1879.] On the Logic of Architectural Design. 1^7 



vaulted roof has altered the whole method of building. If we compare 

 the type of Roinun i)hiii witli that of Gothic plan, we find that while 

 iu the Ivoman building the main lino of wall is parallel with the 

 line of the building (Fig. 18), in the Gothic structure the wall may 

 actually be said to have been cut up into sections and placed edge- 

 ways to the building (Fig. 19) — for that is what the buttress in its 

 full development really is. 



We might trace this coui'se of logical development through other 

 details in Gothic architecture; we might notice for instance, how the 

 elaborately groujied mouldings of the arches in a fourteenth century 

 Gothic building arose simply from the convenience, when building with 

 tlie small stones which the media)val architects used, of dropj)ing one 

 thickness in the courses of arch-stones below the others (Fig. 20), so 

 as to gain strength without heaviness and to avoid the bad appearance 

 of a number of joints on the under face of the arch ; how by degrees 

 the edges of the arches thus left were more and more elaborately 

 relieved by mouldings, and how even in the most elaborate and com- 

 pletely moulded arch the order and arrangement of the mouldings 

 retains the impression of their original growth from the rectangular 

 section, formed by the two or more orders of arch-stones one within 

 another. But there is an even broader and more important branch 

 of architectural logic yet to be mentioned : that which involves the 

 relation between the plan and the design of the whole building. 

 For architecture, as the aesthetic expression of building, cannot be 

 rightly estimated unless it is remembered that it is based upon the 

 plan and arrangement of the building, and must in its external 

 features express these. As an example of correct architectural expres- 

 sion in this respect we may take the Houses of Parliament. In this 

 building one great feature of the plan is the central octagon in which 

 the main corridors of the Upper and Lower Houses meet, and which 

 forms the rallying point of the internal traffic of the building ; and the 

 position and importance of this point in the plan are indicated externally 

 by the central spire or lantern which rises above it. The royal entrance, 

 again, is marked by the Victoria tower ; and the clock-tower, which is 

 a utilitarian feature with quite a different object, is designed quite 

 differently from the Victoria tower, and in accordance with its practical 

 object as a means of carrying a great clock high in the air ; the shaft 

 of the tower, as it may be called, being merely a support on which to 

 carry the clock stage. If Barry had designed (as some critics have 

 said he should have done) two similar Victoria towers symmetrically 

 balancing each other, and made one of them the clock-tower, he would 

 have committed an architectural falsity iu designing iu a similar 

 manner two features the objects of which were entirely different. The 

 want of logical relation between plan and design is unfortunately only 

 too constantly illustrated by modern buildings in which the exterior 

 is treated as a perfectly symmetrical whole, while the interior is 

 divided into numerous small rooms for various practical purposes, in 

 a manner of which not the least hint is conveyed in the exterior aspect 



