Octagonal Layouts: Project Genesis of the Cathedral of Valencia

Abstract

Octagonal layouts are widely used in medieval architecture. In Spain, the Cathedral of Valencia is an exceptional example because of its compositional arrangement and early date of construction. The study of this cathedral serves not only to propose the regulatory layout and geometric process to develop the transept, the ambulatory, and the dome but allows the empirical establishment of the complex properties and characteristics of the octagon. By surveying the planes with a 3D laser scanner, the graphic procedures used in the original design of the temple were verified, as were the geometric theories pertaining to the figure of the octagon in architecture, set by the golden ratio.