Knowth Passage Grave, 2500 BC Boyne Valley
source: ferrebeekeeper.wordpress.com Treasury of Atreus, 1200BC
http://sasgreekart.pbworks.com
Earth Structures
The Arch
Some of the first rigid surface structures were erected around 3000
years BC. They came mostly in the form of earth materials stacked
and corbelled to create heavy dome compression systems. The material qualities of dirt and stone required thick layers and bases in
order to support itself.
The arch was made possible by the advancment and use of the “keystone.” The keystone is the center piece of the arch which holds
the entire system in compression on itself. However, the arch adds a
level of sophistication to the building process. Formwork is required
underneath the masonry prior to placing the keystone. Once the vital
center stone is place, the formwork can be destructed, leaving the
arch.
Corbelling could also be carved
away in order to create smooth,
arch like spans.
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By nudging each layer of
rocks or bricks slightly over
the previous layer made it
possible to create arched
and domed shapes in the
early stages of building. With
corbelling, a large amount of
material and general mass
needed to be placed around
the bricks in order for them to
support the structure.
Keystone
Arch Formwork
History, Development, & Key Figures
Corbelling
RIGID
PRIMITIVE SURFACE STRUCTURES
INVESTIGATIONS
University of Oregon
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
Standard Arch
Standard arch extruded to create
barrel vault, resulting with one of the
first concrete rigid surface structures.
Pantheon 126AD.
By extruding the arch, a barrel (or tunnel) vault can be created, making an innovative occupiable space underneith. This module was used
throughout Roman architecture in particular.
Source: www.nycerome.com
Coffering
With the desire to span farther and create more dynamic spaces, especially domes, the Roman’s used the technique of coffering. This was the
idea of forming in recessed section in the formwork, therefore reducing
the amount of concrete used in the dome, resulting in less weight and
stress on the structure.
http://idiommag.com
Creating Space
Roman concrete was a structural ceramic which set hard, not from the
action of heat, but from the chimical interaction of hydrated ingredients. The concrete consisted of an aggregate mixed with a semi-liquid
mortar of hydraulic cement. This cement element was made from a
mixture of water, lime, and a crushed volcanic-ash deposit known as
pozzolana.
With the new found vaulting method of extruding
the arch, new ideas of
combining multiple barrel
vaults were used to create
groin vaults, rib vaults, and
fan vaults.
Golden House of Nero 65AD.
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com
Source: www.studyblue.com
The Golden House of Nero was one of the first examples of designing
a rigid surface structure with the intent of creating dynamic spaces
within the building. The vaulting and domes varied in size and shape
in order to serve the space it sheltered.
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Up to this point, all the vaults and arches were being constructed with
stone and rock. With these standard earth materials not corresponding
with the needs of advancing human civilization, a new material was in
need to span farther with thinner membranes. Concrete became the
product of choice when dealing with these parameters. The Romans
were the first to establish construction techniques with concrete, which
included complex formwork of braces and molds to hold up the concrete while it hardened.
History, Development, & Key Figures
Advancing Concrete
University of Oregon
Material Innovations
INVESTIGATIONS
Taking the arch further...
RIGID
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26849514@N06/6898772296/
anengineersaspect.blogspot.com
Designed by Max Berg, this structure marks the beginning of a new The segmental sperical sphere dome was only 3 1/2 in thick! People
era of building with thin shell reinforced concrete. The dome spans stood on the structure to prove its strength. It marks a significant leap
213’ in diameter.
forward towards the advancement of thin-shell design.
The octogonal dome, with a diameter of 156 ft, is supported by arches
on each side that transport the load vertically into the eight columns
below. The shell is only 3 1/2 in thick.
