Laminar ceilings? Shell construction in the work of some masters of modern architecture

Abstract

This contribution explores the constructive and formal potential of the laminar structures in the work of three prominent figures of Modern Architecture. Unlike the most memorable constructions of this type, the roof structures here considered are not the main and only protagonist element of the building. Conversely in these cases they have been designed as parts of the building more inconspicuous and integrated. The study excludes therefore the most important realizations and also more known, made by authors as Maillart, Candela, Isler, Torroja, Saarinen, Niemeyer, etc. which have been widely treated in the specialized literature. The paper is focused in architects as Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto and Louis Kahn, for whom the study of their approach to the laminar seems not to have been made adequately as a whole till now. Are important too, the considerations resulting from the comparative analysis, shedding some light on the idiosyncratic way in which this type of structures was adopted by each architect.