ARC423 Advanced Building Systems

Lecture Notes for Wednesday, February 5, 2003

• Technology of renaissance construction is identical to gothic and Romanesque traditions
• Post and lintel construction is the most primitive way of spanning an opening
• Romans develop the use of brick far beyond that of the Egyptians.
• Instead of using something larger to span openings, Romans used a smaller module (brick).
• Bricks are easier to lift, manufacture and transport
• It creates a separation between manufacture and site
• In a craft oriented society, products are only made when they are needed
• Romans are the first to pre-meditate the need of brick
• Neutral or dumb components are universal item with no specific use (brick). They have more than one place in the building in which they can be placed.
• Craft components tend to be very specific as to their location.
• Romans use brick as facing and formwork for concrete, what we would call a dead form.
• Traditional roman bricks are longer and deeper than contemporary roman bricks.
• Romans used ‘bond bricks’ to tie two surfaces of a wall together.
• Roman basilicas begin to see spans that are longer than a tree trunk. As a result they must assemble elements in combination to resolve the span
• Romans learn to span long spans buy inventing the arch.
• There are two counterintuitive strategies used by the Romans:

• 2 barrel vaults intersecting cause groin vaulting.
• A higher concentration of forces result in the seams.
• They lead to the creation of rib and infill situation in Romanesque construction.
• The Pantheon is used as a case study for Brunelleschi.

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