How Arch Thou Art

I've always had a penchant for a Gothic arch. Not for me the homely, stolid stoutness of the Norman, decorated though it might be: the plainness of their semicircular geometry is reassuring but somehow lacks the aesthetic finesse of the more nuanced construction of the Goth. However, given that of the classical era, I would always favour the Greek over Roman architects' fancies, and within that subset, the homely, stolid stoutness of the Doric over the far fussier Ionic or Corinthian; my preferences might seem a little at odds with each other to the casual observer. However, there it is. There is a brutalist subtlety to the plainer Gothic arch forms, such as the Lancet, Equilateral or Obtuse.

Having said that I'm also not averse either to the prissier formulations of the Trefoils, the Perpendicular or the vaguely Oriental in nature Ogee; although, to be frank, the Flat Trefoil simply leaves me, well, a tad flat. Of all of these, given choice however, I would take the Equilateral and Obtuse all day long, and of those, always the Obtuse; a bit like I can be, so very often and so very deliberately. They look like engineered forms, purposeful of structure and structural of purpose: they are what they do, and they do what they are, do you see; mirroring like quality in the Greek Doric. Things of purpose, and all the more aesthetically pleasing for it, in my book. Hailing from Birmingham, brutalism is in my blood, after all...