REINTERPRETATION OF THE HISTORICAL “ABEILLE” MASONRY VAULT

In European countries, the masonry vaults represent one of the most recurrent types of horizontal structural elements in architecture. For this reason, the evaluation of their mechanical behaviour is a recurring topic in the scientific literature. Within this category of dry vaults, the “Flat Vault” is less investigated but increasingly of interest for the world of architecture, due to the availability of digital design and fabrication tools. This paper investigates the study case of “Abeille Flat Vault”, in particular, the structural behaviour of this vault and its reinterpretation in space, for new buildings. This vault consists of single ashlars that compose a bidirectional plate in space. The geometry of the individual ashlar generates the interlocking mutual support and guarantees the stability of the whole system. The aim of the work is to identify an approach for the design of the reinterpretation of “Abeille Flat Vault” deformed on a spatially curved surface so to obtain the structural behaviour of the in-plane horizontal shear distortion of the full-scale Abeille’s Sail Vault. So, the evaluation and the investigation of the structural behaviour turn out to be very important to obtain a coherent reinterpretation of this discontinuous vaulted structure, in order to enhance the existing Architectural Heritage and to characterize the realization of new buildings according to the guidelines of architectural restoration.