Abstract

The use of prefabricated brick vaults was a constant in Latin American construction during the decades of the 60s and 70s of last century. Two main ideas concurred in these vaults. On the one side, one of the great passions of those years, prefabri­cated construction, an ideal as far as it could ensure streamlined and mechanized production. On the other, light brick vaulting, which, despite being, essentially, a traditional construction system, had several advantages that could be claimed, from the perspective of those years, with a cause: low economic cost, ease of production and moderate energy consumption.Prefabricated brick vaults have continued being used quite often in Latin America, al­though they are still, particularly from an academic point of view, an almost unknown field. Probably this is due to the long shadow cast over them by another construc­tion system, similar in appearance and developed simultaneously and in the same areas: reinforced ceramic, whose best-known exponents are those built by Eladio Dieste. The following notes are intended to outline a history of these prefabricated vaults and, whenever possible, to vindicate their value.