How does this tecnique hold up when faced with problems like earthquakes and bad fundaments?

@@ingebrigt8143 Hello, first of all in Catalonia there are practically no earthquakes or they are of very low intensity and therefore we do not have a great experience in this regard. In any case, this technique is based on a rigid self-supporting structure and, in the event of cracking, can maintain its stability as long as it does not present material losses in its shape.

¡¡Áy...!! de los españoles cuando tengan un verdadero terremoto. Toda su orgullosa historia de construcciones de que hacen gala y ostentación... desaparecerán como por arte de magia... solo entonces recurrirán al cálculo y resistencia de materiales para reconstruir.

Vaig viure i estudiar a Reus. En Mas Carandell en 2008-2010. Now watching from USA. Bon Dia!

@@acrepairnearme Jo també vaig estudiar al Mas Carandell però un mòdul de disseny gràfic. Una forta abraçada des del centre del món! ajajajj!!

Love the technique although we've seen it before (including on Grand Designs;) love the material; love the fact it was mostly young people learning the technique, BUT........ Where did all the girls go? I bet they were gagging to have a go at it, but as the build progressed, the girls vanished. I know it might be a bit of a cultural thing, but given the exact method used, there was never a moment when brute strength was required thus, the girls could and should have been involved. I am old - indulge me.

yes. a key learning from the experiments we conducted! thank you

thank you!

Tilling on thin air amasing lots of skill and knowledge. Ashamed to admit I told a customer we couldn't till the underside of her window reveal because the tiles would fall of.

@@agentx7138 Nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes we just don't know because we have not seen it being done before. Once we see it then we know how the magic is done.

thank you!

thank you

thank you for your keen observation! the the correct ratio is 1:3 - 1 part of cement to 3 parts of sand.

i am guessing a bit like a scratch coat on plastering is stronger than the finishing coat on the outside. to prevent cracking

And even more interesting question - what happens when rainwater freezes? :) If this kind of roof may be used only in dry warm areas - why you need roof at all? Moskito net should be enough.

in the end few photos you can see they they can make the edges run out straight like a floor. but im sure they would of made a spot for the water to escape. haha and i dont think it gets cold enough for the rainwater to freeze where they are lol

Take a look at 17:46 to the left of the steel pipe. One stone missing for primary drainage and another above in case the lower one gets blocked.

Daniel Rose Got it! Thanks! I was concentrating on the far wall which seems to be two brick courses high and no sign of any drainage holes. Typically, I miss the thing right in front of me! 😳

Get off the line!! LOL

You must be like 120 now...

That was a definitely a hurdle at first - deciding how much quantity to keep ready when we were not as familiar with the material's property and when it starts to set and gain strength. if you play from 6:15 in the video you can see a person is in charge of keeping the mix ready in small proportions. a key insight to work with PoP is to continuously stir it to not allow it to set in the container itself. by the time we started working on this, we reached a level of efficiency where the mason applies the PoP on the tile and places it, at the same time the labor gets the mix ready for the next tile. it takes approximately 30 seconds from applying mortar to fixing and adjusting in place to initial setting of PoP.

@@kakaniassociates7785 maybe you are doing it wrong. In southern France the use of POP is common to cover walls and ceilings. The mix is 2,5 kg of POP with 2,5 liters of water. Use a rubber container filled with water. Always drizzle the gypsum slowly into the water. Stir softly to remove all clots and wait some time until the mixture cures to a creamy curd consistency. You will have the same amount of time to work with this mortar. After this it will harden out quite quickly. Always use clean tools and containers to avoid premature hardening.

I am a dental technician from Mumbai, Bharat, and we mix plaster daily . On the plaster packet wether it is stone plaster or regular plaster the water powder ratio is written, the working time and the setting time also by the manufacturer, so it is easy to know for the user to mix the right quantity and with correct water powder ratio. To get the proper working time. For dental plaster it is normally 3 to 4 minutes working time. We use rubber bowls and flat or curved steel spatula, with wooden handle one can buy in any dental depot in all the cities of Bharat (India). They are not expensive and lasts for years I am still using it for more than 25 years myself. I always weigh 50 grams and keep many packets ready for daily use and have a small plastic water measuring jar of 100 ml, to get proper water powder ratio, so get perfect plaster with perfect strength with minimum shrinkage, and not a single gram of plaster is wasted. My two cents

I don’t mean this in a demeaning way at all but if you try this your way on a small scale please post the process and results in detail. I would enjoy recreating your methods for some fun projects at home. Thank you for your knowledge.

