Revista de História da Arte

Brick Vaults in Southern Portugal

Margarida Tavares da Conceição, Mafalda Batista Pacheco, João Vieira Caldas — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Architectural books and treatises: on the theory of vaults

Margarida Tavares da Conceição, Mafalda Batista Pacheco, Raquel Seixas — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Our search for codified knowledge about vaulted construction systems obviously started with classical texts on architecture. We wish here to explore the possibility of finding a theory about vaults that is capable of better organising a textual corpus on the subject. The fragmentary notes on vaults in Vitruvius’ text are discussed as the foundational source for the book on construction and architecture. That being so, the contribution of Alberti’s De re aedificatoria is detailed as being the truly fundamental text on this subject, as it is in fact the first structured discourse on vaults. Other steps in our search included the connections discovered between different works from the 16th to 18th centuries, including Portuguese manuscripts, and the final stage took us to the world of the Encyclopaedia, where reasoning and mathematical methods meet architectural and engineering theory and practice to offer a robust technical-scientific approach within the specialised literature.

The incorporation of vaults in the traditional housing of the inner Alentejo

Ana Costa Rosado — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Almost unparalleled inside Portugal and akin only to neighbouring Spanish Extremadura, the incorporation of vertical brick vaults and timbrel vaults is a distinguishing feature of even the most common housing types in inner Alentejo. Research based on in loco architectonic and photographic surveys in four inner Alentejo cities combined with analysis of archive documentation from the 20th and 16th-18th centuries has produced data on the usage and types of vaults, including identification of the various types and geometries employed. This research proposes a chronology of vault construction in housing, indicating a likely beginning in the 17th century and its proliferation during the 18th century. Besides presenting the results, this paper examines various hypotheses to explain the transfer of an erudite technique into traditional housing by contextualising the historic and constructive moment of the Early Modern Age in Alentejo, with urban transformation due to warfare and consequent fortification.

Types of vaults in southern Portuguese architecture

Sérgio Costa, João Vieira Caldas, Mafalda Batista Pacheco — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Much of the literature on Portuguese vernacular architecture has conveyed the notion of a ‘vaulted south’, understood as the territory where a certain roof-building technique is preferentially used across all building typologies. In Portugal, the massive presence of vaulted houses in the Alentejo and Algarve is practically common knowledge, but scientific research on this topic is only slowly expanding. Other than the prevalence of timbrel vaulting and the ubiquitous use of clay brick, key characteristics of these traditional structures remain mostly unexamined, such as their true quantity and geographic distribution, their formal and constructive variety, their relation to spatial functions, and their symbolic significance. As for the origin and chronology of these vaults, explanatory myths persist in the absence of conclusive evidence.

Digital vaulted territories: development of a cross-tool platform for vaults’ knowledge

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Within the scope of the Vaulted South Project, an open-source platform was implemented using Omeka-S software to store and interconnect digital data and enable research and dissemination – based on the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) – of knowledge of vernacular vaulted buildings in Southern Portugal. The corpus was generated by crossing several methodologies and interrelated heterogeneous data on vaults, covering digital transcription, digital photography, laser measurement, terrestrial laser scanning, parametric BIM modelling, and non-destructive inspection techniques such as infrared thermography. This article presents the structure of the database and reflects on the operability of the exploratory methodological approach developed in the project, which encompasses data from several fieldwork campaigns, covering a specific geographical area. It reveals the importance of using innovative methods to achieve accurate data in a more efficient and less intrusive way when dealing with unstudied current buildings. Combining traditional and digital methods of surveyance, data acquisition, data management, communication and scientific dissemination, which are often employed separately in the fields of Architecture, History of Art and Engineering, the Vaulted South Project provided opportunities to bring these scientific fields together as a common field to the History of Architecture and the Digital Humanities.

From the empirical making of Alentejo vaults to the generative geometry of the Arco da Rua Augusta vault

Luís Mateus — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this paper, we propose a methodology for documentation and geometrical analysis of vaults that relies on laser scanning, geometric analysis, three-dimensional modelling, and 3D printing. The methodology was applied to the study of three types of vaults, two of them in brick and the other, the main vault of the Arco da Rua Augusta, in stone stereotomy. Starting from a planimetric layout a geometric analysis is carried out to infer the generative geometries. This is done by exploring the point cloud data and other related outputs, like drawings or meshes. A return to three-dimensionality was achieved through digital modelling and 3D printing. Returning to physicality allows a different type of interaction where some aspects of constructive systems, like assembly hypothesis, can be tested. The proposed methodology paves the way to recognize heritage significance from direct documentation which is fundamental to support conservation studies.

Interview with Manuel Fortea Luna

Mafalda Batista Pacheco, João Vieira Caldas — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Essay. Talking with Vault Builders: a documentary

Mafalda Pacheco — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Contributors

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000