The Catalan vaults of Roberto Gottardi's School of Theatre at the National Schools of Art in Havana: some discoveries on the construction technique

Despite their current state of high degradation, the NationalArt Schools (Escuelas Nacionales de Arte) in Cuba are currently considered the most iconic examples of the use of tabicadas vaults within modernist architecture. A wonderful example of organic architecture, these schools were designed in the 1960s by Italian architects Roberto Gottardi and Vittorio Garatti and the Cuban architect Ricardo Porro. They consist of five buildings set in a natural park of 660,000 m2 dedicated to teaching dance, music, theatrical art, plastic arts and ballet. The Catalan or Valencian technique has been widely used in the schools. The actual technique used is not a pure Catalan technique, but mixed, aided by reinforced concrete members. Recent visits by the authors were dedicated to the study, in situ, of the vaults using non-destructive investigation and diagnostic techniques (thermography, ultrasound, video cameras). The paper describes these results and proposes them for public discussion.