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Jena, Germany (1931)
Eduardo Torroja
Algecira, Spain (1934)
History, Development, & Key Figures
Experimental Thin Shell
University of Oregon
Max Berg
Breslau, Germany (1912-1913)
Market Hall
INVESTIGATIONS
Centennial Hall
RIGID
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
Eduardo Torroja designed this
canopy.
famous cantelievered thin-shelled This hall was designed and built by architect and engineer Hans
Leuzinger and Robert Maillart, with Prader & Cie. The intention of the
exhibition was to demonstrate the ability and potential of thin shells.
The width of the shell is 50.32 ft with a height of 38.4 ft at the crown.
The shell is 2.36 in thick.
ARCH 4/584 Rigid Surface Structures Donofrio
home.manhattan.edu
Hans Leuzinger and Robert Maillart
Swiss National Exhibition, Zurich (1939)
Designed by Enrique de la Mora, this is an early representation for
thin shelled structures in North America.
Enrique de la Mora
Monterrey, Mexico (1947)
History, Development, & Key Figures
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26849514@N06/6898772296/
Eduardo Torroja
Madrid, Spain (1935)
Church of Mary
University of Oregon
Cement Hall
INVESTIGATIONS
Madrid Race Track
RIGID
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
www.bc.edu
Candela modeled this church’s form by manipulating his already
developed umbrella design. He created bays out of the tilted and
extended, hyperbolic paraboloid form.
INVESTIGATIONS
Eero Saarinen
Felix Candela
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1952-1955) Narvarte, Mexico (1953-1955)
The shell was designed by architects and engineers Jorge Gonzales This structure stands out as an impressive example of thin-shell
Reyna and Felix Candela. It has a thickness of 3 1/2 in at the crown architecture in the United States
to allow cosmic rays to enter without interference.
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gregcookland.com
Jorge Gonzales Reyna and Felix Candela
University of Mexico, Mexico City (1951)
Church of Our Lady
History, Development, & Key Figures
Kresge Auditorium
University of Oregon
Cosmic Rays Research Laboratory
RIGID
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
This concrete roof designed by Felix Candela in cooperation with Joaquin and Fernando Alvarex Ordonez is an octogonal groined vault.
Felix Candela
Xochimilco, Mexico (1958)
INVESTIGATIONS
www.columbia.edu
gregcookland.com
The CNIT building’s shell holds the record for largest span in terms of Designed by Felix Candela, Guillermo Rosell, and Manuel Larrosa,
amount of square footage covered. Nicolas is mainly known for his this hyperbolic paraboloid shell is only 1 1/2 in thick and spans 102 ft
work in bridge engineering. He used his expertise in bridge design with a height of 72ft.
and made a submission to and won the competition for the CNIT project. The roof is made up of a re-inforced concrete double shell. There
are three double curved half arches that meet eachother and they are
all ribbed as a way to increase the rigidity of the overall structure.
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Felix Candela
Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico (1958-1959)
Restaurant
History, Development, & Key Figures
Nicolas Esquillan
Puteaux, France (1956-1958)
Open Chapel
University of Oregon
CNIT Project
RIGID
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
TWA Terminal, Kennedy Airport
St Mary’s Cathedral
unavidamoderna.tumblr.com
www.preservationnation.org
en.wikipedia.org
Kenzo Tange
Tokyo (1965)
The design is inteded to mimic “wings of flight”
Dramatic hyperbolic paraboloid shells form the structure here of one
of the most famous buildings designed by Felix Candela. Two saddle-type hyperbolix paaboloids bearing on two supports are tilted
and joined together. The total span is approximately 180 ft with each
cantelievered part projecting approximately 90 ft.
This cantelievered concrete roof system consists of four interacting
vaults in slightly different shapes. Only four piers support the entire
shell system. The overall space enclosed by the form is approximately 315 ft long. Although this building is not really a thin shell in terms
of its thickness, it has left an inspiring mark on the development of
thin shells.
In this structure by Kenzo Tange eight hypar surfaces enclose this
complex structure which is covered outside with aluminum sheeting.
