A History of Medieval Project Management by Y. C. Chiu

Author:Y. C. Chiu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eburon
Published: 2012-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

2.7 Summary

In summary, the six historical periods of the Middle Ages all played their part in the development of the areas of project management expertise and their application to building project activities. The exchange of knowledge and commerce with the Near East, as well as within Europe, helped to facilitate the scientific and economic development that was crucial to the supporting society, its projects, and its project leaders.

This chapter has provided a basic showcase of the relationships between cultural and religious themes that dominated from the Byzantine to the Gothic periods. It is important to note that prior to the Middle Ages, knowledge was considered an insular principle of advancement and achievement that had to be wrested away from conceptions of God and religion, which were generally supposed to supersede independent principles of scientific development.

Among the most influential historical periods on the creation of medieval building projects was the Byzantine Empire, which itself marked a transition from ancient civilisation and served in many ways to expand upon the rudimentary principles conceived in previous centuries. The Byzantine master builders drew on sophisticated principles of physics and mathematics in order to build their churches. They combined pendentives and domes in their designs and construction of their ambitious public projects to create vast internal open spaces. This period also saw the development of theories related to empirical and quantitative principles, and achievements in the realms of physics, legislation, industry, navigation, and other disparate areas of learning that proved invaluable to the modernisation of science, culture, and life in general.

The Islamic Golden Age also exerted a profound influence on the Middle Ages, as much of the period’s science and knowledge was based on the preservation and reclamation of its ancient equivalents, as well as the developments engendered by Arab scholars and inventors. The reclamation of valuable information and the cultural borrowing of important scientific conceptions originated by Muslim scholars led to a brief florescence of scientific knowledge in twelfth-century Europe, based on a revival of Greek learning. In the succeeding eras, however, especially the High Middle Ages, the pursuit of scientific knowledge was strictly controlled by the Catholic Church.

The Islamic Golden Age also contributed to the advance of construction principles that were subsequently employed in European architecture. Islamic mosques represented the connection between the secular and religious. Essential features of Islamic architecture include the crescent arch, vault, dome, buttresses, tower, and the open courtyard.

The Crusades, on the other hand, were primarily associated with the history of fortified structures and, most importantly, the exchange of knowledge and techniques between the disparate cultures that coexisted in the Holy Land at the time. Castles were built mainly of stone, earth, and timber up until the twelfth century, with stone ultimately becoming the preferred material on account of its sturdiness. An exchange of ideas between Near East and Europe was also facilitated by the establishment of new trade routes and the founding of Crusader states in the Near East. This also assisted the transfer of long lost classical knowledge back to medieval Europe.

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