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Chapter 43 Leonardo Da Vinci—Architectural Engineer with Great Vision

"The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa", these two famous paintings in the heyday of the Renaissance, are masterpieces that every art student knows, so every art student is familiar with their author - the great Liao Nado da Vinci's name.He is not only an outstanding artist, but also an outstanding scientist.

Leonardo da Vinci's environment in his youth was Florence, the culturally developed city with the most vigorous handicraft production in Italy. Milan, where he lived for more than ten years, was a big industrial city famous for manufacturing steelware and silk weaving.From his early years, for any work, Leonardo Da Vinci has been constantly looking for laws in natural phenomena, knowing the truth in practice, improving human power to overcome nature, and making it serve life.He opposed the superstition and ignorance of the church at that time, and also opposed the abstract and empty inferences of the scholars at that time.He believed that "science that does not arise from experimentation is empty and false; experimentation is the source of all truth" and said:

"He who can only practice without science is like a sailor who sails without rudder and compass. Practice must always be based on sound theory." His life's work was carried out on the basis of this insight.

There have been many monographs on Leonardo da Vinci's contributions in the arts and natural sciences, and this article will only focus on his activities and directions within the scope of civil engineering and architecture.

In terms of architecture, Leonardo da Vinci is different from the famous architects before and after him.Although his name is often compared with the great architects of the Renaissance, none of his works such as churches or mansions have survived to this day (except for a very unique spiral at the Palais de Blois in France, which has not yet been verified. outside the stairs).

Not only that, those who study his historical materials also know many of his designs, almost none of which have ever been adopted; and some of the projects that accepted his opinions either do not exist today or there is no conclusive evidence to prove which part was used by him. design or proposal.But his practical impact on engineering and architecture is undeniable.On his contemporaries and later records, his status as an architect is always recognized.Where is the problem?It is in his architectural and engineering insights, like many of his other contributions, the vision of a pioneer who was far ahead of his time.Many of his plans could not be realized precisely because they were far beyond the social system and consciousness of the time, and exceeded the short-sighted and selfish demands of the Italian feudal rulers at that time, and were distrusted, ignored or ignored by them. hinder.Many architectural designs at that time, from the appointment of architects to the selection and decision, were mostly in the hands of feudal nobles.Among colleagues, because Da Vinci participated in the supervision of many projects and participated in the design, and made countless sketches and suggestions, his outstanding theories and methods, and original inventions have spread a great influence. .

Leonardo da Vinci learned painting under the tutelage of painters, but painters at that time were often good at carving, and could either carve stone or cast copper, and often had to work closely with architects, and most of them were able to do architectural design themselves architect.They are all craftsmen who can do everything themselves.Da Vinci, who grew up in such an era, is not surprising that his talents are multifaceted, but what is strange is that in each part of his work, his deep understanding and comprehensive development are his descendants. It took ten years or even centuries to gather the wisdom of countless people to gradually achieve it.But he has long been farsighted, bravely groping forward, constantly researching, trying and planning.

Da Vinci's understanding of construction engineering is beyond the deployment and construction of a single building that ordinary people are limited to.Although in Leonardo da Vinci's time, the most important architectural activity was the design of domed cathedrals and duke's mansions, etc., focusing on the layout and form of art, and focusing on the rich decoration of stone carvings and statues. ; but the field of architectural engineering drafted by da Vinci goes far beyond this narrow scope.In addition to participating in competitions, he has designed church buildings, such as Milan and Pavia Cathedrals, the facade of San Lorenzo in Florence, etc.; supervised the interior of the Milan Fortress and the Duke's Palace; designed and built small memorial rooms and summer shelters Apart from the small pavilions in the manor, the range of architectural designs he proposed on his own initiative is extremely wide and varied, and all of them are mainly aimed at improving life.For example, he devoted himself to designing public toilets and stables to improve sanitation; he designed and drew in detail the pattern of the millhouse of the hydraulic windmill that was later common in Holland; he suggested the design of a large number of standard workers' houses; Plans for the massive reconstruction of the city of Milan in a sanitary environment; he designed and supervised several hydraulic works, irrigation canals and, above all, the canal between Florence and Pisa.He had drawn beautiful and detailed maps of the Arno, and proposed to control the upper and lower reaches of the river, so as to facilitate the many industries that could use the power of water as a motive force; he believed with full confidence that this was a plan that could prosper several cities along the river at the same time.This plan is the herald of the "regional plan" in today's most progressive planned economy.

