Vaulting and Building Culture
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Short-term training is becoming the dominant model of knowledge transfer in construction crafts. In the case of thin-tile vaulting, the historical master-apprentice training model is being partly replaced with experimental and project-specific training programs, some of which introduce the techniques to new regions and cultures. Challenges of time, site conditions, and the adaptation of the technique to local construction become intrinsic to the learning process. To address these challenges, this article will examine two thin-tile vault training programs in Rwanda and Spain. An ethnographic study will draw on social learning theories to explore how training is connected to the social and economic context of each project. Lessons from these workshops will form a training strategy model for traditional construction crafts. Finally, the study will project these lessons onto the pedagogy of architecture and design.
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The study focuses on three approaches to craft-inclusive construction: policy, training, and design. The policy approach is extracted from two historical studies on the industrialisation of thin-tile vaults in Cuba during 1960s and Syria during 1980s. The training approach is an ethnographic study that examines training programmes of vaulting during the construction of three thin-tile vault projects in Rwanda, Jordan and Spain. Learning from the two previous aspects, the approach to design uses design-build methodologies to explore how digital analysis tools can mediate between technology, policy, and labour for a craft-inclusive construction of vaults.
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This chapter review some mud-brick construction methods in the MENA region. It focuses on cultures of vaults and domes construction from soil preparation to building tactics.
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ANTA: Archives of New Traditional Architecture | Vol. 3 (Spring 2022) The Middle East and North Africa region has historically been a field of developing building techniques. Arches and vaults were examined in archeological studies during the twentieth century, some of which directly linked the archeological vaults and the actual practice of vaulting. Today, the region continues to host such practices. Furthermore, to compete in industrial construction, these practices undergo modifications for a faster and more durable construction. This article will narrate today's vernacular uses of vaulting in the Middle East and North Africa
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The Rwanda Cricket Stadium, completed in 2017, uses compressed soil-cement tiles, thin-tile vaulting, and geogrid reinforcement for seismic stabilisation in Kigali's moderate risk earthquake zone. The vaults follow the natural resolution of forces toward the ground, closely mimicking the parabolic geometry of a bouncing ball and evoking the cherished hilly topography of Rwanda. The masonry vaults in compression allow the use of geogrid embedded within the mortar layers, adding global ductile behaviour to the thin shell composite of low strength tiles.
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This paper investigates the feasibility of adapting ancient historical construction techniques to cooperative robotic assembly methods to minimize centering requirements in masonry vaults. First, an overview of seven historical techniques is presented.