History, Development, & Key Figures
INVESTIGATIONS
Eero Saarinen
New York (1962)
RIGID
Felix Candela
Monterrey, Mexico (1960)
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Church of San Jose Obrero
University of Oregon
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
Sydney Opera House
Berlin Central Station
University of Oregon
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Roof For B.P. Gas Station
Isler was one of the first to develop his thin shell designs based off
his observations of hanging membrane models and how their inverse
forms behaved in compression. He realized that if he was to make
the structure’s form out of concrete, they would react exceptionally
well to compressive forces.
Extremely impressive for its grandiose scale, the Sydney Opera
House stands as a gigantic sculpture emplying architectural goals to
support its rational.
The Central Rail Station in Berlin contains a curved glass roof with a surface area of about 279 ft by 390 ft. This steel and glass gridshell system
also contains photovoltaic cells integrated into the glass panels.
RIGID
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
Jorn Utzon
Sydney, Australia (1957-1973)
Architects: Gerkan, Marg, and Partners.
Berlin, Germany (2006)
History, Development, & Key Figures
INVESTIGATIONS
Heinz Isler
Deitingen, Switzerland (1968)
This wooden gridshell canopy is constructed from four layers of alternating lathe and encased with glass panels. The unique aspect of this
gridshell system is that the wooden grids create rhombus shapes, while
the glass panels that are layered on top of this grid are triangular shape.
The geometric properties of these two shapes create a very dynamic
canopy when combined. It also allows the glass pieces to remain more
planer as the roof curves, which is necessary due to the material properties of glass.
Roof structure echoes the space in the building.
The Centre Pompidou - Metz is an art museum located in Metz, France.
It is a branch of Pompidou arts centre of Paris, and is the largest temporary exhibition space outside Paris in France (54,000 sq ft). The gridshell
roof structure is composed of glue laminated timbers that intersect to
form hexagonal wooden units resembling the cane-work pattern of a
Chinese hat.
The 300 foot wide hexagonal roof shape echoes the buildings floor plan,
which includes 3 galleries, a theatre, and an auditorium.
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Louvre, Jean Nouvel
(2013-expected completion 2015)
This museum combines a mixture of Arabic cultural traditions and
modern design. One of the key focuses for this project was the creation of the interior atmosphere. The roof shell form is perforated by
small geometric openings that are created by a series of intersecting
lines, integrated within the structure. By doing this, Nouvel has imitated the cool and calm atmosphere that is present in the shade of
interlaced palm leaves.
History, Development, & Key Figures
Sherigu Ban and Jean De Gastines
Metz, France (2010)
Abu Dhabi
INVESTIGATIONS
Peter Hulbert & Happold Buro
(2007)
Centre Pompidou-Metz
RIGID
Chiddingstone Orangery
University of Oregon
DEVELOPMENT
AND HISTORY
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University of Oregon
KEY FIGURES
Pier Luigi Nervi
(1881-1979)
source: www.ggpht.com
Nervi’s Grand Solone “B” of the Turin Exposition Hall, Built 1948
source: static.monolithic.com
Nervi first worked with conventional reinforced concrete, and stressed
the role of intuition in building with these materials. This process led
to the development of Ferro-Cement. This new cement was thin,
flexible, and elastic. It was composed of several layers of fine steel
mesh that was ductile, resulting in a very strong material in a thin application.
This new product revolutionized the advancement in form making and
the prefabrication parts. Placing Ferro-Cement on movable scaffolding made speedy accurate construction possible. Curved ribs and
Section of Nervi’s Grand Solone “B” of the Turin Exposition Hall Nervi’s UNESCO Headquarters, Paris 1957.
undulating slabs now became a possibility.
source: static.monolithic.com
source: static.monolithic.com
History, Development, & Key Figures
Nervi’s Fiat Factory in Turin.
Completed 1955.
