s knowledge economy.

The word “engineering” is derived from the Latin word “ingeniare” means “to design” or “to create”. Typically final year students prefer to work on conventional projects, but it is extremely critical to work on some innovative projects. There is nothing great in constructing 10,000 litres water tanks made from concrete, but designing and constructing water tanks made from Ferrocement still makes me proud. (Ferrocement structures are composite structures designed and built without using bricks or concrete). By working on innovative projects, you start believing in what seems impossible.

There was one group exercise that I can never forget. The class was divided in groups of six and we had to conduct a topographical survey. The six of us headed out with survey instrument, levelling rod, measuring tape, chain, pegs and hammer etc to the nearby field. One of my good friend and I were in the same group, so we decided to skip and join the group later. The Indian team was playing against England, we decided to stay back and watch the match. After some time we rushed back to the field. By the time we joined the group, the survey was almost done. Based on the survey findings the group members plotted the readings on a sheet and both of us blatantly copied it. In two weeks time, a viva voce was scheduled and students were interviewed in pair. As luck would have it, my friend and I were paired together. The professor asked us questions on surveying, levelling, contouring etc. Both of us replied correctly with immense confidence. The professor then pointed to the drawing sheet and asked us to identify the points from where we took the fore and back bearings of each survey lines and how did we go about it? We were so impressed with our earlier replies that without even looking at each other, immediately our fingers indicated different points on the opposite ends of the sheet. The professor raised his eyebrow and reprimanded us with another grueling assignment. Our answers had generated a hearty laugh but it also brought to fore that engineering and life - its all about execution.

Hostel life teaches you lessons in trust, managing finance, cooking, washing and survival. You find solace in various form of music; emote with ghazzals and bollywood songs. You draw inspiration from the philosophies of Ayn Rand, Bertrand Russell, Aldous Huxley and rock on with Jim Morrison and Led Zeppelin. Some intelligent students even make notes about their deft moves at bridge tournament. Participation in sports, tech-fest, and various activities provide with enriching experience in event and even project management. All these extra-curricular activities play a vital role in developing your personality.

If you are studying engineering in some village, you also get to witness social entrepreneurship. With engineering college in the village, a gradual change begins and soon the village metamorphosis into a modern town. Local villagers offer their homes on rent, women provide lunch tiffins to students, canteens transform into restaurants, grocery stores supply stationeries, STD booth owners install photocopier machines and lab assistants start part- time computer training centers. Literacy rates begin to improve, villagers get employed in college, and the urban students reverse migration makes few people entrepreneurs.

While the quality of the staff and education could be debatable but in years to come there seems to be some semblance of improvement at these institutes. Regardless of the facilities, faculty and quality of education, contrary to the engineer above, engineering students wherever they study, invariably learn to kiss the metaphorical frog or any anthropomorphic creatures and go on to do well in life. Perhaps these inspiring words, from Imran (movie Zindagi Na Mile Doobara), convey how engineers live their Life to the fullest…

“Dilon mein tum apni betaabiyan leke chal rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum,
Nazar mein khwaabon ki bijliyan leke chal rahe ho, toh zinda ho tum“

Happy Indian Engineering Day!