Both urban planning and regional planning are architectural problems that people in the 400th century proposed to solve more than 56 years after Da Vinci's death.His plan is now and only in the advanced socialist countries have the strength to seriously implement and develop.In the [-]th century, it is understandable that all his construction projects were either not adopted, or were abandoned halfway because they did not receive sufficient and general support.But Leonardo Da Vinci never lost his courage to pursue the truth and continue to make rational plans because of the frustration of the plan or the failure to implement it.

Until his later years, before his death, he also made a plan for the canal between the Ruhr River and the Song River in France, and the purpose was to benefit from irrigation, shipping, and hydraulic power.He has great confidence in transforming nature and building peace.

In the content of Da Vinci's urban plan, the project and direction are correct. It starts from reality and solves the most basic problems.Although limited by the social system and conditions at that time, the main purpose was to eliminate the diseases, unhygienic, restless and unpleasant environment caused by urban congestion.The lessons learned from the rampant plague in Milan from [-] to [-] AD led him to draw up his plan to rebuild Milan.Da Vinci boldly divided Milan into several districts. In order to reduce population density, noise, spread of diseases, bad smells, and other unsanitary conditions, he suggested building ten districts with five thousand houses in each district. The population is thirty thousand.He suggested that the city should be built on the river bank or by the sea, so as to set up an underground ditch system for the discharge of sewage and garbage, and use running water to wash all the dirt into Hanoi.He suggested setting up open drainage ditches and dark ditches on the streets and alleys to avoid the accumulation of rainwater and sewage; building standardized workers' residences, building public toilets, reforming the unsanitary habits of citizens, paying attention to the structure of chimneys, and driving smoke and odor out of the city ; And in order to ensure the air and sunlight in the city, the width of the street and the height of the houses must have a certain ratio.During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the focus of urban construction was on defensive engineering, and the city itself was often regarded as a secondary accessory. Da Vinci was born in Italy and was often threatened by battles between rulers. During the period, many times his job was to supervise the fortress and strengthen the defense works, but what he cared about was the life of the peaceful residents of the city itself.But Ludovico, who was ignorant and selfish at the time, was deaf to this suggestion and had no intention of accepting it.

Da Vinci also had a foresight on the development direction of the construction industry.He has made similar suggestions for modern "prefabricated houses".When he was in a French town, wood was the main building material there, because it was where the summer palace was located, and there was a need for a large number of houses. He once suggested building movable houses. Locations are set up quickly and at any time.

An example of da Vinci's "regional plan" was the construction of a canal between Florence and Pisa.He estimated that this water conservancy project would prosper several towns in that area, such as Plato, Pistoia, Pisa, Florence itself, and even Lucca.He believes that it is a measure that can promote many industrial productions, so he not only advises the local administration, but also advises the industrial and commercial guilds to support it.Especially the woolen guild, which is one of the most important industries in Florence.Da Vinci believed that many handicraft workshops could be built along the river to use the power of water, such as mills, silk weaving workshops, kiln workshops, iron melting, knife sharpening, paper making and other workshops.He also specifically mentioned that spinning silk could give a job to hundreds of female workers.In his own words: "If we can control the upper and lower reaches of the Arno River, everyone, if he wants, can get treasures on every hectare of land."He once designed engineering plans for sailing at different heights because of a raised terrain in the middle of the canal.The sixteenth-century biographer Vasari said that Leonardo da Vinci was drawing or making models every day, showing how easily he could move mountains and rivers!This shows how convinced this genius engineer is that the power of man can overcome nature and serve a better life.This is the spirit that we who strive for peace have to learn from him.

