In nature A
hen's egg can be fairly well described as two different
paraboloids connected by part of an
ellipsoid.
Architectural examples Self-supporting
catenary arches appeared occasionally in ancient architecture, for examples in the main arch of the partially ruined
Sassanian palace
Taq Kasra (now in
Iraq), the largest single-span
vault of unreinforced
brickwork in the world, and the
beehive huts of southwestern Ireland
. In the modern period, parabolic arches were first used extensively from the 1880s by the Catalan architect
Antoni Gaudí, deriving them from
catenary arched shapes, constructed of brick or stone, and culminating in the catenary based design of the famous
Sagrada Familia. Other Catalan architects then used them into the 1920s, and they appeared occasionally in German expressionist architecture of the 1920s-30s. From the 1940s they gained a new popularity in reinforced concrete, including in shell concrete forms often as
hyperbolic parabloids, especially by
Felix Candela in Mexico and
Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil, but they could be found around the world, especially for churches, in the 1950s and 60s. Since the 1990s Spanish designer
Santiago Calatrava has frequently used parabolas for his signature roof structures and bridges. Structures that are self-supporting arches like the
Sheffield Winter Garden are often closer to true catenaries. •
Palau Güell, 1886–88,
Barcelona, where
Antoni Gaudí used parabolic arches in stone for the carriageway entrances, and in brick for the structure of the main hall. •
Casa Milà, 1906, where Gaudi used brick parabolic arches support the attic roof, used as a laundry space. •
Wrocław Market Hall, 1906-8, Richard Plüddemann and
Heinrich Küster, internal structure • Celler modernista, 1921, part of
Sant Cugat Museum, Catalonia, Spain,
Cèsar Martinell i Brunet •
Pinell de Brai Cooperative Winery, 1922,
Pinell de Brai, Catalonia, Spain,
Cèsar Martinell i Brunet • Former
main post office, 1919–24, Utrecht, main hall, designed by J. Crouwel Jr. •
St. Engelbert,
Cologne, 1928−1932, by
Dominikus Böhm •
Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, 1943, Pampulha,
Belo Horizonte, Brazil,
Oscar Neimeyer. •
Church of La Purísima, 1943,
Monterrey, Mexico,
Enrique de la Mora • Cosmic Rays Pavilion, 1951, Felix Candela with
Jorge González Reyna,
UNAM, Mexico City • Memorial Cenotaph, 1952,
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park,
Kenzō Tange. •
Church of St Mary and St Joseph, Poplar, 1954, London, United Kingdom,
Adrian Gilbert Scott •
St Leonard's Church, 1955, St Leonards on Sea, United Kingdom,
Adrian Gilbert Scott •
Dorton Arena 1957,
Raleigh •
St Mary's Star of the Sea Cathedral, 1958–62,
Darwin, Australia, architect Ian Ferrier •
Toast Rack (building) (originally Domestic Trades College, Manchester Polytechnic) 1960,
Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom, city architect,
Leonard Cecil Howitt •
Theme Building, 1961,
Los Angeles International Airport,
Pereira & Luckman Architects,
Paul Williams and
Welton Becket •
Priory Chapel, Saint Louis Abbey, 1962,
Creve Coeur,
St. Louis, Missouri, United States,
Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK), with
Pier Luigi Nervi •
Allen Lambert Galleria, 1992,
Toronto, Canada,
Santiago Calatrava •
L'Umbracle (catenary shade house) 2001,
Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences),
Valencia,
Spain,
Santiago Calatrava •
L'Oceanogràfic aquarium, 2003,
Valencia, Spain, Felix Candela. •
Sheffield Winter Garden (catenary), 2003,
Sheffield,
UK,
Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects and
Buro Happold • Fjordenhus, 2018,
Vejle Fjord, Denmark,
Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann
Bridges parabolic arch|alt= Bridges have used a variety of arches since ancient times, sometimes in very flat
segmental arched forms but rarely in the form of a parabola. A simple hanging rope bridge describes a catenary, but if they were in the form of a
suspension bridges they usually describe a parabola in shape, with the roadway hanging from the inverted arch. Modern suspension bridges were built from the early 19th century, beginning with chains and progressing to more and more elegant steel rope examples, and are still in use today. Parabolic arches that support the roadway from below (or in the form of a
through arch) first appeared in the 1870s, and have been used occasionally ever since; examples include: •
Maria Pia Bridge,
Gustave Eiffel and
Théophile Seyrig,
Porto,
Portugal, a railway bridge built in 1877. •
Garabit viaduct, near
Ruynes-en-Margeride,
Cantal,
France, designed by
Gustave Eiffel, and built between 1882 and 1884. •
Dell Bridge (footbridge), 1894,
Port Sunlight,
Wirral, England. •
Puente Nuevo, 1903,
Murcia, Spain, civil engineer José María Ortiz •
Viaduc d'Austerlitz, 1903-4, Paris, engineers Louis Biette and
Fulgence Bienvenüe, architect
Jean-Camille Formigé •
16th Street Bridge, 1905-10,
Washington DC, the first parabolic arched bridge in the US. •
Victoria Falls Bridge, 1904-5,
Victoria Falls,
Zimbabwe •
Memorial Bridge, 1920,
Springfield, Massachusetts •
Tyne Bridge, 1928,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. •
Cape Creek Bridge, 1931,
Lane County, Oregon, United States, engineer
Conde McCullough •
Bayonne Bridge, 1931,
Bayonne, New Jersey,
Othmar Ammann and
architect Cass Gilbert •
Bixby Creek Bridge, 1931-2,
Big Sur, California, highway engineer C. H. Purcell and engineer F. W. Panhorst •
Balclutha Road Bridge, 1933-35,
Balclutha,
South Otago, New Zealand •
Juscelino Kubitschek Bridge, 2002, Brasilia, Brazil,
Alexandre Chan and structural engineer Mário Vila Verde ==See also==