Gothic Architecture Research Articles

Dynamic assessment of the axial force in the tie-rods of the Milan Cathedral

The Milan Cathedral, constructed over a period of more than 400 years, is one of the few Gothic cathedrals where permanent metallic tie-rods are installed under all naves to support a portion of the lateral thrust exerted by vaults and arches. After the recent failure of one tie-rod, an extensive research program was carried out to characterize the metallic material and to evaluate the axial forces and the tensile stresses of the tie-rods through dynamic testing and system identification. After a description of the methodology adopted in the dynamic assessment of tie-rods in the Milan Cathedral, the paper presents the main results of the investigation, in terms of fundamental frequencies and axial forces in the tie-rods.

Órganos, organeros y organistas en la iglesia de Santa María de Carmona (1507-1743)

Santa Maria’s Priory Church in Carmona, an important temple in the Gothic style, has a pipe organ built by Antonio Ximenez in 1824. This instrument was preceded in time by other organs. This paper deals about the pipe organs of Santa Maria’s Church from the early 16th century until 1743, when Domingo Larracoechea built a baroque instrument for the temple.

Architecture in the Aftermath of Union: Building the Viceregal Chapel in Dublin Castle, 1801–15

AbstractThe chapel in Dublin Castle, built between 1807 and 1815, was one of the most impressive ecclesiastical Gothic buildings of the pre-Pugin revival in the British Isles. It was commissioned by the viceregal establishment following the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, and was closely associated with Church of Ireland objectives for post-Union Protestantism in Ireland. This essay investigates the patrons’ ambitions for the chapel, and discusses its design and execution by Francis Johnston, successor to James Gandon as the foremost architect of public buildings in Ireland. Reviewing the chapel within the context of the Union, the essay argues that the viceregal administration and the Church of Ireland were concerned to assert their authority and define their values, and that these were expressed in Gothic revival architecture which grafted progressive appreciation for medieval models onto Georgian taste, and in a comprehensive and unprecedented scheme of ecclesiastical sculpture. Ireland's political position within the Union was ambiguous, but it is argued here that the rebuilt chapel projected both unionist and imperialist gestures, and that, culturally, it was an expression of Britishness.

Візуалізація влади: символіка «Вілтонського диптиху» та сакралізація образу монарха

The Wilton Diptych is the best painting in the International Gothic style in England. This work of art is the earliest preserved lifetime image of the British monarch. The article touches upon the visualization of Richard II’s power. The author studies how the monarch’s sacred image emerged. Special attention is paid to the Wilton Diptych’s symbols. The author focuses on the ideological usage of visual symbols by the English king. He analyses the characters of the Saints who are accompanying the King: Edward the Confessor, Edmund the Martyr and St. John the Baptist. The Biblical symbolism in the Diptych is highly important as far as the image of Richard may be compared with the one of Christ the Savior. The ideological aspects of the picture were revealed, including the image of Richard as a King-Peacemaker and Crusader King, the mystical marriage between him and his kingdom etc. The author puts forward an idea that Richard used the Diptych to position himself as a God's chosen king. Having transferred his kingdom to the Virgin Mary, he received a divine mandate to rule.

