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The Evolution of Concrete Shells; Innovations by Ildefonso Sánchez Del Río La Evolución De Las Estructuras Laminares; Innovaciones De Ildefonso Sánchez Del Río

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The Evolution of Concrete Shells; Innovations by Ildefonso Sánchez Del Río La Evolución De Las Estructuras Laminares; Innovaciones De Ildefonso Sánchez Del Río Informes de la Construcción Vol. 65, 530, 147-154, abril-junio 2013 ISSN: 0020-0883 eISSN: 1988-3234 doi: 10.3989/ic.12.051 The evolution of concrete shells; innovations by Ildefonso Sánchez del Río La evolución de las estructuras laminares; innovaciones de Ildefonso Sánchez del Río P. Cassinello(*) SUMMARY RESUMEN The legacy of Ildefonso Sánchez del Río El legado de Ildefonso Sánchez del Río Pisón (1898-1980) contains some of the Pisón (1898-1980) contiene algunas de most pioneer Spanish concrete shells. las más pioneras estructuras laminares It’s a fact that the “Modern Architec- españolas. Es un hecho que la “Aventura ture‘s Thin Shells Adventure” had just Laminar de la Arquitectura Moderna” start when he designed and built his empezó cuando él proyectó y construyó first work in Spain (1924). In the inter- sus primeros trabajos en España (1924). national context prevailing in the twen- En el contexto internacional de la década ties, the reinforced concrete was still de los años veinte, el hormigón armado evolving. The first Thin Concrete Shells estaba todavía en desarrollo. La primera was built by Dyckerhoff and Widman in estructura laminar fue construida por Jena, Germany (1922-1925). Ildefonso Dy ckerhoff and Widman en Jena. Alema- Sánchez was looking for a system to nia (1922-1925). Ildefonso Sánchez buscó design concrete shells in a simple way. un método sencillo de diseño. Finalmente, Finally, he founded his own and inno- encontró su propio e innovador sistema, vate system based in a similar method que estaba basado en un método similar to the ribbed Gothic Vault. He used his al de las bóvedas nervadas del Gótico. system to built a very different ribbed Usó este sistema para construir diferentes concrete shell, such as the Sport Hall estructuras laminares, como el Palacio de of Oviedo, Spain (90 m span). This Deportes de Oviedo, España (90 m luz). article contains some results about the Este artículo contiene algunos de los resul- research on Sánchez del Río´s work and tados de la investigación que he realizado its repercussion on the international sobre el trabajo de Sánchez del Río y su context. repercusión en el contexto internacional. 108-16 Keywords: Reinforced concrete; shell Palabras clave: Hormigón armado; es- structures; innovation; patent; technology; tructuras laminares; innovación; patentes; prefabrication. tecnología; prefabricación. ( ) * ETSA-Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (España). Recibido/Received: 27 may 2012 Persona de contacto/Corresponding author: [email protected] (P. Cassinello) Aceptado/Accepted: 02 jul 2012 P. Cassinello 1. INTRODUCTION One of the first roofs to be made of rein- forced concrete covered the tiny Bürkliplatz Ildefonso Sánchez del Río Pisón (1898- Pavilion built by Robert Maillart in 1908, 1980) was one of the most outstanding who invented his mushroom-like slab that Spanish engineers of the so-called Genera- same year (2). Just one year later, in 1909, tion of 1927. Along with José Entrecanales, the Swanson Brothers built the roof over Eduardo Torroja and Carlos Fernández the Melbourne Public Library, an octagonal Casado, he trained at Madrid’s School of dome measuring 34.8 metres in diameter, Civil Engineering with Eugenio Ribera, a at the time the largest such reinforced con- master and pioneer of the use of reinforced crete structure ever built. In 1913 its record 1 concrete in Spain. was appropriated by the Hala Stulecia (Cen- tennial Hall) at Wroclaw, Poland, whose 1. Zeiss Planetarium at Jena, Ger- His extensive legacy has earned him a 65-metre diameter roof was designed by many 1922. Franz Dischinger. place as one of the guideposts of Spanish architect Max Berg, engineered by Willi 2. Hangars at Orly, France 1923. engineering. His oeuvre attained interna- Gehler and Günther Trauer and built by the Eugene Freyssinet. tional renown thanks to his innovative sys- pioneer German firm Dyckerhoff and Wid- tem of building with corrugated thin shells. man. Functionally speaking, the primary This technique, developed from the late characteristic of these large reinforced con- nineteen forties onward, was based on pre- crete roofs was that they imitated their pre- casting lightweight fired clay and reinforced decessors, spatial wrought iron roofs (3). concrete modules, this engineer’s famous corrugated voussoirs. He used this system Shortly after Ildefonso Sánchez del Río to build what is indisputably his master- Pisón undertook his engineering career in piece, the Oviedo Sports Pavilion (1961- 1922, he was designated municipal engi- 1975). Featured on the cover of one of the neer of the