The Architecture and Mechanics of Elliptical Domes

This paper focuses on some aspects of a particular kind of structure, the elliptical dome, a structural typology that was the object of study by the great architects from the time of Sebastiano Serlio all the way through the Baroque age. It was well suited for roofing architectural spaces, above all in religious buildings which, built in the full flower of the Counter-Reformation, in XVII Century, were theatrical and evocative of the newly-reaffirmed Catholic Church. This present study illustrates the masterly structures of Rome, then moves to the areas of Piedmont and Liguria, as a necessary preamble to the study of the static and kinematic behaviour of these special structures, characterised by two axes of symmetry defining a bi-axially symmetric space, characteristic of buildings with a centralised plan with hierarchical axes. In particular, this paper includes the study carried out on the dome of the church of San Giuseppe in Voghera (province of Pavia), built in XVIII Century, to determine the limit conditions of equilibrium.