Henry the Liberal, Count of Champagne, 1127–1181 by Theodore Evergates

et “esclavage” (258) comprend six parties qui occupent plus d’une trentaine de pages. Seules six femmes—“Charlotte Corday” (201), Olympe de Gouges (383), “Jeanne d’Arc” (461), “Rosa Luxembourg” (610), “Louise Michel” (643) et “Simone Weil” (904)—échappent aux oubliettes où sont tombées leurs consœurs. Il est étonnant que, contrairement aux entreprises de ce genre où les articles sont généralement signés, ici il est quasiment impossible de savoir à qui on les doit. Ce n’est qu’à la fin du volume qu’apparaissent sous les noms des quarante collaborateurs les sujets qu’ils ont rédigés. Vu l’envergure du projet et l’ampleur de la tâche, on ne peut que féliciter Bischoff et Bourguinat qui ont rédigé à eux seuls plus de la moitié des textes et qui ont mené à bon port un ouvrage de qualité. Auburn University (AL) Samia I. Spencer Evergates,Theodore.Henry the Liberal,Count of Champagne,1127–1181.Philadelphia: UP of Pennsylvania, 2016. ISBN 978-0-8122-4790-9. Pp. 307. $75. Evergates’s book will appeal primarily to historians. He presents a chronicle of the life and career of Henry of Blois, who from 1152 to 1181 consolidated territories he had inherited in different parts of northern France into the compact realm of Champagne. He made Troyes his capital and built there a palace and adjoining chapel that were a wonder of Gothic architecture until their destruction during the French Revolution. He also had made in his own honor a bronze tomb with his effigy upon it that was so famous it inspired passages in Chrétien de Troyes’s romances. Henry himself occupied a central position in the political life of his era. He was connected to everyone at the summit of contemporary society. King Stephen of England was his father’s brother. His wife Marie was the daughter of King Louis VII of France by his first wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine. His sister Adèle was the third wife of Louis and mother of the future Philippe II. Besides these relations, Henry was closely associated with other celebrities of the time. In part because of his participation in the Second Crusade in the early 1150s, he got to know its sponsor, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Later he had the opportunity to know Pope Alexander III, who was living in France because his election had been contested by anti-popes in Rome. Another famous exile in Henry’s circle was Thomas Beckett, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had quarreled with King Henry II in England over the church’s prerogatives. Beckett’s passion for collecting manuscripts of classic works helped inspire a similar interest in Count Henry, who accumulated a library almost as legendary as his chapel. Henry’s court is also associated with the literary career of Chrétien de Troyes, but Evergates finds little evidence of Henry acting as the poet’s patron. The main source of a link between Chrétien and the court at Troyes is the poet’s mention of Countess Marie having proposed the matière and sens of his romance Lancelot, he himself providing the 276 FRENCH REVIEW 90.3 Reviews 277 conjointure. Count Henry was praised throughout his life, and after his death for his generosity and largesse. He displayed these qualities repeatedly in his dealings with the knights who served him, but especially in regard to religious organizations like monasteries and canonical chapters. It is curious to note how institutions devoted to prayer and piety were so eager to protect their material interests. Henry could afford to earn his title of liberal because of the financial success he enjoyed through the commercial fairs that took place annually in Troyes, Provins, and other towns of his realm. He increased the number and frequency of these events. Given Champagne’s geographical position at the crossroads of the north-south and east-west trading routes, these fairs were the occasion of a highly significant coming together of international social and political as well as economic forces. By his promotion of these gatherings, Henry was a major contributor to the development of modern capitalism. University of Denver James P. Gilroy...

Colonial Monasticism, the Politics of Patronage, and the Beginnings of Gothic in Ireland: The Victorine Cathedral Priory of Newtown Trim, Co. Meath

Small relative to its importance as the capital of the Anglo-Norman lordship of Meath, the medieval town of Trim was home to communities of canons regular and mendicants, and among the former were Victorine canons who served as the chapter of a cathedral that was newly-built just outside the town at the start of the thirteenth century. This paper presents a discussion of monastic observance in Trim before and after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169, and an exploration of the context of the foundation of the Victorine priory and its cathedral church. It is argued that the Victorine church, one of the first Gothic buildings in Ireland, offers us a glimpse of what was possibly the earliest work of Gothic architecture in Ireland, a now-demolished Victorine house in Dublin.

Образы архитектуры в миниатюрах новгородской Симоновской Псалтири второй четверти XIV века (ГИМ, Хлуд. 3). Некоторые наблюдения

The special feature of the illustrations of the Psalter of Simon, a Novgorod manuscript of the second quarter of the 14th century (State Historical Museum, Chlud. 3), is a large number of architectural images.The buildings depicted in the two miniatures at the beginning of the codex (fols 1v and 6v), forming the background for the main figures, have their counterparts in the Tver’ manuscript of the Chronicle of Georgios Amartolos of the late 13th — early 14th century (Russian State Library, MDA 100). The architectural structures of the second group — those in the scenes from the story of King David and in the illustrations to some Bibleverses —play the traditional role of flanking wings. However, they stand out for their voluminous cubic buildings, for their design in the form of quadras in the walls, for the presence of not only rectangular and arched, but round windows as well, and for various small towers on the roofs including the peaked ones reflecting the motifs of Gothic architecture. In the third group of miniatures, which are the illustrations to the Psalms placed in the margins of the text, there are buildings that become participants in “a dialogue” with figures standing in front of them (King David, Joasaph and others). In some instances, the cupola buildings of the Byzantine or Russian type were depicted, in the others — strongholds with rectangular outlines, with small towers, and most often with peaked towers and ciboria. Those silhouettes remind us of Gothic constructions, especially the ones in West-European Gothic manuscripts.We have a good reason to propose that the ancient prototype of the Psalter of Simon was a Russian manuscript of the 11th century with miniatures reproducing Byzantine models of the Macedonian period where the idea of the Christianization of peoples (pagans) was proclaimed. The structure of the ‘dialogue’compositions in the marginal illustrations of the Psalter of Simon, where one of the participants of the dialogue is a church building, may hark back to a hypothetical ancient prototype. Nevertheless, the Gothic appearanceof the buildings depicted in the Psalter is a contribution of cultural contacts between Novgorod and the West, which were especially intensive since the second quarter of the 13th century.

