Posting the following on behalf of Kent Diebolt...
About 5-6 years ago, I spent a week in Clot del Moro, helping rebuild vaults at the Fabrica (now Museo) de Ciment in the Spanish Pyrenees.
The contractor there used Marfil natural Ciment, now distributed by Mike Edison in the US and Canada.
The Question of whether soffit tiles were applied after the fact or not is one that has still not been adequately researched. As Derek said, and I agree, I think it's both. I suspect that the more decorative and especially polychrome patterns were applied after the fact. However, even more elaborate herringbone and other patterns were likely constructable by setting the soffit layer in either gypsum or fast-setting natural cements such as Marfil. There are even photos of the construction of the Nebraska State Capitol building which appear to show workers laying soffit tiles over formwork (horrors), which defeats the whole purpose and utility of the Catalan vaulting system.
My limited research has not revealed fast-setting cements in the US market during the reign of Guastavino, but certainly he knew about those from Spain. Cements Collet (Marfil) has been around a long time and are located north of Barcelona, on the way to Clot del Moro.
Valencian architect, researcher and educator Fernando Vegas and I have collected mortar samples from both soffit and subsequent wythes of tile from around the United States and Spain but we have not had the wherewithall to do the lab work.
This could be a rich research topic for a graduate thesis.
Kent
Kent Diebolt
Founding Partner
Vertical Access LLC
Mobile: 607 227 3366
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From: The listserv where the buildings do the talking [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, May 11, 2014 11:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BP] guastavino
The glazed "decorative" tiles in a typical G ceiling are applied with mortar or similar, correct? Doesn't that ever fail? I have never seen G tiles falling off a G ceiling.
c
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