Using glazed tiles for the first layer is probably a matter of taste. This unglazed version gives me a 'Roman feel' to it. Could one also use marble tiles for a first starting layer ?

Yes! I believe it can, you might need to research what mix exactly but there was a house in the UK they built with a timbrel vault that I believe won the Sterling Prize one year and they used lime on that one if my memory serves me right.

At the beginning of the video I thought : Shouldn't they had to put up a sun screen over the working spot to prevent the cement drying to quickly and cracking ?! Maybe it wasn't a very hot weather period.

Interesting, because the resource/waste reduction over flat slabs is now essential. Do you know of a specific case where one was too fragile for motion? Thanks!

I'm not an engineer or architect. It would seem that in some cases, these roof structures could be gravity set on walls to float during an earthquake, but the vibration might be too much. If I remember, there was a train station which had this construction in California with earthquakes which was reinforced because the engineers weren't comfortable with the situation.@@nobreighner

Held up with plaster of paris which sets very fast, and the arched structure means once it is complete, it presses together as it tries to fall down

@@samuelmellars7855 what happens when its no longer in compression ? put under tension and add some torsion to it under earthquake scenarios.

@@golbs7542 well, they say that some arches have held for over 500 years... I've seen some bridges made this way.

Yes I've seen and understand how it works. It's all under compression. But putting people's lives at risk using bricks and cement is dangerous. One dickhead that knocks a wall out to install a door will ruin it. Lol

we are using the property of quick setting time when we use POP for the clay tiles in the first layer because we are relying purely on strength of the form or geometry of a pure inverted catenary curve. the first layer essentially works as a formwork for the successive layers which help to add strength as the joint breaks across the cross section. If you are interested in the theory we recommend going through our blog (link given in the description) where we attempted to understand the science behind it as we were conducting our experiments.

no the tie rods are kept in place for the larger vault and do form an essential part of the structure. if one questions whether a structure needs tie rods, you need to take these three points into consideration: 1. what earthquake zone is the building built in? 2. does the span of the space exceeds a typical room span of 10 ft? 3. at what height is the timbrel vault roof system is being constructed because the further up one goes additional consideration of lateral thrust needs to be taken into account.

it should be placed parallel to the span of the vault and ideally at every 1 m interval.

@@kakaniassociates7785 Section or radius? thanks

@Guy Smith thank you for your explanation, I had misunderstood the definition. 👍👍😉

The catenary is "the curve of gravity"...

Better crumbling bricks and tiles than a huge slab of concrete.

yes. there is also a possibility of adding a layer of glazed tiles below with cement mortar to achieve the finish you are looking for and sandwiching the tiles with PoP mortar in between. Guastavino who was responsible for proliferating this technique commonly used this method, you could check out boston public library and or penn station images to know the possibilities of finishes which is also structurally viable.

@@kakaniassociates7785 What is PoP? Is it Plaster of Paris? or something else. I was trying to find it at my construction store.

@@bigonprivacy2708 Yes it is plaster of paris

yes. we used lightweight filling on top to get a flat surface and so far we have built a 3 storey structure.

I thought that as well, water staining can be seen at 18:00

This is not a new thing, there are roofs built with this technique in Portugal that are over 500yrs old and are still going strong.

@@edwardlansdowne291 does it rain in Portugal? If so, how do they deal with drainage?

Hi James, I am by no means an expert but I'm thinking that where the arch meets the wall at the lowest point would be waterproofed and the rain water could then be dealt with in much the same way as any normal roof i.e collected in a purpose built recepticle and piped to tanks or directed to the street. I found a useful report that was submitted to Witwatersrand University, if you google- Catenary Vaults : A Solution To Low-cost Housing in South Africa. I found the report after seeing the episode on "Grand Designs" that featured a very large example of this type of vault. In that case the vault was grounded at both ends so drainage considerations were moot. Anyhow, if you start down the rabbit hole of info' about these kinds of arches and their applications I'm sure you'll find, like I did , that the amount of discussion on these 600yr old building techniques is apparently endless !

Welcome to brick/tile work. Lots of work, but lasts forever and looks good.

Plaster of paris