spanning without steel & shuttering- timbrel vault: the detailed construction process
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2019
- our experiments with timbrel vault as an alternative for pukka roofing without steel and shuttering while using locally available skills and materials and, in a way, reinforcing concerns of carbon footprint and social equity.
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our initial journey in exploring spanning without steel & shuttering techniques has been documented in our blog-
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for feedback and questions, mail us at mail@kakani.in
thanks for watching!
Hello! I am a Catalan bricklayer born in Reus, the city of Antonio Gaudí. This is an ancient technique for building ceilings and vaults as well as the versatile "volta a la catalana" stairs between different floors. A variant of them is used to climb the high bell towers. They are called "escales de cargol amb volta a la catalana" They are really beautiful and we have many of them with more than 500 years old .. A strong hug!
How does this tecnique hold up when faced with problems like earthquakes and bad fundaments?
@@ingebrigt8143 Hello, first of all in Catalonia there are practically no earthquakes or they are of very low intensity and therefore we do not have a great experience in this regard. In any case, this technique is based on a rigid self-supporting structure and, in the event of cracking, can maintain its stability as long as it does not present material losses in its shape.
¡¡Áy...!! de los españoles cuando tengan un verdadero terremoto. Toda su orgullosa historia de construcciones de que hacen gala y ostentación... desaparecerán como por arte de magia... solo entonces recurrirán al cálculo y resistencia de materiales para reconstruir.
Vaig viure i estudiar a Reus. En Mas Carandell en 2008-2010. Now watching from USA. Bon Dia!
@@acrepairnearme Jo també vaig estudiar al Mas Carandell però un mòdul de disseny gràfic. Una forta abraçada des del centre del món! ajajajj!!
I thank Kakani Associates for sharing this very valuable information. Thank a lot.
Beautiful craftsmanship. Thank you for being a teaching channel. Some many parts of the world have lost theses skills.
It's satisfying to watch how the masons patiently doing the work so precisely.
Not familiar with this technique of building but it seems to be one of the many skills lost in modern civilization. Thank you for your time and effort in doing this video. Just an other skill to add to my own muchas gracias from San Antonio Texas.
This is impressive and I love to see youngsters becoming the next generation of a strong workforce!
Love the technique although we've seen it before (including on Grand Designs;) love the material; love the fact it was mostly young people learning the technique, BUT........ Where did all the girls go? I bet they were gagging to have a go at it, but as the build progressed, the girls vanished.
I know it might be a bit of a cultural thing, but given the exact method used, there was never a moment when brute strength was required thus, the girls could and should have been involved. I am old - indulge me.
Very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing the engineering, and the construction. It would be nice to see more video or pictures of the final product, since so much time went into it.
Glad you added to the abutments to cope with the lateral thrust.......looks amazing !!!
yes. a key learning from the experiments we conducted! thank you
The Physics behind Timbrel Vault being so Durable and Strong broke my brain.
Very informative and inspirational! Thank you for producing and sharing this video!
WELL DONE!!!! The great dome of St Paul inside the Vatican is built using Greek Amphora. Their 3D shape and male/female abutment gives interlocking strength. It has not been surveyed in many centuries but the Great Dome is said to be one meter thick at the apex, and three meters thick at the bonding ring. The core of each Amphora is hollow allowing the builders a great saving on material. Apparently it was also built without shuttering!
Unbelievable amount of work, and patience. Great job.
Beautiful!
this is excellent. thanks for the clear step-by-step video, diagrams, and specifications.
Excellent job! Really congratulation hope to see more videos like as that from your team.
Absolutely love your videos. Thank you for the time and effort took to share this video
Thank you. Very well done. Using what is available to achieve a very serviceable result. Cheers
Nicely done!
thank you
Amazing technique
Master work
The most amazing fact is that it was intalled "in mid air" sort of speak.
You would expect some sort of scaffolding to hold the tiles as they are being layed, but no. Somehow the plaster holds them in place long enough for the arch to be completed.
Each step then depends on the step before it, so the removal of the need for supports then makes the process slow.
Tilling on thin air amasing lots of skill and knowledge. Ashamed to admit I told a customer we couldn't till the underside of her window reveal because the tiles would fall of.
@@agentx7138 Nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes we just don't know because we have not seen it being done before. Once we see it then we know how the magic is done.
Great video! Thank you 🙏
thank you!
Thank you so much for sharing. I learned so much.
Much appreciated and educative video!
