Reinforced brick vault. The development of a construction system

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the way in which Eduardo Torroja used the reinforced brick vault, and to show that it is a system widely used for decades in Spain when Torroja begun to employ it. The principal characteristic of this construction system is the use of the brick wall as formwork to buildup a reinforced concrete shell, where the masonry resists ~he compression stress as well. The main advantage of the system is it reduces cost by eliminating the need for formworks and scaffold