Vaulting of the Interior of the Building

A technique of vaulting includes building a structure made either of wood, natural or artificial stone, brick or concrete, glass or metal, with a curvilinear cross-section, used to cover a specific space of a building. The vaulting technique was already widely used in ancient Rome but greatly developed in medieval architecture of Gothic cathedrals in Europe. The principle of structural vaults is to induce internal compressive stresses that maintain the entire vault, the loads of which are transferred to the supports. The stone vaults are made of wedge-shaped voussoirs. In such a structural technique, the weight and spreading force of the vaulting are taken over by such supports, as walls and pillars.

Among the structural vaults, there are a variety of their types: barrel or tunnel vault, groined and ribbed vaults, cambered and domical vaults, cloistered, cove and trough vaults, along with ornamental vaulting, according to a layout of the ribs, divining it into sections, including star-vaulting, net-vaulting, fan-vaulting, cell-vaulting, and flying ribs.

Featured image: Rib vault of church Sint-Niklaaskerk in Ghent, Belgium. Photo by PetrusSilesius (2005). CC BY-SA 2.0 de. Photo and caption source: “Vault (architecture)” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

“Vault (architecture)” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3vZiFjg>. [Accessed 7th June, 2021].

Koch W. (2009) Style w architekturze. Arcydzieła budownictwa europejskiego od antyku po czasy współczesne. [Baustilkunde], pp. 478-480, 499. Baraniewski W., Kunkel R., Omilanowska M., Sito J., Zięba A., Żak K. trans. Warszawa: Świat Książki.

PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 380. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.

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