Friday, August 10, 2012

Three Rooms, one long 4m vault

The just completed widow's groined vault project came about because I wanted them to let me build a house using 3 vaults in parallel. Like the Nubians do/did. Instead of the square cinder block in the background.

However when the group came to the brick factory to see a simple vault house, they wanted a Common Hall like the groined vault first.

As Dickson finished the groined vault, before I knew it the project manager had made the foundation for us to build a 3 room vaulted house without consulting us.

But their floor plan without consulting us, so the middle room is wider and they want the entryway in the middle of a vault side and one window. So we ended up going with one long vault. Had to think about how to handle the thrust on the 1meter high wall. It will have a ring beam but "broken" in 4 places, so we will have some buttresses, some beams that drop down to the floor, and the door will be heavy block with a "veranda" acting like a butress.

Pointed Vaults and Pointed Arches

I just had a Renaissance moment, a real eureka moment.

My friend Matt and others will say "jeez, he is only realizing that now?"

I am not a trained professional engineer or builder, but I have some experience. All my arches and vaults are semicircular or catenary curves. Vaults I build without centring, and but arches over openings with centring, as i need a wall to "glue" the bricks. Like the first arch below.
Link
So here it is

IF I USE POINTED ARCHES (middle type) IT WILL MEAN THE LAST BRICKS WILL BE MORE VERTICAL INSTEAD OF HORIZONTAL!

Pointed arches are like the second arch above and this one below.

Duh.

I see it all the time in pictures but it just dawned on me now that it will make some vaults easier, as the curve stays more vertical, hence less gravity pulling it down before the arch is closed! Jeez Matt why didnt you yell at me? Your latest WTO has pointed in it!

I see some issues as they will require greater height in arches over doors.

So my groined vaulted rooms will look like this maybe.



Which means I should be able to go horizontal course much higher

"The main advantage of the pointed arch was that it concentrated the thrust of the vault on a narrow vertical line that could be supported by the flying buttresses, a major feature of Islamic architecture and also European Gothic architecture. The pointed arch enables the reduction of the lateral thrust on foundations. It enabled architects to lighten the walls and buttresses which had to be massive to support earlier semicircular arches(endnote 2). Additionally, it resolved the difficulty of achieving level crowns in the arches of the vault allowing the vault to become suitable for any ground plan." The Arch that never sleeps (Publication) by: FSTC Limited


I mean look how steep that is!

Is this the new look on my buildings?

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Widows Vault progress V - DONE

The pointing is all done and Dickson and Festo have moved to the next project. I will post the last picture when the windows are installed. In the end I advised against pointing the vertical arches of the vault. The joint is very narrow and I felt the brick alone was good enough.