CASTLE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
By Castle Designer, Rand Soellner Architect

Notre Dame - front facade

In the Middle Ages, castles were often created as forts to hold back invaders and as monuments to their funding sources. In some instances, cathedrals became one of the most important aspects of the castle environment, in addition to the royalty's palace. Castle designers worked largely with thick stone walls and after the collapse of many stone roof systems, defaulted to large timber roofs, often covered with slate, which lasts about forever and resists fire from without. Castle Architects did not necessarily have the formal education we enjoy today, but they made up for this with apprenticeships in the real world, watching and noting what happens when sloping roofs transferred horizontal loads to vertical walls: they fell down. So, they learned from their lack of engineering acumen and tried to solve it with brute force: they made the walls thicker. This worked somewhat, but often was not enough when spans increased, therefore, we saw the introduction of such graceful features as flying buttresses, which I am using on one of my castle designs, to brace vertical walls against the thrust imparted to the wall tops from sloping roof members, although I must confess that our castle designs have more to do with castle aesthetics than the sort of force-resolution issues with which our forefathers grappled.

Clients contact me because they like the look of castles and want one for themselves. What is it about castle design that induces people to go to the extraordinary expenditure to a castle designed and built for them? I have been to both Versailles outside of Paris and I live not far from the Biltmore Mansion in North Carolina, upon which it was based, which has been touted as the largest home in the United States (this claim may no longer be valid with the growth of millionaires and billionaires in the USA). While I enjoyed both buildings, I prefer the Biltmore Estate over the French original for several reasons, including what I believe to be a more picturesque site and less ostentatious ornamentation. Unfortunately, the castle architecture of both of these world-class examples of castle design suffer from overly-deep rooms and furniture arrangements that ignore the wonderful views outside their windows and terraces. In these historic structures, there seems to be a focus on man-made decoration. When in the form of embroidered and gilded trims around ceilings, it seems to me that the richness of experience that could have been obtained by reorienting the spaces to nature's vistas would have been a measurable improvement.

Neuschwanstein Castle, Germany Notre Dame - flying buttresses

This article will be of interest to people looking for information on:
castle architects
castle design
castle designers
castle engineering
castle construction
castle design-build
castle architecture
castles in the United States
American castles
modern castles

To discuss castle design, castle architecture and castle design-build, please contact Rand Soellner, Architect at:
randsoellner@earthlink.net for more information and assistance,
or at 828-743-6010