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I.14.6

SUCCESSIVE STAGES IN THE
CONCEPTUAL GROWTH OF THE
LAYOUT OF CHURCH AND CLAUSTRUM

If the observations on the modular basis of the Plan
presented in the preceding paragraphs of this chapter are
correct, the procedure followed in the construction of the
layout of the Church and the Claustrum can be reconstructed
as follows:

Step 1 (fig. 67):

The draftsman first constructed the grid of 40-foot squares
which determined the overall dimensions of the Church.
This grid established the boundaries of the nave, the
transept, and the choir, as well as those of the two subsidiary
contiguous spaces of the Sacristy and the Scriptorium.
The transept was composed of three, the nave of
four and one-half 40-foot squares. The introduction of an
extra half-square in the nave was inevitable, if the draftsman
started from the premise that his church should be
300 feet long. The columns of the nave arcades were
plotted at a distance of 20 feet, so that each second column
came to coincide with one of the corners of its corresponding
40-foot square. The width of the aisles, at that
stage, was meant to be half the width of the nave, i.e., 20
feet.

Step 2 (fig. 68):

In working on the internal layout of the Church, the draftsman
was aware that an acute shortage of space would occur
in actual construction if no allowance was made for the
thickness of the aisle walls where the Church was abutted
by other masonry structures. He took account of this
contingency by moving the center line of his aisle walls 2½
feet further out and producing the safety strip previously
mentioned. Within the schematic floor space of the church
created in this manner, he could now map out the foundations
for his columns and altars by a system of auxiliary
construction lines which divided the Church lengthwise in
the sequence

and crosswise in the sequence

The altar screens in the aisles are inscribed into 7½-foot
squares, the altars in the nave, the ambo, and the baptismal
font into 10-foot squares. The system of auxiliary construction
lines shown in figure 68 is the minimum required
for the internal layout of the Church.

Had the wall thickness been inked in as solid bars, the
Church would have appeared as shown in figure 56. This
is the manner in which it was interpreted by Graf, Ostendorf,
and Gall, and it is interesting to note that this concept
can be translated into the language of a modern architectural
drawing without sustaining the slightest distortion. Had the
designer of the Church intended to draw the Plan in this
manner, it would have been fully within the scope of his
capabilities. If he confined himself to the more abstract
procedure of simple linear definition, it probably was
because he had the task of designing the layout of not just a
church, but an entire monastery comprised of a multitude
of buildings of greatly varying dimensions, where the
drawing out of wall thicknesses would have introduced
unnecessary complications.

Step 3 (fig. 69):

After the floor plans of the Church were completed, the
draftsman could lay out the cloister yard with a relatively
simple system of auxiliary lines, inheriting from the

[ILLUSTRATION]

69. PLAN OF ST. GALL

STEP 3: CONSTRUCTION OF CLOISTER YARD. METHOD USED IN DEVELOPING LAYOUT OF YARDS AND WALKS

Our analysis of the cloister yard reveals an intense preoccupation not only with the mystique of the square, but also with sacred numbers 3, 4, 10, 40 (see
pp. 118-25). The cloister yard is inscribed in a 100-foot square within which is inscribed a 75-foot square, which in turn accommodates in its center a
20-foot square. The sides of each are respectively, 40, 30, and 10 standard 2½-foot modules. The porch arches, arranged in groups of 4, are each inscribed
in a 5-foot square (area: 4 standard modules); the passages between them into rectangles 4 modules wide and 3 high.

Church, of course, the five-foot displacement from the
superordinate grid of 40-foot squares which transmitted
itself to all of the contiguous structures (Dormitory,
Refectory, and Cellar). The cloister yard was designed to
cover a surface area 100 feet square, and as a strip 12½ feet
wide was taken off on either side for the covered walk (15
feet in the north), a surface area 75 feet square was left for
the open pratellum in the center. Arches which open into
the latter from the center of each covered walk are 10 feet
wide and 7½ feet high, while the galleried openings on
either side measure 5 × 5 feet, leaving in the corners a
solid piece of masonry 7½ feet long. The square in the
center of the pratellum measures 20 feet on each side.