Thanks!
I don't have words to thank you 🙏!! A lot of thanks
What happens when it rains? I don’t see any gutters. Fascinating to watch. The cement slurry did a great job filling in all the tiny voids. Really helped stabilise the structure.
And even more interesting question - what happens when rainwater freezes? :) If this kind of roof may be used only in dry warm areas - why you need roof at all? Moskito net should be enough.
in the end few photos you can see they they can make the edges run out straight like a floor. but im sure they would of made a spot for the water to escape. haha and i dont think it gets cold enough for the rainwater to freeze where they are lol
Take a look at 17:46 to the left of the steel pipe. One stone missing for primary drainage and another above in case the lower one gets blocked.
Daniel Rose Got it! Thanks! I was concentrating on the far wall which seems to be two brick courses high and no sign of any drainage holes. Typically, I miss the thing right in front of me! 😳
Fascinating to see how it’s done.
Thank you so much for such a detailed explanation. Helps a lot!!!
thank you!
Hello from Michigan USA! Thank you for Posting your project. This is very inspiring. ... I think this technique might be able to be improved by adding basalt or metal fibers into the cement layers. I also think that a layer of glazed tile should be used for the inner layer. This would allow for you to grout the tiles from underneath for a very beautiful finished look. The glaze should not wrap too far over the edge to allow bonding of the tiles. ... It might also be possible to use a latex thin-set instead of POP on the first layer.
I don’t mean this in a demeaning way at all but if you try this your way on a small scale please post the process and results in detail. I would enjoy recreating your methods for some fun projects at home. Thank you for your knowledge.
Using glazed tiles for the first layer is probably a matter of taste.
This unglazed version gives me a 'Roman feel' to it. Could one also use marble tiles for a first starting layer ?
A very nice video, thoroughly crafted 🎥 !
Fascinating, thank y
This is amazing. Greetings from Brazil!
that is pretty awesome to watch, very labor intensive
Really nicely done.
Beautiful construction technique.
Really beautiful.
this music is amazing!
Greetings! (And Hi Prof. Surya - you have taught me at CEPT) Thank you for sharing such a detailed and informative video. A question here: what according to you would be the most pertinent advantage AND disadvantage of not using any formwork?
The layers layed in Criss crossing directions is a little like making ceramic plywood.
que buen trabajo....cuanto claro libraron y como le hacen para que no les filtre agua...saludos desde México.
verrrry nice! great vid!
A guy in the UK built an enormous house using this technique. It was on a show called "Grand Designs".The finished house was spectacularly beautiful !
I was a bricklayer for 96 years and I can't stress enough how important it is to keep twanging the string
Get off the line!! LOL
You must be like 120 now...
I much appreciated the video!
I wish i could enrol in a practical course since i discoverd in the internet the catalan vault construction technique.
It would be very effective if the pace of the legends were not so quick for those that doesn't have a good domain on the English language.
Congratulations from Brasil.
PS: Can you recommend a book well illustrated about this kink of architecture ?
Thanks!❤
I enjoyed the video, it is very informative. I have a question: at 10:57 of the video, the cement mortar ratio is noted as 1:2, but later, at 17:30 the cross section illustration indicates 1:3. Please confirm which is the correct ratio. Thank you
thank you for your keen observation! the the correct ratio is 1:3 - 1 part of cement to 3 parts of sand.
i am guessing a bit like a scratch coat on plastering is stronger than the finishing coat on the outside. to prevent cracking
HERMOSO TRABAJO....!!!
@Kakani Associates Thank you for showing this! Out of curiousity, why don't they just dip the two relevant edges of the tile in the PoP rather than taking so much time to trickle and push it into the joints by hand each time?
excellent work!!!! saludos desde argentina!!!
It's amazing!.
I appreciate the idea and the struggle behind this project.I am a designer and builder myself.I think this method can be adopted in hot climates.But what about in humid conditions
At the beginning of the video I thought : Shouldn't they had to put up a sun screen over the working spot to prevent the cement drying to quickly and cracking ?!
Maybe it wasn't a very hot weather period.
It's really quite nice. What is the test of time with seismic events? In brick detailing in seismic, the ladur is set between the bricks in the mortar.
a very informative video with respect to timbrel vaulting . can cement be replaced with lime mortar ? for more sustainable option
Yes! I believe it can, you might need to research what mix exactly but there was a house in the UK they built with a timbrel vault that I believe won the Sterling Prize one year and they used lime on that one if my memory serves me right.
