The Fractal Pattern of the French Gothic Cathedrals

Abstract

The classic patterns of Euclidean Geometry were used in the construction of the Gothic cathedrals to provide them with proportion and beauty. Still, there is also another complex concept related to them: the un-evenness of their structures, which determines their space-filling ability, that is, their level of roughness. In this paper we use the techniques of Fractal Geometry to generate parameters which provide a measure of roughness. In this way we show that the French Gothic cathedrals do not only follow Euclidean geometric patterns, but also have a general non-random fractal pattern. © 2014 Kim Williams Books, Turin.