Roman Vaulted Shops, Irbid Governorate, Jordan
The barrel vault is the most elemental and ancient of the vaulting types, documented from as far back as 4000BC; it was used by the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Nubians, and Romans. Essentially a row of adjoining arches repeated to cover a given distance, allowing for the spanning of far greater distances than stone post-and-beam construction, barrel vaults are archetypal units of spatial enclosure that speak of the very beginnings of structural ingenuity.
Prefiguring the spatial gymnastics of the groin vault and subsequent feats where ceilings soar to span vast distances in any number of ways, this form of enclosure has managed over countless centuries and across continents to achieve a number of impressively grand spatial feats, while always retaining an inherently elemental, historically rooted clarity. Even as technology has advanced, and the form of the barrel vault has become to a large degree structurally redundant, architects consistently return to its recognisable contours as an atavistic anchor, stabilising their innovations and architectural experiments in the millennial shadow of countless precursors.
Epic Jordan Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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