Catenary Vault
The construction of this vault aimed various things:
• Use the window frame as a formwork at the beginning of the work, so as to save a shuttering. This was the opportunity to find a way to build on a formwork which was narrower than the block thickness, which means on an inadequate support.
• Find ways to build a bull eye and a lunette without any formworks.
• Create openings at the apex of the vault, so as to get sky lights.
This vault has been built in 1999 with the free spanning technique (with vertical courses) and it welcomes the kitchen of the trainees at the Earth Institute. It has been built in about 3 weeks with 4 masons and presents these features:
• 6 m span, 3 m rise, 4.5 m long, 14 to 7 cm thick
• Bull eye of 70 cm diameter, catenary lunette of 104 cm span and 211 cm rise
• Sky light done in 2 different ways
• Stabilised earth waterproofing
