EXPERIMENTS IN TIMBREL VAULT @ 25B
A set of trial and errors to explore and understand the technique of building Catalan Vaults with its specific challenges.
Alternative rural roofing technique that uses no steel; shallow brick domes built without centering.
The idea of this website is to document and share our explorations in Timbrel/ Catalan Vaulting as an alternative roofing technique that minimizes the use of steel and concrete. The larger goal is to disseminate this knowledge and technique as an effort to encourage environmental, social and economic sustainability.
TIMBREL/ CATALAN VAULTING
A timbrel or catalan vault is a thin membrane masonry vault consisting of multiple layers of thin bricks/clay tiles held together with mortar and built without any formwork or centering.
The first layer of bricks (preferably thin, light and porous) is laid with a fast setting mortar with guides to help obtain the curve in air. The first layer serves as the formwork for the successive layers laid in cement mortar. It is important to break the joints between the successive layers to reduce chances of cracking.
The elimination of formwork and the thinness (compared to regular masonry vaults) results in lower thrusts, hence the requirement of smaller buttresses (or ring beams), making this technique efficient in terms of resource usage. With adequate knowledge and technique, a mason should be able to construct his own roof.
The form and geometry of the curve defines the stability of the structure and the thrusts at the supporting ends. The curve acts in compression (mostly, with some smaller tensile and bending stresses) and structurally, the timbrel behaves like a masonry vault, except that the technique allows for remarkable thinness of the section which allows it to work like a shell.
Although it was practiced earlier by the Assyrians and Sumerians in Mesopotamia and then in the medieval ages in Europe, timbrel vault construction became popular during the Renaissance in Spain and was spread further west to America in the 1800s by R. Guastavino who used it to build several churches, cathedrals and public buildings which stand today as marvels of such construction, which he called Cohesive Construction. His works have been well documented and they serve as inspiration for experiments by several teams across the world with the common goal of finding alternative and sustainable construction techniques.
The experiments at the SUDU served as the precedent for our efforts considering its simplicity and similarity with our design and goals.
Experiments in Timbrel Vault @ 25B