On Lassner's <em>Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film</em>

On Lassner's Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film. By Phyllis Lassner. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016. 272 pp., ISBN 9781474401104 (hc); 978-1474416733 (ePub); 978-1474401111 (PDF). £70 (all editions).This important book is testament to a growing-and welcome-tendency to analyze the espionage genre as a political phenomenon. In Espionage and Exile: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Spy Fiction and Film, Phyllis Lassner does not view spy fiction and film as disposable entertainment, as mass culture, or through the filter of genre (in all of which tends to disappear), but as widely disseminated products, reflectors, and even shapers ofhistory and politics. In her words: fictions construct a multivocal form of cultural production that commingles propaganda, popular entertainment and cultural history (3). Lassner's central argument is original, productive, and persuasive, if not always easily grasped: how espionage fiction intersects with Jewish experience from the 1930s to the 1960s -what Lassner calls as a political condition and a state of being and identity (3) versus the 'fixed' dominant position of totalitarian nationalism (8).Lassner's incorporation of cinema alongside literary fiction reflects not token interdisciplinarianism but a sure grasp ofthe reality ofhow spy stories are consumed. The hybrid literary-cinematic legacy ofJames Bond has become paradigmatic, with filmed versions of John le Carre's work, from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, France, UK, Germany, 2011) to The Night Manager (Susanne Bier, UK, BBC, 2016), disseminating-and, yes, sometimes distorting-their literary originals. Using the contemporary TV series The Americans (USA, FX Network, 2013-)-inspired by real-life Soviet sleeper agents in Cold War America-as a jumping-off point, Lassner emphasizes how exile is the lived reality of secret agents but also, more audaciously, argues that such separation from nation-states also creates distance from national ideologies. Thus Lassner argues that spies and Jews occupy a shared liminal political space in espionage fiction.Lassner's approach is highly effective in reframing the 1930s novels of Eric Ambler, wherein the recurring figures of the stateless, the exiled, and the persecuted-conventionally critically figured as amateurs or innocents-now function as cyphers for the Jew amid the upheavals of asylum-less 1930s Europe. Lassner shows how, far from being sublimated British state propaganda, Ambler's fiction argued fervently against the British state's appeasement of Germany. German expressionist cinema (referenced throughout the book) and Ambler's work is particularly effective: Crepuscular imagery and gothic architecture capture a paranoia, an existential malaise, as filmmakers and novelist look over their shoulders at the materializing specter of fascism. Also somewhat shadowy in Lassner's analysis, however, is Ambler's Popular Front politics, however, in which communism was a key component.A chapter on women espionage fiction writers Pamela Frankau, Ann Bridge, and Helen MacInnes is also important, given these writers' critical neglect in the male-dominated world ofspy fiction. Here the Jewish connection is intrinsic rather than metaphoric, and Lassner convincingly argues that exile, by displacing women from domestic gender roles, also uncouples national-patriarchal ideology. The heroines in Bridge's A Place to Stand (1953) and MacInnes's While We Still Live (1944) become Polish refugees in solidarity, while MacInnes's Above Suspicion (1941) uses the city of Nuremberg to obliquely highlight the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany. …

