VAULTS

• A Vault is (architectural term) a structural member consisting of an arrangement of arches, usually forming a ceiling or roof.

• The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required. However, when the vault is built above ground, various replacements are employed to supply the needed resistance.

• An example is the thicker walls used in the case of barrel are continuous vaults

Types of vaults• Dome vaults

• Barrel Vaults

• Groin Vaults

• Rib Vaults

• Fan Vaults

Dome vaults• A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles

the hollow upper half of a sphere.

• The distinction between the vault and a dome vault is that a vault is essentially an arch which is extruded into the third dimension, whereas a dome is an arch revolved around its vertical axis.

Barrel Vaults• The simplest kind of vault is the barrel vault (also called a

wagon or tunnel vault) which is generally semicircular in shape. The barrel vault is a continuous arch, the length being greater than its diameter. The effect is that of a structure composed of continuous semicircular or pointed sections.

• It was built of fired bricks cemented with clay mortar.

Pointed barrel vaults

Groin vaults• When two semicircular barrel vaults of the same diameter cross

one another their intersection (a true ellipse) is known as a groin, down which the thrust of the vault is carried to the cross walls; if a series of two or more barrel vaults intersect one another, the weight is carried on to the piers at their intersection and the thrust is transmitted to the outer cross walls.

• As the walls carrying these vaults were also built in concrete with occasional bond courses of brick, the whole structure was homogeneous.

Groin vault Vault from above

Rib vault• Rib vault, a skeleton of arches or ribs on which the masonry

could be laid, where the intersecting barrel vaults were not of the same diameter.

• The intersection of two or three barrel vaults produces a rib vault or ribbed vault when they are edged with an armature of piped masonry often carved in decorative patterns

Fan vault• A fan vault is a form of vault used in the Gothic style, in

which the ribs are all of the same curve and spaced equidistantly, in a manner resembling a fan.

• The fan vault would seem to have owed its origin to the employment of centerings of one curve for all the ribs, instead of having separate centerings for the transverse, diagonal wall and intermediate ribs.

• It was facilitated also by the introduction of the four-centred arch, because the lower portion of the arch formed part of the fan, or conoid, and the upper part could be extended at pleasure with a greater radius across the vault.

Fan vault