Leonardo Da Vinci and Architecture and Military Engineering

Leonardo Da Vinci had a large role in the history of Renaissance architecture. Throughout his notebooks are plans and sketches for a number of churches (in particular the dome of Milan Cathedral), palaces, urban plans, and military architecture as well as plans for bridges.

These drawings are themselves landmarks because they were the first to combine ground plans, perspective views of exteriors and interiors, and even building cross sections for a full graphic presentation.

Leonardo made it evident in his notebooks that the centralized church plan based on the divine symbolism of a circle was very important to him. These plans "fired the imagination" of architects from that time on.

He shared his architectural interests to Bramante while in Milan and Bramante later realized that there were great possibilities with Leonardo's plan.

Looking at it historically, Leonardo's drawings link the simpler spatial compositions of the early Renaissance and the more complex and dynamic spaces of Bramante's High Renaissance styles.

LEONARDO'S IDEAL CITY:

• Modern in its attention to problems of hygiene and population density
• City on two levels connected by ramps and stairs
• Upper level made up of domestic and cultural activities
• Lower level made up of traffic
• Lower level includes network of canals to develop a sewage system
• Plan to solve basic health problems of a crowded city

Skills as a military engineer involved offering services of designing portable bridges and the construction of the cannon which greatly resembles the modern day machine gun. He also designed battleships, and mechanically propelled armored cars.

The fortresses he planned were designed according to changes in warfare. Walls were strengthened with their surfaces and angles being curved to counter angles of artillary shots. They were set low into the ground to have less of a profile. Leonardo Da Vinci's studies and plans serviced him for offensive and defensive designs.