Foundling hospital and st. lorenzo florence

architecture

1. FOUNDLING HOSPITAL , FLORENCE or Ospedale degli Innocenti

2. History Constructed in several phases Only first phase (1419-1427) constructed under Brunelleschi Later phases added the attic story, t he vaulted passageway in the bay to the left of the loggia It was a children orphanage

3. Embodies Brunelleschi’s rational and systematic principals of design The simple proportions of the building reflect a new age, of secular education and a sense of great order and clarity The loggia, based on repeated modular elements Dimensions were not arbitrary. If a horizontal line is drawn along the tops of the columns, a square is created out of the height of the column and the distance from one column to the next Vocabulary giving ‘antique’ effect, is close to Tuscan Romanesque Design

4. The ground plan of hospital behind, with two cloisters, church and dormitories, is based on modular and mathematical proportions. Roughly centralized, without being symmetrical.

5. The clean and clear sense of proportion is reflected in the building The height of the columns is the same width of the intercolumn and the width of the arcade is equal to the height of the column, making each bay a cube. Also half the height of the column is the height of the entablature

6. There is an emphasis on the horizontal because the building is longer than it is tall The façade is made up of nine semicircular arches springing from columns of the Composite order

7. The semicircular windows brings the building down, earthbound and is a revival of the classical style, no longer a pointed arch In the spandrels of the arches there are glazed blue terracotta roundels with reliefs of babies suggesting the function of the building Above each semicircular arch is a tabernacle window (a rectangular window with a triangular pediment on the top)

8. Above each column is a ceramic tondo. These were originally meant by Brunelleschi to be blank concavities , but ca. 1490, Andrea della Robbia was commissioned to fill them in

9. The loggia have sail vaults supported on monolithic grey stone columns and semi circular arches

10. The use of composite order round columns with classically capitals in conjunction with a dosserets (or impost blocks) was novel. The give slender look to building.

11. BASILICA OF SAN LORENZO, FLORENCE

12. History Construction begun in 1421 Main body of the church is mostly built after death of Brunelleschi The church is part of a larger monastic complex that contains other important architectural works: the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi; the Laurentian Library by Michelangelo; the New Sacristy based on Michelangelo's designs; and the Medici Chapels by Matteo Nigetti.

13. Plan is basilican in form Central arcaded flat-ceilinged space Square Sail-vaulted side aisles and shallow dark side-chapels(added after 1463) Sacristy grouped around the domed crossing and transepts.

14. The nave is brightly lit from clerestory windows and oculi in the aisles

15. The attempt to create a proportional relationship between nave and aisle (aisle bays are square whereas nave bays are 2X1) The articulation of the structure in ‘ dark stone’(grey stone column against white plaster walls). The use of an integrated system of column, arches, entablatures. A clear relationship between column and pilaster The use of proper proportions for the height of the columns The use of spherical segments in the vaults of the side aisles. NOTABLE FEATURES

16. Old Sacristy or Sagrestia Vecchia Opening off the north transept is the square, domed space Designed by Brunelleschi It contains the tombs of several members of the Medici family Composed of a cube, with a hemispherical umbrella dome composed of twelve vaults supported on pendentives, and a smaller domed altar chapel with concave niches; the cube acting as the human world and the sphere the heavens

17. A rhythmic system of pilasters, arches that emphasize the space’s geometric unity The pilasters support an entablature, the only purpose of which is to divide the space into two equal horizontal zones The use of colour is restricted to grey for the stone and white for the wall. The correct use of the Corinthian order for the capitals was also new

18. New Sacristy or Sagrestia Nuova Opposite it in the south transept Designed by Michelangelo It composed of three registers , the topmost topped by a coffered pendantive dome The combination of grey stone and white plaster on the lower register is carried through to the second facade In plan, it mirrors Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy opposite

19. In strong contrast to dark stone are bizarre tomb monuments in the centre of side walls, made of highly polished white Carrara marble In the corner bay are marble doors with slab-like cornices doubling as the cills for oversize niches above Their recesses capriciously breaking upwards and outwards into their crowning segmental pediments. Beneath the coffered dome, the Sacristy is illuminated by four extra windows with exaggeratedly tapering frames

20. References- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Lorenzo,_ Florence http :// www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/florence-san-lorenzo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medici_Chapel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrestia_Vecchia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_degli_Innocenti http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Foundling _ Hospital Books- A History Of Architecture, by Sir Banister Fletcher

21. Submitted By- Anil Kumar(2010UAR121) Vitasta Chaturvedi(2010UAR122) Vipul (2010UAR123)