 | This article may lack focus or may be about more than one topic .(December 2020) |
The Lamella roof (also sometimes called the Zollinger roof for its inventor, German engineer Friedrich Zollinger [1] ) is a construction type where the roof is supported by an arched network of overlapping lamellae in rhombic form. [1] It is a type of gridshell roof.
This roof style was designed by Zollinger to satisfy urban expansion needs, where material costs made new construction cost-prohibitive, but existing buildings could not support additional stories by adding further masonry walls and high-pitch trusses. [2] The vault system comprises short structural members interwoven across a curved surface in a diamond pattern. [3] [4] Lamella structures can be constructed of wood timber or lumber, concrete, or metal. [5] Modern versions of this type of structure include glazed metal-framed systems referred to as "transparent shells." [6]