INVESTIGATIONS
Nervi’s Tobacco Factory in
Bologna. Completed 1952
source: static.monolithic.com
RIGID
source: static.monolithic.com
Zarzuela racecourse grandstand
Madrid, Spain (1935)
Las Corts Stadium Grandstand
Barcelona, Spain (1943)
Market Hall
Algeciras, Spain (1934)
Torroja was yet another pioneer in the development of thin shell structures. In 1934, Torroja and José Maria Aguirre founded an experimental institute to develop new uses and theories for reinforced concrete.
He, like his family, was a master at engineering and mathmatics and
he applied this knowledge to the benefit of architectural design. He
experimented with concrete shell structurses by testing the limits of
what they could withstand. What he strived to accomplish with this
(and ultimately was successful at), was the creation of elegant and
stable forms that were also efficiently practical.
Frontón Recoletos
Madrid, Spain (1935)
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History, Development, & Key Figures
(1891-1961)
RIGID
Eduardo Torroja
INVESTIGATIONS
University of Oregon
KEY FIGURES
Church of San Jose Obrero
Monterrey, Mexico (1960)
Church of Our Ladyof The Miraculous Medal
Narvarte, Mexico (1953-1955)
Restaurant
Xochimilco, Mexico (1958)
During the Spanish Civil War, Candela sought refuge in Mexico, where
in 1950, he founded his company Cubiertas Ala or “Wing Roofs”. A
year later he designed the Cosmic Rays Pavilion, which was his first
structure utilizing his signature hyperbolic paraboloid geometry. The
building began a decade of experimentation with thin-shell construction and the hyperbolic paraboloid form that garnered him international recognition, including the 1961 Auguste Perret Award from the
International Union of Architects and a 1961 Gold Medal from the
Institute of Structural Engineers. (www.columbia.edu)
Candela expresses part of his design philosophy,“it’s about attaining an expressive interior space, a surrounding sculpture that one
admires from the inside. But this sculpture cannot be capricious and
arbitrary, since one has to respond to the external laws of structural
equilibrium.”
Planta Embotelladora Bacardi,
Tultitlán, Estado de México (1959-1971)
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History, Development, & Key Figures
1910-1997
RIGID
Felix Candela
INVESTIGATIONS
University of Oregon
KEY FIGURES
Dome Roof, Kilcher in Recherswil
Solothurn, Switzerland (1965)
Laboratory and research facility
Gips Union, SA (1968)
Isler was one of the first to develop his thin shell designs based off
his observations of hanging membrane models and how their inverse
forms behaved in compression. He realized that if he was to make
the shells inverse form out of concrete, it would react exceptionally
well to compressive forces.
Roof For B.P. Gas Station
Deitingen, Switzerland (1968)
Garden Centre
Zuchnil Switzerland (1962)
ARCH 4/584 Rigid Surface Structures Donofrio
History, Development, & Key Figures
1926-2009
RIGID
Heinz Isler
INVESTIGATIONS
University of Oregon
KEY FIGURES
Louvre, Abu Dhabi
(2013-expected completion 2015)
Burj Doha
Doha, Qatar (2005-2012)
Museum of the Arab World
Paris, France (Opened 1987)
Nouvel’s designs are both unique to their surrounding context and
experimental in the employ of new materials or existing materials in
a new way. The Doha tower in Qatar, was the first structure to use a
dia-grid reinforced concrete shell over the entirety of the building. The
lace-like layered skin recalls shanasheel screens which are a common
traditional design used in the region. Both the Museum of the Arab
World and the Louvre Abu Dhabi evoke the atmosphere of each culture throught the use of geometric forms on the skins of the buildings.
By carefully placing layres of these forms on the skins, Nouvel is able
to control the light that pierces each building. This play of light re-creates the atmosphere of the traditional architecture that is unique to
each culture.
Culture and Congress Centre
Lucerne, Switzerland (1998)
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History, Development, & Key Figures
(1945-Present)
RIGID
Jean Nouvel
INVESTIGATIONS
University of Oregon
KEY FIGURES