The Gallery Graves of Züschen (Germany) and Saint-Martin-du-Tertre (Dép. Val d´Oise). Reconstruction of the Plan

Abstract

Buildings hitherto have been constructed in two phases: first planning, then execution. Planning is a calculation by which differing numbers of the various building elements are brought into a common total system of measurement. The historical measurement system, based on parts of the body, must be distinguished from measurement by numbers, based on fingers, fingers as the basis of either a sexagesimal or a decimal system. Rectangularity is an obligatory simplification to determine the size of the three-dimensional individual elements according to the division of the three main dimensions: cross section, floor plan, longitudinal section. This partition is not realized numerically, in linear fashion, but geometrically, in a line-up of squares and ´pythagorean´ triangles, that is, of dividers of nunequal sizes. The pythagorean formalism was known millenia before Pythagoras. This geometrical method of planning developed long before the age of writing, and its geometrical configurations have been usedm throughout historical times. Reconstruction of geometrical configurations opens a new field to research into construction- and math-history. The change in Germany in 1871 to the decimal system for all measurements brought an end to the historical method of planning, which was a professional secret among builders. Since then research into the history of architecture has lacked its basis in the traditional system of measurement.