Design in Stone: Perspectives of Formal and Technological Innovation of Domes

Abstract

This study focuses the structural and aesthetic potentiality of the Apulian apsidal vaults, regarding to the innovation of the design paradigm of the dome in stone. Apulian apsidal vaults are spherical or pseudo-spherical vaults, minor of an half-dome. They have the retraction of the keystone and a specific masonry texture. Thanks to these features, they are stable and constructively autonomous (despite the lack of the other portion of the dome). The study gets to: Redesign of an apsidal spherical vaults case of study in Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari. Design of innovative stereotomic domes in stone, composed of two or more hemispheres auto-stable and equipped with two or more keystones. The paradigms developed are innovative compared to traditional ones, because: They apply stone stereotomy and three-dimensional infographic modeling to design methodology, opening the door to the realization of the single ashlars with CNC machines. They extend the use of the apsidal vaults to the domes, improving their mechanical performance and increasing the several forms that the project can gets.