The vaults under our state capitol building in Louisiana are these. The construction is relatively not heavy, and good for resisting fire and rot. But if the area has earthquakes, they can't be used because they shatter like glass.
Interesting, because the resource/waste reduction over flat slabs is now essential. Do you know of a specific case where one was too fragile for motion? Thanks!
I'm not an engineer or architect. It would seem that in some cases, these roof structures could be gravity set on walls to float during an earthquake, but the vibration might be too much. If I remember, there was a train station which had this construction in California with earthquakes which was reinforced because the engineers weren't comfortable with the situation.@@nobreighner
Very good to see the art
me encanta ver la creatividad que demuestra el ser humano
Outstanding
am impressed good job
Excellent video, thanks very much. Did you find that a lot of POP gets wasted, because it sets very suddenly?
That was a definitely a hurdle at first - deciding how much quantity to keep ready when we were not as familiar with the material's property and when it starts to set and gain strength. if you play from 6:15 in the video you can see a person is in charge of keeping the mix ready in small proportions. a key insight to work with PoP is to continuously stir it to not allow it to set in the container itself.
by the time we started working on this, we reached a level of efficiency where the mason applies the PoP on the tile and places it, at the same time the labor gets the mix ready for the next tile. it takes approximately 30 seconds from applying mortar to fixing and adjusting in place to initial setting of PoP.
@@kakaniassociates7785 maybe you are doing it wrong. In southern France the use of POP is common to cover walls and ceilings. The mix is 2,5 kg of POP with 2,5 liters of water. Use a rubber container filled with water. Always drizzle the gypsum slowly into the water. Stir softly to remove all clots and wait some time until the mixture cures to a creamy curd consistency. You will have the same amount of time to work with this mortar. After this it will harden out quite quickly. Always use clean tools and containers to avoid premature hardening.
I am a dental technician from Mumbai, Bharat, and we mix plaster daily . On the plaster packet wether it is stone plaster or regular plaster the water powder ratio is written, the working time and the setting time also by the manufacturer, so it is easy to know for the user to mix the right quantity and with correct water powder ratio. To get the proper working time. For dental plaster it is normally 3 to 4 minutes working time. We use rubber bowls and flat or curved steel spatula, with wooden handle one can buy in any dental depot in all the cities of Bharat (India). They are not expensive and lasts for years I am still using it for more than 25 years myself. I always weigh 50 grams and keep many packets ready for daily use and have a small plastic water measuring jar of 100 ml, to get proper water powder ratio, so get perfect plaster with perfect strength with minimum shrinkage, and not a single gram of plaster is wasted.
My two cents
REALMENTE UMA OBRA DE ARTE JAMAIS IMAGINEI QUE ERA POSSIVEL CHEGAR A TAL BELEZA
No shuttering and first thing that is built is temporary form-work? In the UK the principle cost is labour so I don't think I will be specifying many of these. I also suspect the loads they can take without some kind of tension member would be low.
how do you make the tiles. i there an alternate material?
Very Inspiring
I'm thinking, wouldn't the lines be broken more if the 2nd and 3rd layer were laid at +/- 30 degrees? Because when you lay them at +/- 45 degrees, the primary axis of the 2nd layer aligns with the perpendicular axis of the 3rd layer and vice versa.
Super! I ve one question: why use pop to seal 1st line of bricks? If i use concrete and not pop what change? Thanks
we are using the property of quick setting time when we use POP for the clay tiles in the first layer because we are relying purely on strength of the form or geometry of a pure inverted catenary curve. the first layer essentially works as a formwork for the successive layers which help to add strength as the joint breaks across the cross section.
If you are interested in the theory we recommend going through our blog (link given in the description) where we attempted to understand the science behind it as we were conducting our experiments.
wow grreat work guys
I enjoyed watching the video
Beautiful, thank you! I fail though to understand one point : the curve you've traced with the hanging chain is a parabola, not a catenary as shown minutes before?
@Guy Smith thank you for your explanation, I had misunderstood the definition. 👍👍😉
The catenary is "the curve of gravity"...
Hey guys ... how does it fare against vibration ? Like quakes
I have been wanting to do this in West Bengal, but we cannot get these thin tiles locally.
sir can we make this vault for 15 m span with this span??
Hi whether mortar above third layer necessary. If you leave as it is it will look more beautiful. By the way will you do it other parts of india
How do you do for the disposal of rainwater?
