C’era una volta Il “cielo” dell’architettura - New research on vaulted lithic space

Enclosing and covering are the two primordial acts of architecture. The enclosure is the masonry wall, while the covering is the vaulted space with its roof structure. Alongside these fundamental elements are the floor and the domestic hearth.

The vaulted space of the roof is the transposition of the celestial vault, the firmament, into masonry work designed to protect humankind from the elements.

It has always represented the ideal “place” for practising the art of masonry construction: stone, brick and concrete. The firmament is referred to as stereoma in Greek, and from this etymology derives the art of stereotomy, the discipline that teaches how to design the form of stones so that they may be held aloft through the very force that would otherwise cause them to fall.

Harnessing gravity to make stones “fly”, within complex vaulted systems, has been humanity’s greatest challenge in the art of construction and architecture. On these premises rests the curatorial concept of Marmomac Meets Academies 2026, encouraging researchers and scholars from Italian and international universities to imagine the lithic vaulted space for contemporary and future architecture.

The stones forming arches and vaults are being reimagined through innovation and sustainability. They may be derived from the reuse of stone dust waste, combined with other materials to be engineered, or thinned and reconfigured into mutable and porous forms in order to meet the performance requirements of the future.