WUJUD AKULTURASI ARSITEKTUR PADA ASPEK FUNGSI, BENTUK, DAN MAKNA BANGUNAN GEREJA KRISTEN PNIEL BLIMBINGSARI DI BALI

Title: Aspects of Architecture Infrastructures Acculturation Function, Form and the Meaning of the Christian Church Building Pniel Blimbingsari in BaliWhen culture and Christianity entered Blimbingsari Village, Bali was the beginning of combination between local and migrant culture. Combination of both cultures became an acculturation in architectural form. It is materialized in architecture of Gereja Kristen Pniel Blimbingsari, Bali. Church building form was no longer as an idea generally with the characteristics soaring roof, Gothic architecture style, and so on. Preliminary studies indicate that Gereja Kristen Pniel Blimbingsari through the acculturation process that affect in architectural form and religious rituals. This study aims to reveal a form of acculturation occurs seen from the aspect of function, form and meaning of the building. The method in this research that is descriptive, analytical, and interpretative based on field studies and empirical evidence. This approach taken grounded in cultural theory and archetypes in architecture which collaborated with the aspect of function, form, and meaning of architecture. The study concluded that occur relations between function, form and meaning that implies domination in the form of architecture acculturated. The study concludes that there was a relation between function, form and meaning which implies the dominance in the form of architecture that acculturated. Dominance in this study is as a result of interpretation From the analysis conducted. The concept of Asta Kosala Kosali have a dominant role in shaping the architectural form of acculturation Gereja Kristen Pniel Blimbingsari. The study is expected to benefit as a reference to a similar case that acculturation and can contribute knowledge in the realm of architecture.Keywords: Acculturation, architecture, church, function, form, meaning.

„Got do Arkadii potrzebny”. Rozważania o nurcie neogotyckim w polskiej architekturze doby klasycyzmu

„Got do Arkadii potrzebny”. Rozważania o nurcie neogotyckim w polskiej architekturze doby klasycyzmu

Aspects of Architecture Infrastructures Acculturation Function, Form and the Meaning of the Christian Church Building Pniel Blimbingsari in Bali

When culture and Christianity entered Blimbingsari Village, Bali was the beginning of combination between local and migrant culture. Combination of both cultures became an acculturation in architectural form. It is materialized in architecture of Gereja Kristen Pniel Blimbingsari, Bali. Church building form was no longer as an idea generally with the characteristics soaring roof, Gothic architecture style, and so on. Preliminary studies indicate that Gereja Kristen Pniel Blimbingsari through the acculturation process that affect in architectural form and religious rituals. This study aims to reveal a form of acculturation occurs seen from the aspect of function, form and meaning of the building. The method in this research that is descriptive, analytical, and interpretative based on field studies and empirical evidence. This approach taken grounded in cultural theory and archetypes in architecture which collaborated with the aspect of function, form, and meaning of architecture. The study concluded that occur relations between function, form and meaning that implies domination in the form of architecture acculturated. The study concludes that there was a relation between function, form and meaning which implies the dominance in the form of architecture that acculturated. Dominance in this study is as a result of interpretation from the analysis conducted. The concept of Asta Kosala Kosali have a dominant role in shaping the architectural form of acculturation Gereja Kristen Pniel Blimbingsari. The study is expected to benefit as a reference to a similar case that acculturation and can contribute knowledge in the realm of architecture.

Relationship between letter shape and character impression using eye movement measurement

Background Most of the studies that have investigated the relationship between letter shape and the letter impressions have used such evaluation methods as impression evaluations. It is possible to inspect impression changes quantitatively by shape the letter using an impression evaluation, but it is difficult to conduct a detailed examination where the letter elements affects the impression. Therefore, elements that affect the impression of Ming and Gothic styles are still unclear. Consequently, in this study we measure eye movements using an eye-tracking device on participants asked to evaluate letter impressions, and examine those elements that affect letter impressions. In particular, for hiragana letters of the Ming and Gothic styles, we measure eye movement fixation in term of duration and frequency when the participants evaluate those impression that can easily be affected by letter shape such as thickness, weight, adultness. Methods We tested our method with 29 Japanese participants who varied in age from 20 to 30 years. We selected two characters, つ and ほ, as letter simulations that show extreme differences in letter shape features such as the number of strokes and point of intersection in the 71 Japanese hiragana letters. We perform an impression evaluation of four types of letters using the Ming and Gothic styles for the aforementioned two characters. For this, we measure eye movement using an eye-tracking device. We attempt to inspect the results using an interview investigation. Results For the Ming and Gothic-styles of つ, the eye movement fixation duration is sufficiently long for the pressing down of the drafting department; we also measure, the frequency of eye movement fixations. For the Ming and Gothic styles of ほ, an extended eye movement fixation duration is measured for the part that contains much information, such as the central part and curved section of the letter, and many eye movement fixations also occur. In addition, as a result of investigating the point on which participants focus when evaluating letter impressions, we find that this is similar to the results of the eye movement measurement experiment. Conclusions We measure eye movement using an eye-tracking device to examine in greater detail the type of letter shape element that affects letter impressions when the participants evaluate such impressions in this study. From the results of this study, it is clear that eye movement measurement is an effective technique for investigating relationships that are more detailed than letter shape and letter impression. We believe that we can apply this technique when examining the relationship between letter shape and the impression of various letters, such as Korean, English, and the Japanese hiragana letters used in this study.

