Earth block vaults and domes
Vaults and domes covering interior spaces
and made from earthen blocks are found
mainly in religious buildings in Europe. In
southern Europe, Asia and Africa, nonethe-
less, they have also been used in residences,
offices and public buildings (see 1.1, 1. 2,
14.29and 14.30).
These structures demonstrate several advan-
tages in hot and dry climates, especially in
areas with a wide range of diurnal tempera-
tures. Given their inherent thermal massand their greater heights at the centre of a
space, where light, warm air gathers and
can be easily discharged through openings,
vaulted spaces provide better natural climat-
ic control than standard cubic ones. They
have smaller surface areas than cubic rooms
of the same volume, and therefore less
heat gain.
In cold and moderate climates as well,
vaults and domes have several advantages.
As the surface area is smaller for the same
volume, heat loss is lower, so heating ener-
gy is reduced.
In all climates, vaults and domes require less
building material to enclose a given volume.
In all developing countries, vaults and
domes are usually cheaper in comparison
with flat or slightly inclined roofs. Observa-
tion has shown that rooms with vaults and
domes have a pleasing and calming effect
on inhabitants in contrast to rooms with
flat ceilings.
Until recently vaults and domes of loam
have been built only with adobes – with the
exception of two experimental domes: the
rammed earth dome described in chapter 5,
p. 59, and a stranglehmdome built at the
BRL in 1985. In numerous arid regions,
where timber is unavailable as a building
material, techniques were developed to
construct vaults and domes from air-sea-117 Designs of building elements14.29
14.30