The catenary as inspiration
(2015) 5th International Congress on Construction History — Location: Chicago (3.June.2015)
Files
2015catenary.pdf
Restricted Access - Adobe PDF
- 18.86 MB
Details
- Authors
- Abstract
- Even if we oversimplify the problem of architectural design, it still depends on three com- pletely different criteria, namely, technical, mechanical and aesthetic. Technical criteria tell how to build with the materials at one's disposal and how to determine the best ways to put them to- gether. The mechanical criteria are the laws nature imposes to assure stability for example. Final- ly, esthetic criteria are more contingent and less well defined. The three criteria are not independent and vary also in time and space. The techniques used to build vaults and the mathematical knowledge of the catenary itself, as well as the knowledge of the laws of nature that describe the role it plays in stability, vary greatly from one epoch to an- other. For these reasons, the aim of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the role played by the catenary in the design of vaults or cupolas from three different points of view: those of the histo- ry of mathematics, of mechanics and of architecture.
- Affiliations
Citations
Radelet-de Grave, P. (2015). The catenary as inspiration. In Brian Bowen Donald Friedman Thomas Leslie John Ochsendorf, eds. (ed.), Proceedings of the 5th International Congress on Construction History (p. p. 153-162). Construction History Society of America. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/227168