Abstract
Over a span of over 550 years, widely diverging operational methods employed by three architects in particular are brought into sharper focus; those of Filippo Brunelleschi, Antoni Gaudi and Pier Luigi Nervi. In this chapter, it is noted that they share common elemental factors that influenced their work and determined their design philosophies and structural principles, however, their methods of execution differed: Brunelleschi (Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence) embarked on a gravity defying modus to construct the dome over the transept of the cathedral without scaffolding; Gaudi (La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona) employed models involving ropes and sacks of lead shot to achieve his Nature-inspired soaring vaults and spires; and Nervi (Turin Exhibition Hall C) believed that precasting, the use of ferro-cement, and methods of roof construction with ‘travelling’ formwork, was an important step in construction that could deliver a finished state and define the aesthetic of a structure.
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References
References 4.1
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References 4.3
Nervi, P. L. (1955). Concrete and structural form. The Architect and Building News, 208(27), 523–529.
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Thomas, D. (2018). Comparative Structural Methods. In: Masters of the Structural Aesthetic. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5445-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5445-7_4
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