Guastavino tile is the "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885 by Valencian

Valencian

Valencian is the traditional and official name of the Catalan language in the Valencian Community. There are dialectical differences from standard Catalan, and under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has been established as its regulator...

 (Spanish) architect and builder Rafael Guastavino

Rafael Guastavino

Rafael Guastavino Moreno was a Valencian architect and builder, creator of the Guastavino tile, a "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885. It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar...

 (1842–1908). It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arch

Arch

An arch is a structure that spans a space and supports a load. Arches appeared as early as the 2nd millennium BC in Mesopotamian brick architecture and their systematic use started with the Ancient Romans who were the first to apply the technique to a wide range of structures.-Technical aspects:The...

es and architectural vaults

Vault (architecture)

A Vault is an architectural term for an arched form used to provide a space with a ceiling or roof. The parts of a vault exert lateral thrust that require a counter resistance. When vaults are built underground, the ground gives all the resistance required...

 using interlocking terracotta tile

Tile

A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...

s and layers of mortar

Mortar (masonry)

Mortar is a workable paste used to bind construction blocks together and fill the gaps between them. The blocks may be stone, brick, cinder blocks, etc. Mortar becomes hard when it sets, resulting in a rigid aggregate structure. Modern mortars are typically made from a mixture of sand, a binder...

 to form a thin skin, with the tiles following the curve of the roof as opposed to horizontally (corbel

Corbel

In architecture a corbel is a piece of stone jutting out of a wall to carry any superincumbent weight. A piece of timber projecting in the same way was called a "tassel" or a "bragger". The technique of corbelling, where rows of corbels deeply keyed inside a wall support a projecting wall or...

ling), or perpendicular to the curve (as in Roman vaulting). This is known as timbrel vaulting, because of supposed likeness to the skin of a timbrel

Timbrel

Timbrel or tabret , the principal musical instrument of percussion of the Israelites, similar to the modern tambourine.-History:...

 or tambourine

Tambourine

The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....

, or "Catalan vault

Catalan vault

The Catalan vault, also called the Catalan turn or Catalan arch or a timbrel vault, is a type of low arch made of plain bricks often used to make a structural floor surface...

ing". Guastavino tile is found in some of New York’s most prominent Beaux-Arts landmarks and in major buildings across the United States.

The Guastavino terra cotta tiles are standardized, less than an inch thick, and approximately 6 inches (152.4 mm) by 12 inches (304.8 mm) across. They are usually set in three herringbone-pattern courses with a sandwich of thin layers of Portland cement

Portland cement

Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world because it is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco and most non-specialty grout...

. Unlike heavier stone construction, these tile domes could be built without centering. Each tile was cantilevered out over the open space, relying only on the quick drying cements developed by the company. Akoustolith

Akoustolith

Akoustolith is a porous ceramic material resembling stone. It was used to limit acoustic reflection and noise in large vaulted ceilings. The most prevalent use was to aid speech intelligibility in cathedrals and churches prior to the widespread use of public address systems...

 was one of several trade names used by Guastavino.

Significance

Guastavino tile has both structural and aesthetic significance.

Structurally, the timbrel vault was based on traditional vernacular vaulting techniques already very familiar to Mediterranean architects, but not well known in America. Terracotta free-span timbrel vaults were far more economical and structurally resilient than the ancient Roman vaulting alternatives.

Guastavino wrote extensively about his system of "Cohesive Construction". As the name suggests, he believed that these timbrel vaults represented an innovation in structural engineering

Structural engineering

Structural engineering is a field of engineering dealing with the analysis and design of structures that support or resist loads. Structural engineering is usually considered a specialty within civil engineering, but it can also be studied in its own right....

. The tile system provided solutions that were impossible with traditional masonry arches and vaults. Subsequent research has shown the timbrel vault is simply a thinner masonry vault that produces horizontal thrust also, simply to a lesser degree due to its lighter weight.

Archival sources

The records and drawings of the Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company are held by the Department of Drawings & Archives in the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library

The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library is one of twenty-five libraries in the Columbia University Library System and is located in Avery Hall on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University in the City of New York. It is the largest architecture library in the world...

 at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in New York City.

See also

• Catalan vault
  Catalan vault
  The Catalan vault, also called the Catalan turn or Catalan arch or a timbrel vault, is a type of low arch made of plain bricks often used to make a structural floor surface...
  
  
• Glazed architectural terra-cotta
  Glazed architectural terra-cotta
  Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a ceramic masonry building material popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments...
  
  
• First Church of Christ, Scientist (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
  First Church of Christ, Scientist (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
  First Church of Christ, Scientist is an historic redbrick 6-story domed Christian Science church building located at 13 Waterhouse Street, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was designed in 1917 by church member Giles M...
  
  
• Biltmore Estate
  Biltmore Estate
  Biltmore House is a Châteauesque-styled mansion near Asheville, North Carolina, built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895. It is the largest privately-owned home in the United States, at and featuring 250 rooms...
  
  
• Guastavino - NYC Restaurant

External links

• Guastavino.net: documenting Guastavino's work in the Boston area. This page provides copies of writings and patents by the Guastavinos as well.
• Rafaelguastavino.com: documenting Guastavino's work in New York City
• shows method of construction