Incredible
thank you for this video, what about the tention rods ration? dimention
it should be placed parallel to the span of the vault and ideally at every 1 m interval.
@@kakaniassociates7785 Section or radius?
thanks
Do you take of tie rods after the roof is completed? I don't see them in the final part of the video. Thank you
no the tie rods are kept in place for the larger vault and do form an essential part of the structure. if one questions whether a structure needs tie rods, you need to take these three points into consideration:
1. what earthquake zone is the building built in?
2. does the span of the space exceeds a typical room span of 10 ft?
3. at what height is the timbrel vault roof system is being constructed because the further up one goes additional consideration of lateral thrust needs to be taken into account.
What is the "pop"? white initial "glue"?
There seems to be a discrepancy between what the construction process shows being done and what the cross sectional diagram at the end of the video illustrates. It looks like the tile setters are using mortar between layers and not plaster as shown in the diagram.
To make the shell more earthquake resistant couldn't wire mesh or wire grid be used between one of more layers?
Could this used with Aircrete? Would save some weight
fabulous.
Bóveda son cimbra ,espectacular
Beautiful & Exquisite work that begs the questions...
Where’s that gonna’ leave everyone under it after an earthquake?
Better crumbling bricks and tiles than a huge slab of concrete.
Beautiful !!
I suppose you will also clean the ceiling of the remaining visible bits and pieces of PoP glue, which dripped through.
yes. there is also a possibility of adding a layer of glazed tiles below with cement mortar to achieve the finish you are looking for and sandwiching the tiles with PoP mortar in between. Guastavino who was responsible for proliferating this technique commonly used this method, you could check out boston public library and or penn station images to know the possibilities of finishes which is also structurally viable.
@@kakaniassociates7785 What is PoP? Is it Plaster of Paris? or something else. I was trying to find it at my construction store.
@@bigonprivacy2708 Yes it is plaster of paris
Wow! Good on you Team. Can we have contact with Structural engineer?
Super!
Very good
2:26 Thus the use of the “flying Buttresses utilized in many of the cathedrals.
I didn't see any consideration given to drainage. Did I miss something?
Also, if this is a new technique how does it look as far as maintenance in the future? How difficult would a hole be to patch?
I thought that as well, water staining can be seen at 18:00
This is not a new thing, there are roofs built with this technique in Portugal that are over 500yrs old and are still going strong.
@@edwardlansdowne291 does it rain in Portugal? If so, how do they deal with drainage?
Hi James, I am by no means an expert but I'm thinking that where the arch meets the wall at the lowest point would be waterproofed and the rain water could then be dealt with in much the same way as any normal roof i.e collected in a purpose built recepticle and piped to tanks or directed to the street.
I found a useful report that was submitted to Witwatersrand University, if you google-
Catenary Vaults : A Solution To Low-cost Housing in South Africa.
I found the report after seeing the episode on "Grand Designs" that featured a very large example of this type of vault. In that case the vault was grounded at both ends so drainage considerations were moot.
Anyhow, if you start down the rabbit hole of info' about these kinds of arches and their applications I'm sure you'll find, like I did , that the amount of discussion on these 600yr old building techniques is apparently endless !
Are you using latex binder
Respect
missing information, is how drainage ?
I am not a brick layer but I work engineering and I am very curious about the techniques but got some questions like ............ ok what is the white stuff? (I gather the dark grey is cement mix) But whats the White? Glue? if so what type of Glue?
Plaster of paris
You people are genius
Rafael Guastavino would be proud of you.
100 /100 👌
Is this possible for multi storey buildings?
yes. we used lightweight filling on top to get a flat surface and so far we have built a 3 storey structure.
I see but I don't want to believe; during construction, those tiles are defying gravity
Held up with plaster of paris which sets very fast, and the arched structure means once it is complete, it presses together as it tries to fall down
@@samuelmellars7855 what happens when its no longer in compression ? put under tension and add some torsion to it under earthquake scenarios.
@@golbs7542 well, they say that some arches have held for over 500 years... I've seen some bridges made this way.
Yes I've seen and understand how it works. It's all under compression. But putting people's lives at risk using bricks and cement is dangerous. One dickhead that knocks a wall out to install a door will ruin it. Lol
Intriguing...
splendid
How the brick does not come off and does not fall due to gravity. ???????
Well Done
какую максимальную нагрузку выдержит свод?