Modular beauty

"King’s College Chapel, an example of late Gothic architecture, was built from 1446 onwards, over a period of 100 years."

King’s College Chapel at Cambridge


Big Ben in London

What can be seen in these ancient Gothic buildings is repeated modules. The notion of modules doesn't necessarily imply a "modular" construction technique, in fact the building components for these examples is of a fraction of the scale compared to the immediately visible modules.

It must be remembered that any form could be referred to as a module, the stones that form these buildings are indead modules on a small scale. Also interesting is that every Gothic stone probably came out of a workshop (aneX factory) individually labeled for their position in the assembly. many of them would have been identical because of the repetitive language of the structure. this simple arrangement makes the manufacturing of the building components far simpler as they can be done on mass.

Just as the good drawer draws like some bite their nails, the good workshop produces modular components  incessantly, constantly increasing precision and reducing demands on resources.
Design is the feed back loop between: Creation - Utilisatioin - and Demolition

model and inital quote thanks to barnabu
second image thanks to http://www.tufts.edu
Third image thanks to http://www.londontoolkit.com