Two Lugar Houses in Galloway

This article is a study of two houses in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright which were both designed by Robert Lugar in the 1820s. Hensol and Glenlee Park are about eight miles apart in the valley of the River Ken, to the south and north of New Galloway respectively. The two clients were John Cuninghame (at Hensol) and his older sister Anne, Lady Ashburton (at Glenlee Park). One was an eligible bachelor and the other an eligible, childless widow. Stylistically, however, the two houses are very different. Glenlee Park, where Lugar added to an existing house, is austerely neo-classical with interesting hints of Nash's work, whereas Hensol is an entirely new house in Tudor Gothic style on the Duchrae estate that previously lacked a laird's house. In spite of modifications and alterations much of Lugar's work at both houses has survived to the present day. This article examines the background to the building of both houses and what is known of the two clients, within the wider context of Lugar's career. It also o...

Autoportrait et représentation de soi au Moyen Âge : le cas de Matthieu d’Arras à la cathédrale Saint-Guy de Prague

In the history of physical representation of the artist in the Middle Ages, the case of Matthieu d’Arras has a special place. Matthieu d’Arras was the first master mason of St Vitus Cathedral in Prague from 1342/1344 until his death in 1352 and, thanks to the bust representing him in the triforium of the cathedral’s chevet, the first medieval architect whose features are known to us. This bust represents the birth of the self-portrait in 15th-century art, a phenomenon that has so far been examined from an exclusively Italian perspective, but which belongs at the end of a long process wherein the face emerged in gothic architecture. At the same time, a new awareness of self by the artist was crystallizing.

Agreement attraction in Serbian

Asymmetric number attraction effects have been typically explained via a privative markedness account: plural nouns are more marked than singular ones and thus stronger attractors. However, this account does not explain results from tripartite systems, in which a third number value is available, like paucal. Here we tested whether attraction effects can be driven by specific markedness sub-components, such as frequency/naturalness of use, using Serbian, in which participles can agree with masculine subjects in singular, plural and paucal. We first conducted a naturalness judgment task, finding the following naturalness/frequency pattern: singular,plural<paucal. In a subsequent forced-choice task, we presented participants with preambles containing a singular, a plural or a paucal headnoun (the castle[Sg] /two castles[Pauc] /the castles[Pl]) modified by singular/plural/paucal attractors (with the window[Sg] /with two windows[Pauc] /with the windows[Pl]). Three options were provided to complete the sentence (resembles[Sg] /resemble[Pauc] /resemble[Pl] gothic architecture).Both accuracy and reaction times (RTs) were collected. Accuracy data reflected the naturalness/frequency pattern, with paucal being the strongest attractor, and plural and singular attracting equally. However, reaction times showed a difference between singular and plural, suggesting co-influence of both frequency/naturalness and morphological markedness. We emphasize the necessity of re-defining markedness and testing attraction through different markedness sub-components (i.e. frequency/naturalness) to explain attraction cross-linguistically.

Decadent Nostalgia: Neo-Gothic Remakes and Reinterpretations in Contemporary Photography and Video Art

This proposal wants to discuss about the remake of the Victorian and neo - Gothic style in photography and contemporary video. What are the roots of interest still seen in many contemporary artists of the Victorian period? What are the contents that artists today are investigating and how has this style evolved? As anticipated by Luca Beatrice in the catalogue of the exhibition ‘Pre-Raphaelites' and in his essay entitled ‘Gothland’, we intend to investigate the remake and the reinterpretation of these styles referring to a selection of photographers and videos that embody a sense of nostalgia for the historical and artistic context of Victorian times, as well as a whole series of movements that later influenced the style of contemporary music and art. As for the video-clips, for example, we cited CocoRosie, an American duo, especially, the video ‘Gallows’ of which they seem to deepen the remake of the Victorian style in reference to photography and Sopor Aeternus, a complex figure, artist, performer, musician and poet, still unknown but it is worth mentioning for the relationship with death, with ghosts and paranormal phenomena, arising and established their own interests in the Victorian era. With regard to contemporary photography and imagery derived from staged photography or contemporary photography tableaux vivants , according to the most recent theories of Horst Bredekemp of iconic schematic act and iconic replacement act, it deals with the theme of the photographic remake technically and stylistically, the reinterpretation of the character of Ophelia by John Everett Millais until the realization of scenarios of contemporary ruins where nature creates sudden hybrid figures with man and man becomes in turn inanimate matter.

