Initially the nave of St-Denis had mosaic walls, a low wood roof and marble columns.
With the building campaign of 1135 Abbot Suger(1081-1151) created the first church in the gothic style. St-Denis relates to the thin wall Parisian churches of St-Germain-des-Pres, St-Martin-des-Champs, and St-Pierre-de-Montmartre, as well as to Norman churches such as the 1120 church of St-Martin-de-Boscherville with its rib and groin vaults, applied colonnettes and bay system, and Durham with its the buttress experimentation of the 1090s. Additionally St-Denis relates to Paray-le-Monial, St-Germain-de-Fly, St-Martin-des-Champs (Paris, 1140s) which experimented with the stiffening of masonry arches. The incorporation of older columns and stone from Gallo-Roman buildings creates references to Rome and the Gallo-Roman past of France. The ambulatory was to assist with circulation.
Apparently the first vaults of Suger's choir collapsed and were replaced within a hundred years - the original piers may not have been substantial enough to bear the weight. The thin ambulatory columns were installed as part of Suger's campaign, 1140-1144, and the thicker choir columns were presumably required after the collapse, c. 1231.