Workshop Description:
The fragmentation of the skills of construction into disparate professions and trades and the isolation of the architect from those trades means those who design are disengaged from the reality of making. This disconnect is compounded by a building industry interested only in selling products. Over time traditions of building are abandoned and knowledge is lost to ever more standardised and systematised solutions.
This limits our understanding of what is possible, and consequently affects how we design. We believe that in this time there is opportunity for architects to re-learn some of what might have been lost.
Project Description:
This workshop will research and revive a lost construction technique – that of timbrel vaulting. We will then build a space based on this technique.
The Timbrel Vault or Catalan Arch is built up in layers using thin clay tiles and Portland cement.
The origins of this construction technique lie in ancient Egypt but proved most popular in the middle ages throughout the mediteranean. The method was studied, formalised and patented in the United States in the late 19th century by the Catalan engineer Raphael Guastavino who coined the term ‘Cohesive Construction’. The cohesive nature of these constructions reduces the need for buttressing while eliminating the necessity of temporary supports. It also enables the creation of large spanning structures with a material thickness of 30mm using standard industrially produced clay roof tiles.
We will explore timbrel vault construction through the design and execution of a 4m x 4m domed structure. We will study the method and develop a simple proposal in collaboration with engineers and architects researching this type of vaulting in the UK and elsewhere. We intend to self-build this proposal on site in UCD.
Duration:
3 weeks from mid July for 10-12 people.
Colm Moore - Studied Architecture at UCD, graduating 2002. Established Clancy Moore Architects with Andrew Clancy in 2006. The firm is a partner in StrandStudio, a shared studio for young architects in Dublin. He is a studio tutor in 3rd year of the Dublin School of Architecture, DIT.
Andrew Clancy MRIAI - Studied Architecture at UCD, graduating 2001. Established Clancy Moore Architects with Colm Moore in 2006. The firm is a partner in StrandStudio, a shared studio for young architects in Dublin. He is a studio tutor in 3rd year of the Dublin School of Architecture, DIT.
Posts
