Lamella (structure)

INTERIOR VIEW SOUTH TOWARD MOVEABLE FIELD LEVEL SEATS. - Houston Astrodome, 8400 Kirby Drive, Houston, Harris County, TX HAER TX-108-9

The Lamella roof (also sometimes called the "Zollinger roof" for its inventor Friedrich Zollinger, a municipal building surveyor from Merseburg in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt[1]) is a construction type where the roof is supported by an arched network of overlapping lamellae in rhombic form.[1] As such it may be understood as a subset of gridshell type roof constructions.

This roof style was designed by Zollinger to satisfy urban expansion needs, where material costs made new construction cost-prohibitive, but existing buildings couldn't support additional stories by adding further masonry walls and high-pitch trusses[2]. The vault system comprises short structural members interwoven across a curved surface in a diamond pattern.[3][4] Lamella structures can be constructed of wood timber or lumber, concrete, or metal.[5] Modern versions of this type of structure include glazed metal-framed systems referred to as "transparent shells."[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Z.S. Makowski (31 October 1986). Analysis, Design and Construction of Braced Barrel Vaults. CRC Press. p. 406. ISBN 978-0-85334-377-6. Retrieved 7 December 2018.
  2. ^ "History of the Lamella Roof". Gustel R. Kiewitt Lamella Architect. Retrieved 7 February 2025.
  3. ^ Tutsch, Joram; Hipper, Andreas; Schling, Eike; Barthel, Rainer (March 2017). "Modulare Stahllamellenhallen von Hugo Junkers" (PDF). Bautechnik. 94 (3): 161–169. doi:10.1002/bate.201600071.
  4. ^ Tutsch, J., & Barthel, R. (2017). Modular steel lamella roofs by Hugo Junkers A lightweight structure from the 1920s. In IABSE Conference, Vancouver 2017: Engineering the Future - Report (pp. 623–630)
  5. ^ Harris, Cyril M. (2006). Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, 4th Edition. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. p. 572. ISBN 978-0-07-145237-3.
  6. ^ Schober, Hans (25 December 2015). Transparent shells : form, topology, structure. Germany: Wilhelm Ernst & Sohn. doi:10.1002/9783433605998. ISBN 9783433031216.