Medici - The Dome An... -

Brunelleschi’s solution was a masterclass in physics and "thinking outside the box":

He designed two domes—a thick inner shell to support the weight and a lighter outer shell to protect it from the elements. Medici - The Dome an...

By the early 15th century, the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral was a source of civic embarrassment. It had sat roofless for decades because no one knew how to build a dome large enough to cover its 143-foot-wide opening without the walls collapsing. Traditional Gothic flying buttresses were forbidden in Florence—they were seen as "German" and ugly. The city needed a miracle. The Medici Gamble Brunelleschi’s solution was a masterclass in physics and

The story of the Florence Cathedral’s dome is as much a tale of political maneuvering and ego as it is about architectural genius. At the center of this drama was the , specifically Cosimo de' Medici, and the brilliant, hot-tempered goldsmith Filippo Brunelleschi . The Problem of the Void At the center of this drama was the

They put their weight behind Brunelleschi, a man whose ideas sounded like madness to his peers. He proposed building a massive dome without any internal wooden scaffolding (centering), claiming he could make the structure support itself as it rose. Brunelleschi’s Innovations