“Sublime Luxuries” of the Gothic Edifice: Immersive Aesthetics and Kantian Freedom in the Novels of Ann Radcliffe

This article explores the variable meanings and effects of gothic architecture across Ann Radcliffe’s three most important novels —The Romance of the Forest (1791), The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), and The Italian (1797). With her variable por trayal of the gothic edifice, Radcliffe presents a distinctively immersive version of the sublime that significantly challenges the aesthetic philosophies of Edmund Burke and Immanuel Kant in its capacity to coexist with real, immediate fear. Radcliffe presents and encour ages a markedly democratic aesthetic of terror designed to empower even disenfranchised individuals. This article argues that Radcliffe’s novels teach readers how to achieve the sublime in the most difficult cir cumstances, thus making widely available both the sublime and also what the sublime represents—freedom. Within the walls of the gothic edifice, Radliffe demonstrates that individuals have the potential for, and indeed the right to, the power to define and pursue the fulfilment of their own desires, even when such desires run counter to the tyrannies of patriarchal history and tradition.

William Whewell’s philosophy of architecture and the historicization of biology

William Whewell’s work on historical science has received some attention from historians and philosophers of science. Whewell’s own work on the history of German Gothic church architecture has been touched on within the context of the history of architecture. To a large extent these discussions have been conducted separately. I argue that Whewell intended his work on Gothic architecture as an attempt to (help) found a science of historical architecture, as an exemplar of historical science. I proceed by analyzing the key features of Whewell’s philosophy of historical science. I then show how his architectural history exemplifies this philosophy. Finally, I show how Whewell’s philosophy of historical science matches some developments in a science (biological systematics) that, in the mid-to late-nineteenth century, came to be reinterpreted as a historical science. I comment briefly on Whewell as a potential influence on nineteenth century biology and in particular on Darwin.

La labor reconstructora de Francisco Somolinos en Langreo, Asturias: la iglesia parroquial de Santiago Apóstol = The Rebuilding Task of Francisco Somolinos in Langreo, Asturias: The Parish Church of Santiago Apostol

After the Civil War, the style established by the so -called General Direction of Devastated Regions ruled Spanish architecture. Since that moment, the most representative historic styles of Catholicism were recovered for the construction of new churches, such as the Romanesque or the Gothic style, because they were considered as suitable to show the essence and spirit of the religious institution. Thus, Santiago Apostol parish church, built by Francisco Somolinos in the council of Langreo, is a great example of post-war religious architecture because it shows the new architectural tendencies during the first years of Franco’s dictatorship.

Architectures émergentes à El Alto (Bolivie): essai d’interprétation sociologique

This article applies Bourdieu’s analysis of the formation of the “scholastic habitus” in medieval times, elaborated in his 1967 afterword to his French translation of Erwin Panofsky’s Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (2005 [1967]), to a different historical case and social context, namely the correspondence between indigenous mental categories and architectural efflorescence in a city of the contemporary Andes: El Alto. This same principle of homology between mental categories and building layout (rooted in a common habitus) can be used to interpret one of the most spectacular characteristics of “emerging architectures” known as chalets in Bolivia. The term chalet designates a hybrid structure consisting of a penthouse and storey dwelling built on the rooftops. The chalets are architectural forms embedded within an economy of symbolic goods characterized by a “dual truth”: they are at once material and symbolic; they perform economic functions while at the same time seeking conspicuous exposure and public visibility. The hypothesis developed here is that the conspicuous lifestyle revealed by the construction of chalets on the rooftops can be understood by reference to the emerging social power of the indigenous (cholos) elites. This article thus identifies in the fraternities of El Alto the structural equivalent of the scholastic institution that Bourdieu associated with Gothic architecture, in order to reveal the formation of a specific habitus, shared among urban categories defined by similar residential locations, economic activities and forms of collective organization.