Proposal to Roof the Courtyards of an Historical Building in Pisa with Glass and Steel Grid Shells: Form Finding and Stability Problems

Abstract

The technical note describes a proposal to roof two internal courtyards of the main building of the Engineering Faculty at the University of Pisa by means of thin flat shells made of a quadrilateral mesh of steel bars supporting plane glass plates stiffened by a grid of steel cables. An exposure of the structural design concepts and of the geometrical genesis of the shells is presented accompanied by a stability analysis and a description of the technological solutions found to solve some crucial constructional problems.