Parametrical analysis and digital fabrication of thin shell structures: the impact of construction technique on the resulting geometry of the Gaussian Vaults of Eladio Dieste

The objective of this article is to analyze the state-of-art regarding the construction process of the Gaussian Vaults of the Uruguayan civil engineer Eladio Dieste and to identify the elements that underlie the relationship between the constructive techniques and procedures within this specific structural typology and its resulting geometry. As complementary objectives, this research aims for the identification of the gaps in the registry of such constructive procedures. The essay focuses on the geometry of the Gaussian Vaults designed and built by Dieste, in a way that these rigid structural surfaces’ geometry had their original construction drawings redrawn and analyzed from the perspective of its construction technique by means of the Parametrical Modelling and Digital Fabrication of case studies.