In addition, the correctness of da Vinci's views on individual architectural projects should also be fully mentioned.In addition to the artistic style of the physical organization of the building, he also consciously focused on two elements of architectural engineering.One is the importance of tool efficiency to perfect engineering; the other is that the firmness and health of buildings must rely on the enrichment of natural science knowledge.What a correct and progressive insight this is.Regarding the emphasis on tools, for example, in his early days in Milan, when he was working on the bronze statue of Sforza, he could see the Milan Cathedral, which was under construction and could never be completed, every day upstairs. He noticed that the workers moved the stone statues and lifted the stone pillars He also noticed the inefficiency of their woodworking tools, so he often designed patterns of many tools in his manuscripts, such as tools for digging foundations and lifting stones, shovels, awls, wheelbarrows for moving soil, and so on.More than ten years later, when he was supervising the canal project, he observed the number of movements required by the workers for each shovel of soil, and calculated the amount of earth that could be dug every two days.He designed a bull-powered excavating elevator himself, calculated its daily up and down times and compared it with manual labor.This method of calculating efficiency with precise numbers was not applied until modern times, but Leonardo Da Vinci understood its importance in engineering at that time.

Regarding the relationship between engineering and architecture, his views on architectural engineering can be represented by a paragraph of his letter to the head of Milan Cathedral.The letter said: "Just as doctors and nurses need to know the nature of man and life and health, to know that the balance and harmony of the various factors preserve man and life and health, or that the disharmony of the various factors endangers and destroys them... …In the same way this sick church needs all this, it needs a 'physician-architect' who understands the nature of a building, the laws to be observed in the correct method of construction, and the origin and kind of these laws, and The reason that makes a building exist and last forever.” He attaches great importance to the “doctor architect” in this way, and the task of the so-called “doctor architect” is his spirit of tirelessly pursuing the laws of nature.

In terms of architectural artistic style, Leonardo da Vinci was at the end of the "Gothic" architecture period, when classical architecture was rediscovered and adopted. His design naturally combined the foundation of Gothic structure with classical style.His style is therefore very similar to the Byzantine features - the form produced by the combination of classical architecture and vaults, with small vaults set off by the central oversized vault.In terms of boldness and decoration, Leonardo's tendency is not in the style of ancient Rome, nor is it different from the typical style of the later Renaissance.For example, he drew up many drafts in the design of Milan Church and Pavia Church, trying all possible combinations and changes.He emphasized the regular cross-shaped plane, the so-called "Greek cross", and avoided the longer front "Latin cross" plane.He understood that the cross-shaped plan is more suitable for the application of the dome, no matter from any side, the whole integrity of the church can be seen, and it will not be destroyed by the longer one.Today, St. Peter's Church in Rome suffered losses due to the excessive expansion of the front.Da Vinci's church design style shows that he is also extremely sensitive to body shape and organization and pursues perfection.As for his abundant imagination and familiarity with structural principles, it is reflected in theatrical setting, celebration venue layout and garden layout.Many of the outstanding designs he has done were originally created by him, and they have led to new developments in the design of future generations.If the spiral staircase in the Bloat Palace in France was indeed designed by him, we can see his interest in spiral structures and his special style; but due to insufficient evidence, we cannot conclude so.He designed an iron bridge at that time, and the iron bridge did not appear for the first time in England until the end of the eighteenth century.All this said that he was a genius of architecture and engineering; an advanced giant in the field of architectural engineering.

Like many aspects of him, Leonardo da Vinci had a vast knowledge and a unique talent in the field of architectural engineering.It is his consistent spirit to constantly observe nature, overcome nature, and always have the confidence to create.His ideals and work are treasures of human culture.

That is reason enough to honor his memory with fervor in today's world striving for peace.

published in
"People's Daily" on May 1952, 5, signed by: Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin
(End of this chapter)