City of Oviedo. That appoint- issues of the International Association for ment came in 1922-1924, when the world’s Shell Structures bulletin, the pavilion now first thin shell was under construction at forms part of the history of the development Jena, Germany, authored by Walter Bauers- of thin shells. feld and built by Dyckerhoff and Widman under the orders of that firm’s chief engi- 2. INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT: neer, Franz Dischinger (Figure 1). That feat FROM REINFORCED CONCRETE followed on Eugene Freyssinet’s design, in SPATIAL ROOFS TO MODERN 1923, for his famous hangars at Orly: cylin- ARCHITECTURE’S THIN SHELLS drical barrel vaults with a parabolic cross- section and corrugated surface, 144 metres The advent of reinforced concrete in the long and spanning a distance of 75 metres early twentieth century revolutionised civil (Figure 2). These events were to change the works and building. Engineers world-wide destiny of reinforced concrete spatial roofs soon realised that they could capitalise on in the decades that followed. the strength and formal versatility of this new material and its unquestionable pre- eminence over iron in terms of fire per- formance to build bridges and roofs with very long spans. Initially (1900-1920), reinforced concrete spatial roofs imitated the spatial wrought iron frames popular in the nineteenth century, based on lattices or continuous series of arches or deep beams. Construction on what is internationally regarded as the first reinforced concrete 2 thin shell was concluded in Jena, Germany Given the difficulty inherent in engineering in 1922 (1). From that time on, with the dis- these incipient thin shells, in the nineteen covery of a technological language specific twenties, at the outset of his career, Sánchez to this new material, the aim was to further del Río developed his own method for rein- develop the thin shell model. Shortly there- forced concrete roof design. He based their after, in 1929, the first International Congress structure on geometric shapes that could be of Modern Architecture consolidated the simply built and dimensioned with frames new “air” that was bringing radical change consisting of continuous ribs (beams or to all disciplines: architecture, engineering, arches) set on their narrow side and light- music, painting, sculpture, poetry... In the weight severy-like elements in between to decades that followed, thin concrete shells minimise the overall weight of the roof. also became the ultimate symbol of that This was the model he used in his famous new paradigm (“less is more”), constituting early “umbrella”-like roofs, as well as in the the core of a broad legacy of new, effective roofs over water tanks and the singular roof and essentially bare structural forms. over the Pola de Siero Market (1929), with 148 Informes de la Construcción, Vol. 65, 530, 147-154, abril-junio 2013. ISSN: 0020-0883. eISSN: 1988-3234. doi: 10.3989/ic.12.051 The evolution of concrete shells; innovations by Ildefonso Sánchez del Río La evolución de las estructuras laminares; innovaciones de Ildefonso Sánchez del Río its two intersecting cylindrical barrel vaults, had done with his hangars at Orly (1923). for which he designed a highly original arch That system was based on using modules that spans 50 metres ( Figure 3). The con- (corrugated voussoirs) precast on site with struction of this innovative roof concurred reinforced concrete and lightweight fired with three legendary structures in the his- clay elements designed and produced at his tory of thin concrete shells: the Frank- Río Cerámica factory. He built many roofs furt Market Hall (1926-1927), designed with this system, which by the early nine- by Martín Elsässer, Franz Dischinger and teen fifties had spans of up to 35 metres. Ulrich Finsterwalder; the Leipzig Market This construction system was similar to the (1927-1929), designed by Hubert Ritter, precast corrugated voussoir scheme devised Franz Dischinger and Hubert Rüsch and by Pier Luigi Nervi (5) and used in many of 4 the Basil Market (1929) an octagonal dome his works. In one, the main hall in the Turin 60 metres in diameter and only 8 cm thick, Exhibition (1948-1949), the roof spanned a designed by Hans E. Ryhiner, Franz Disch- total of 95 metres. Subsequently, also using inger and Alfred A. Göenn. cylindrical barrels with a corrugated sur- face, August Perret and Nicolas Esquillan That same year, 1929, Eugene Freyssinet pat- built the Marignane hangars (1950-1952), ented “prestressed concrete”, a new material setting a new record in the span covered that was to contribute to the development of by these thin shell barrel vaults with cor- new and larger civil and architectural works, rugated surfaces: 101.50 metres, using rein- 5 with a direct impact on thin shells. forced concrete only 6 cm thick (Figure 6). In the nineteen thirties, many of the lead A few years later, in 1958, what was to be players in the development of reinforced
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