• GOTHIC (12^TH -15^TH CENTURIES)
• 13^th century: Greater attention to secular architecture (Colleges, castles, fortifications, town halls, and domestic architecture). 
• Greater attention to domestic comfort: More specialized rooms to meet new functions
• Feudal system & Prevailing unsettled conditions influenced domestic architecture
• Early Middle Ages domestic architecture:
• Small windows
• Very thick walls
• Remotely located stairs
• pointed arches
• groin vaults
• shift of power in the 13thc from the church to the lords with a military background
• domestic inteiors rooms are more specialized dedicated to functions
• feudal sys relies on lord who own a large piece of land and peasnts work the land
• decentralized empire no central power that over sees everyting 
• people who have power and money have more sophisticated interiors
• stairs are utilitarian not significant 

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hammer beam construction

• short beams perpendicular to the wall plate supported by brace from below arched braces above 
• great halls
• multi functional social space
• white washed walls and wood beams

• how great hall was structured
• servants and those that are served screens are used to seperate the two
• rectangles are tables
• round is hearth
• seats with backs are prestigious
• oriel is the window that projects out
• table of the lord if ur a close friend or relative
• space that is reserved for th table of the lord is on a raised platform called dais

great hall

parlor

the chamber

long gallery

• Communal living, social space, of medieval times.  Used for sleeping, dining, amusement, & for executive purposes.  Main purpose was dining.
• Usually two stories in height
• Entrance through screens
• The focal point of the hall was Dais, a raised platform reserved for the lord to oversee his subjects
• Elevated position and decorative enhancement of the dais proclaimed hierarchical status of the lord.

• Earlier fulfilled the need for greater privacy, solitude, or comfort of the lord
• Occasionally private meals were taken in the chamber
• Later it became typical to locate it on the ground floor
• Factors which caused the chamber to transform into a social space:
• The decision of the king to move the great high table into the chamber
• The removal of the bed 
• Use of chamber for more public and ceremonial occasions.
• Chamber was used for private space but then turned into a social space with time when it moved to the ground floor
• In the beg just the lord used the chamber at first 
• Hall is more social just cause ur a guest in the hall does not mean u can be a guest in the chamber used to be for just sleeping at first

• Spaces where religious priests and nuns could meet with there families and friends in the parlor…space connected the outside world and the monastery 

• An informal space adjacent to the hall; used as a sitting room, dining room
• Its origin is uncertain
• Earliest use was in monasteries
• 14^th century marked the secular use of parlor
• By the early 16^th century it was used exclusively as a dining and reception room

• ornament overwhelmed th estructure
• decorative geomtry becomes more important than the simple structure
• The decoration starts to overwhelm the structure…its hard to differentiate what is decoration and what is structure
• Overlay multiple geometry, imposed forms and shapes, highly complicated motifs, mathematical wonders 
• trusses become significant exposed
• wood exposed structure white washed walls 

A rigid frame usually of a triangular arrangement)

The timber framing of the open trusses of the hall was the most significant in terms of articulation of interior space

• motif which resembled loosely folded linen in wooden waincoating became popular in the 15th c
• very typical of gothic and later middle aged interiors
• carve wood paneling ...textiles at htis point are still very expensive were significant and why the wanted to depict it
• soften the harshness of the interiors
• where theare are textiles more money

•  Unsettled conditions --- since there is no centralized empire…lords propose these unsettling conditions…later middle ages were not the best time of Europe
•  Monastic communities --- devote themselves to religion without luxury everything is for god 
• Guilds in maintaining standards of workmanship -- craftsmen that are really skilled at what they do. Workmanship has more standards in a guild 
• Correlation between architecture and interior design --- close relationship 
• Wood was the primary material for furniture
• English: Oak rarely chestnut
• France: Walnut
• Carving, painting and the application of textiles to furniture were the primary means of adornment
• Blind tracery: Carving was cut into but not through the piece
• Pierced tracery: Carving penetrated and was cut through the piece (cut out)
• One of the most costly piece of furniture was the bed because textiles were expensive.
• DADO: Wooden paneling up to chair height
• WAINSCOT: Wooden paneling up to the ceiling or higher than chair height