Building Materials and Construction Techniques
Stone Materials
Rocks
Ceramic Materials
Clay, cooked or not, presented as:
- Raw clay: sun-dried (bricks)
- Fired brick or tile: kiln-fired, with varying colors and irregularities, often used in rehabilitation
- Clay in thick paste: primarily used in Mesopotamia
- Clay soil: packed or pressed against molds (rammed earth)
Organic Materials
Wood and straw
Mortars
Mixtures for joining pieces:
- Crude mixtures: soil (usually clay) and water
- Typical mixtures: sand, water, and lime, gypsum, bitumen, natural pozzolan cements
All these mixtures may include additives.
Support Elements
Elements that support and counter stress, maintaining stability.
Vertical
1. Column: wide vertical element, subject to architectural orders.
2. Right foot: wide vertical element, not subject to an order, often wood.
3. Pillar: wide vertical element, not subject to an order, any material.
4. Wall: closing (non-structural) or load-bearing (structural).
5. Pilaster: vertical element attached to a wall, rectangular or polygonal, sometimes ornamental, sometimes structural.
Horizontal
Lintel: horizontal element resting on two supports.
Beam: large section horizontal element, usually metal or wood.
Curved
1. Arches: support elements covering a curved space between two points.
2. Vaults: solid curved surfaces formed by compression and support.
Historical Table
January – Prehistory
Period before history, until the first millennium BC. Divided into:
- Archaic: 3400 million years ago
- Primary
- Secondary
- Tertiary
- Quaternary or Anthropozoic
Old Age
Divided into:
- Preclassic: Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia, Crete, Mycenae
- Classical Greece (Hellenic) and Rome
476 AD 
Fall of Rome
Middle Age
Divided into High and Low. 
1461 Fall of Byzantine Empire. Discovery of America, printing press, Humanism.
Modern Age
1789 French Revolution (Industrial Revolution). Industrial Revolution, laminated iron, reinforced concrete.
Contemporary Age
Traditional Factories
Fabrica = Wall
Types
Stone: thin slabs, rough stone, ashlar, or ashlars. Can be attached with mortar.
- Lajas: small flat stone fragments.
- Manpuesto: rough stone, sometimes with brick courses (Verdugo).
- Chairs: square-cut stone.
- Ashlar: carved stone, less precise than ashlar.
- Ripi: brick or stone pieces (gravel).
- Debris: pieces of yesones, stone, boulders, brick, or general waste.
Stone walls are often filled with stone, rubble, or gravel.
- Ground: adobe and cob.
- Brick: fired brick or tile.
- Wood.
Wood Roofs
- Introduction
- Traditional roofing
- In Spain: three types
3.1 Par and riding 
3.2 Milling 
3.3 Couple and row 
- Deck completions
- Eaves terminations: four variants
5.1 Wing where the main pair.
5.2 Wing where the rod protrudes.
5.3 Wing where the tie flies.
5.4 Wing where the rod extends.
- Special covers
6.1 Spire: pyramidal dome inside, tower outside. Wood structures plated with lead or slate, sometimes ending in a needle.
6.2 Needle: more streamlined and pointed pyramidal dome.
Rendered and Revoke
Plaster: multiple layers, final base called plaster. Originally lime and sand. Vitruvius recommended seven layers.
Stucco: final coat of plaster, lime or gypsum. Thinner and less granular than plaster, called intonato.
Plaster: made with plaster.
- Brick wall
- Applied with trowel, variable thickness, rough (Trulli).
- Jaharrado or arenato: screed (jaharro).
- First layer of plaster or stucco.
- Coat of paint.
Paint: pigments in lime stone, applied when fresh (frescoes) or to stucco/plaster.
