From the herringbone dome by Sangallo to the Serlio floor of Emy (and beyond)

Abstract The research starts from an analogy found between two apparently very different structural solutions: the double spiral pattern of the herringbone brick courses in the domes built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger (1484-1546) during the Renaissance, and the particular pattern of a wooden floor ‘à la Serlio’, described by Amand Rose Emy in his Treatise at the beginning of 19th century, made by diagonal beams reciprocally sustained. The diagonal pattern of the floor has a geometrical relationship with the cross-herringbone pattern, so that the latter can be obtained by some geometrical transformations of the former. This pattern was also used in thin shells built by Nervi, from the destroyed airplane hangars in Tuscany to the Palazzetto dello sport in Rome, and even by Piacentini in 1936 and earlier in some neoclassical domes. Thus the construction tool, useful for building domes without expensive scaffolding, could have a structural role at the completed construction stage. Within the research different structures were investigated, in order to observe the relevance of this peculiar structural scheme particularly in the construction of modern domes.