Universität Stuttgart
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Item Open Access Systematic underestimation of the thrust of vaults among some builders of the 19th century(2007) Wendland, DavidIn building manuals of the 18th and 19th century, we can often read either that vaults don't exert any outward thrust at all, or that their thrust can be easily absorbed by very simple means. Although the theories which are formulated to support these statements are not correct, they have been largely applied even after having been refuted. In case-studies of the works of three builders of vault constructions – in their time highly recognized namely for their technical knowledge, especially in the field of masonry structures and vaults –, some approaches to the problem of thrust will be shown which might appear curious respect to today's knowledge. The understanding of these approaches, however, is first of all useful to explain the structural solutions arising from them. In a more general view, their analysis may be useful to gain a deeper understanding of the problems that arose from the application of the mechanical theories by the builders in the 19th century for the realization of their innovative vault constructions. The paper describes part of the research taken out for a seminar paper on the works of Alessandro Antonelli at the University of Stuttgart, Institute of Lightweight Structures (IL) and Institute of History of Architecture (IAG), which was supervised by Prof. Dr.-Ing J. Tomlow and Prof. Dr. phil D. Kimpel in 1993, and within the doctoral thesis "Lassaulx und der Gewölbebau mit selbsttragenden Mauerschichten. Neumittelalterliche Architektur um 1825-1845" supervised by Prof. Dr. phil. D. Kimpel, University of Stuttgart, Institute of History of Architecture (IAG), delivered in 2007.