A Geometrical Speculation. The Twelfth Century Roof and some Peculiar Aspects of the Ground Plan of Værnes Church, Norway

Abstract

The following is an exercise in what may seem an old-fashioned art, popular among architects in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but later somewhat discredited – the search for geometrical patterns underlying medieval church design. However, the interest in mathematically based tools for design of historic buildings has in recent years been revived, proof of which is a steadily increasing flow of publications reporting scientifically rigorous studies. My contribution concerns the church at Værnes, near Trondhei, Norway, and the impressive open truss timber roof of the nave. Not being content with previous suggestions on how the roof design might have been determined, I compared it to similar structures in the region and found several cases of the same ratio of width to height. I also noted that this ratio corresponded almost exactly to a simple geometrical diagram, which further led me to make some assumptions on how Værnes church was originally planned.