Tous Actualités
Suivre
Abonner Leica Geosystems AG

Leica Geosystems AG

Basic modular dimension of the Hagia Sophia deciphered: Square/circle dual module was the design principle of the "Eighth Wonder of the World"

Istanbul/Bern/Heerbrugg (ots)

Indication: A picture will be sent by photopress on Keystone's 
            satellit network
Further pictures: www.newsaktuell.ch/f/galerie.htx?type=ops
Almost one and a half thousand
years since its construction in the center of ancient Constantinople,
the Hagia Sophia has divulged the secret of its design principle.
Volker Hoffmann, professor at the Institute for Art History at the
University of Bern, deciphered this using state-of-the-art 3-D laser
technology. Some of the first laser evaluations are to be shown for
the first time in mid-July 2004 in Istanbul at the Congress of the
International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).
Due to its vast dome, which appears to be floating almost
weightlessly over the open main room, the cathedral erected at the
commission of emperor Justitian in the late antiquity period was
regarded as the eighth wonder of the world. The "Aya Sofya" was built
in a period of just six years between 532 and 537 AD according to the
plans drafted by the mathematician Anthemios von Tralles and the
architect and structural engineer Isidoros von Milet. However, the
plans to this highly significant building and what is today a UNESCO
world cultural heritage site have always remained lost without trace.
For hundreds of years, experts have tried to fathom out just how
these scientists and artists working in the 6th century managed to
construct a freely suspended dome measuring almost 56 meters high and
31 meters wide, supported only by four pillars. Considering the
technical facilities available at the time of its construction, many
experts still regard this building even to this day as one of the
boldest feats of construction to have ever been achieved by human
hand.
The "impossible task" of determining the dimensions
"The key experience on entering the main room through the
emperor's gate, which immediately presents itself in full view
exposing its full width and height up to the vertex of the huge dome,
is the impossible task of finding a clear relationship to the
dimensions and an accurate calculation of the dimensions. This
phenomenon, which was intended by its architects, is produced by the
spatial structure, the apparent weightlessness of the dome, and the
bewildering abundance of direct and indirect lighting effects",
writes the guide Marco Polo. Thanks to the work of the Bernese art
historian, insights into these dimensions and their consistent
application by the architects and builders of the day are now
available.
Constructional wonder of the world from one to one point zero six
Volker Hoffmann working together with engineer Nikolas Theocharis
in a research project sponsored by the Swiss National Fund found out
that the entire design of the Hagia Sophia is based on an analemma.
This is a projection technique that had already been described by
Ptolemaeus, which involves subsequently a square and circle and
overlapping and penetrating each other three-dimensionally in the
form of a cube and sphere. For the Hagia Sophia, according to Volker
Hoffmann's findings, Anthemios and Isidoros had devised a
crossed-over double-square analemma as a uniform design shape for the
ground plan and the elevation of the cathedral. After performing 3-D
laser measurements with the aid of a HDS(tm) Leica 2500 laser scanner
and a Leica Disto(tm) handheld laser meter in the Hagia Sophia, the
two scientists from the University of Bern used the technique known
as reversed engineering to decipher a "master plan" what is now some
1470 years later. It is based on a height-width ratio of 1 to 1.06 of
the small square to the larger square. On the basis of the
investigations they have performed to date, the researchers have
arrived at the conclusion that "there are no building plan related
points or lines in the Hagia Sophia that cannot be deduced from this
master plan using geometric logic."
Ingenious design principle reconstructed
This design and building principle described by Volker Hoffmann as
the "master plan" of the Hagia Sophia is truly ingenious. "Putting it
simply, it can be said that the master plan was marked out with pegs
and strings on the building site, meaning that the master builder
then only had to measure in the double square, which in turn allowed
him to transfer across very precisely all the other points (pegs) and
lines (strings and/or lines of bearing) of the Hagia-Sophia
architectural elements", says the professor for architectural history
and preservation of historical monuments from the University of Bern.
Next year, following the completion of the laser evaluations and
after consulting the museum's director Mustafa Akkaya, results of
this research work are to be presented in the form of an exhibition
for the 14 million inhabitants of Istanbul and for the numerous
visitors that flock to the Hagia Sophia. The some two thousand
photogrammetry and remote sensing experts who have traveled to the
ISPRS Congress taking place in July 2004 will receive the first
insights this year in Istanbul at the Leica Geosystems exhibition
stand.
To date, nobody had uncovered the secret of the design principle
used in this building devoted to Divine Wisdom, the Hagia Sophia.
That was until Volker Hoffmann, together with his employee Nikolaos
Theocharis, finally succeeded in deciphering it using
state-of-the-art 3-D laser measurement techniques some 1470 years
later.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Volker Hoffmann
Institut für Kunstgeschichte
Hodlerstrasse 8
CH-3011 Bern
Phone +41/31/631'4743
Fax +41/31/631'8969
E-Mail: hoffmann@ikg.unibe.ch

Fritz Staudacher
Leica Geosystems AG
Heinrich-Wild-Strasse
CH-9435 Heerbrugg (Schweiz)
Phone +41/79/201'5891
Fax +41/71/726'5043
E-Mail: Fritz.Staudacher@leica-geosystems.com
E-Mail: staud1@bluewin.ch

Plus de actualités: Leica Geosystems AG
Plus de actualités: Leica Geosystems AG
  • 25.06.2002 – 10:00

    Largest flower word in the world blooms in Switzerland

    Heerbrugg (ots) -In the Rhine Valley of Switzerland, there momentarily blooms the largest flower word in the world. Violet-blue Phacelia plants form the 235 metre-long word RHEINHOF with letters reaching 40 metres in size in a grain field. In addition, corn plants have also been planted and their growth already shows an even larger recognisable number 25. This represents the 25-year celebration of the existence of both ...