Partitioned Vault
Introduction
The partition vault or "tambourine vault", is a type of vault characterized by being normally built without falsework, with light bricks and quick plaster, gluing the bricks along their edges (or "in tambourine rig "Rig (construction)"), in architectural language), following a predetermined curvature until obtaining a vaulted, self-supporting and light surface.[1].
The name partitioned vault is due to the fact that both its appearance, the materials that make it up, and its construction process are similar to those of brick partitions. In Catalonia and other regions other local names are also attributed to it, although these are not appropriate from a technical point of view.[2][3].
History
The origin of this type of vault is found in Islamic architecture, with clear precedents having been found in the Friday Mosque of Isfahan and the Kasbah Mosque and the Qubba Barudiyyin of Marrakech. Aznalcóllar (from the middle of the century), in Murcia (Siyasa) and in the Valencian Community; that is, in areas that had a significant Mudejar population.[6].
Over the centuries the technique spread from Valencia to Aragon and Catalonia. In the century Fray Lorenzo de San Nicolás wrote the first treatise in Spanish on the construction of partitioned vaults, and a century later Fray Domingo de Petrés disseminated these vaults in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, present-day Colombia.[7].
The Count of Espie and Blondel contributed to its dissemination in France under the name voûtes plâtes.[8][9].
In the century, manuals such as those by Manuel Fornés and Gurrea were published, and Rafael Guastavino exported the technique to North America.[10][11][12].
Later it was a technique widely used by modernist architects, especially by Gaudí. However, the popularization of reinforced concrete and the progressive increase in the cost of the labor necessary to build them meant that they were no longer economically competitive and during the century the use of partitioned vaults was progressively abandoned, although architects such as Luis Moya, Eladio Dieste and Le Corbusier, among others, continued to use them.[7].
In recent decades, there has been renewed interest in this way of building.[13] For example, Norman Foster designed a drone airport in Rwanda based on the brick vault, which he presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2016 and which was expected to be completed in 2020.[14].