The Construction of Tile Vaults in Belgium 1900-1940: Contractors and Patents

Tile vaulting, a technique generally associated with Mediterranean countries, has been revealed as a common technique in Belgium in the first half of the twentieth century. Several contractors were specialised in the construction of tile vaults (known as voûtes légères en briques creuses). These contractors, separate from the general contractor, were specifically commissioned to build the vaults. Tile vaults were used in churches and other significant buildings, such as museums, hotels, palaces or casinos. Some of these contractors patented their own vaulting systems. With different variations, the main principle is the same: to build light and economic vaults, using hollow bricks ca. 40 mm thick, placed flatwise. The vaults were often built with only one layer of bricks, sometimes coated with mortar both in the intrados and the extrados. Special moulded bricks were used for the ribs when required. The possibility of avoiding the use of centring is not always referred to, but it was certainly a great advantage. The paper presents the principal tile vault contractors in Belgium in the period from 1900 to 1940, the patents they developed and some of their buildings.