The Lamella roof (also sometimes called the "Zollinger roof" for its inventor
Friedrich Zollinger
Friedrich Reinhard Balthasar Zollinger, also known as ''Fritz Zollinger'' (31 March 1880 – 19 April 1945), was a German architect, engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, bu ...
, a municipal building surveyor from
Merseburg
Merseburg () is a town in central Germany in southern Saxony-Anhalt, situated on the river Saale, and approximately 14 km south of Halle (Saale) and 30 km west of Leipzig. It is the capital of the Saalekreis district. It had a diocese ...
in the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
state of
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...
) is a construction type where the roof is supported by an arched network of overlapping lamellae in rhombic form.
As such it may be understood as a subset of
gridshell
A gridshell is a structure which derives its strength from its double curvature (in a similar way that a fabric structure derives strength from double curvature), but is constructed of a grid or lattice.
The grid can be made of any materia ...
type roof constructions.
This roof style was designed by Zollinger to satisfy urban expansion needs, where material costs made new construction cost-prohibitive, but existing buildings couldn't support additional stories by adding further masonry walls and high-pitch trusses. The vault system comprises short structural members interwoven across a curved surface in a diamond pattern. Lamella structures can be constructed of wood timber or lumber, concrete, or metal. Modern versions of this type of structure include glazed metal-framed systems referred to as "transparent shells."
See also
*
Geodesic dome
A geodesic dome is a hemispherical thin-shell structure (lattice-shell) based on a geodesic polyhedron. The rigid triangular elements of the dome distribute stress throughout the structure, making geodesic domes able to withstand very heavy ...
*
Gridshell
A gridshell is a structure which derives its strength from its double curvature (in a similar way that a fabric structure derives strength from double curvature), but is constructed of a grid or lattice.
The grid can be made of any materia ...
References
{{reflist
Architecture
Timber framing
Structural system
Thin-shell structures
Roof construction