Classification of Rendered and Revoke
ACCORDING TO THE NUMBER AND TYPE OF LAYERS
Remove a MADRILEÑA | Remove a CATALANA |
Also known as the Madrid stucco or fresco, has several very thin layers of plaster and plaster is not. | Discrete existence of a base coat (plaster) to another (plaster) with different composition, size and color. |
APPLICATION PROCEDURE AS MORTAR
CATALAN AND MADRILEÑA | Scraper and Canopy |
Lying: first layer with the trowel. Smooth. Made over. | The scraper is a kind of comb-shaped spatula. The canopy is finished with a grain coarser. Projected or thrown so that its duration is less due to the lack of torque. |
MECHANICAL WORK AS THE \ S CAPA \ S DE overturned on START WORK
A squeegee | SMOOTH OR WASHING | TO MARTILLINA |
Finish with the scraper to smooth | Pass the brush with water to show the grain. | Striking the martillina peaks with different sizes. |
BY COLOR, MOISTURE AND CONSISTENCY OF THE BASE
From Madrid | THE CATALAN | PAINTING OF CRANE | Whitewashed whitewashed or |
Variable color, wet or fresh plaster, though still soft. | Color uniform and dry plaster. | The base, plaster or stucco, is dry. | LimeWire supported in layers. |
Cutting or GEOMETRY BY FINISH
REPEALS Sillaro cut in Stone or in factories You follow the rules of the stone sternotomy. |
REPEALS cut in LADIRLLO You follow the rules of gear |
Grotesque or minced STICK Other rules are followed. Plaster grotesques are not geometric shapes. Usually made of fauna and \ or vegetal elements. |
EXPULSION OR BY INCLUSION OF MORTAR IN DIFFERENT LAYERS
Engraved REPEALS | SAUSAGE REPEALS |
It is a layer over another cutting of particular reasons for seeing the inner layer. | Cut the top layer and fill it with another |
Arches and vaults
ARCOS
Arcos:resistant structure that is built to cover the top of a gap or receiving nothing further its own weight, acting on it loads, transmitting them to the walls, columns or pilasters that define the space of reference. Formed by restructured and cut pieces expressly for that work to mutual understanding which are called voussoirs.
Segments: a wedge-shaped pieces.
Light horizontal distance between the points of the arc.
Canto or thickness: thickness of the arch.
Skew: they are the first two segments for the start of the arc.
Arrow: highest points of an arc from the starting line and arc intrasdos.
Starting Line: A line joining the points of support.
Intrado: face or inner surface or underside of the arch.
Exterior surface: face or upper or outer surface of an arch.
Tympanum: there are three definitions:
- Adjacent to a triangular arch formed by the horizontal tangent of the key, the vertical tangent for the support and the bow section between the two tangents. (Figure 1)
- Space between the lintel and the archivolt of a hole (door or window.) It occurs in the Romanesque and Gothic. (Figure 2)
Archivolt: smaller arches.
- Triangular space forming the center panel of a pediment. It occurs in classical Greece and Rome. (Figure 3)
Key: piece or central keystone of an arch, which allows the closure of it.
Contraclaves: are the two segments are on either side of the key.
Kidneys: segments that are between the first and second third of the arrow. It is one of the most vulnerable areas.
Shotguns: sores or boards that are not parallel to the front or elevation of the arch.
Bed joints, joints, not always horizontal, perpendicular to the plane of the arc.
Wounds: gaps in the plane of the arc.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN transverse arch, transverse and FOLMERO
Toral: transverse arch usually serves as a lift or support a vaulted system.
Transverse and transverse arch: all arch that serves to decorate, bracing, partition, divide … As the ship inside a building are transverse arches.
The transverse arches or transverse and differ only by the section. If they are necessary to the vault, are transverse.
Folmero: the arches are parallel to the axis of the vessel or the axis of the dome.
VAULT
Guideline of the vault: a curve on which the generatrix moves to create a surface of revolution
Generating: line or figure that generates respectively a motion picture or geometric solid.
Arista: intersection of two vaults or two curved surfaces (two planes)
Lunette: vault to die in one larger serving for ventilation or lighting.
TYPES OF VAULTS
Vault.
Cloister vault corner.
Cloister vault octagonal corner
Groin vault
Spherical dome.
Cloister vault.
Vault on scallops (dome on scallops).
Cloister vault.
Lunette vault.
Starry canopy.
Reticulated Dome
Vault key pendant.
Vault.
Fan vault.
Vaults.
Encamonada Vault.
Dome: is called both the dome as the dome corner octagonal cloister.
HORN: is the set of a bow and mating, the latter may be of any shape and material, the most common being that of a ceramic semiconductor. Is an arc that goes from side to side to support a spindle that is in flight.