page_title: Parabolic arch
section_title: Architectural examples
hierarchical_section_title: Parabolic arch / Uses / Architectural examples
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: PTT- gebouw: Interieur van de centrale hal met decoraties (opmerking: Gefotografeerd voor ANWB Monumentenboek) This is an image of rijksmonument number 514259
context_page_description: A parabolic arch is an arch in the shape of a parabola. In structures, their curve represents an efficient method of load, and so can be found in bridges and in architecture in a variety of forms.
context_section_description: Self-supporting catenary arches appeared occasionally in ancient architecture, for examples in the main arch of the Taq Kasra in Iran, the largest single-span vault of unreinforced brickwork in the world, and the beehive huts of southwestern Ireland. In the modern period, parabolic arches were first used extensively from the 1880s by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, deriving them from catenary arched shapes, constructed of brick or stone, and culminating in the catenary based design of the famous Sagrada Familia. Other Catalan architects then used them into the 1920s, and they appeared occasionally in German expressionist architecture of the 1920s-30s. From the 1940s they gained a new popularity in reinforced concrete, including in shell concrete forms often as hyperbolic parabloids, especially by Felix Candela in Mexico and Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil, but they could be found around the world, especially for churches, in the 1950s and 60s. Since the 1990s Spanish designer Santiago Calatrava has frequently used parabolas for his signature roof structures and bridges. Structures that are self-supporting arches like the Sheffield Winter Garden are often closer to true catenaries. 
  Palau Güell, 1886-88, Barcelona, where Antonio Gaudi used parabolic arches in stone for the carriageway entrances, and in brick for the structure of the main hall.
  Casa Milà, 1906, where Gaudi used brick parabolic arches support the attic roof, used as a laundry space.
  Wrocław Market Hall, 1906-8, Richard Plüddemann and Heinrich Küster, internal structure
  Celler modernista, 1921, part of Sant Cugat Museum, Catalonia, Spain, Cèsar Martinell i Brunet
  Pinell de Brai Cooperative Winery, 1922, Pinell de Brai, Catalonia, Spain, Cèsar Martinell i Brunet
  Former main post office, 1919-24, Utrecht, main hall, designed by J. Crouwel Jr.
  St. Engelbert, Cologne, 1928−1932, by Dominikus Böhm
  Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, 1943, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Oscar Neimeyer.
  Church of La Purísima, 1943, Monterrey, Mexico, Enrique de la Mora
  Cosmic Rays Pavilion, 1951, Felix Candela with Jorge González Reyna, UNAM, Mexico City
  St Leonard's Church, 1953-61, St Leonards on Sea, United Kingdom.
  Memorial Cenotaph,1952, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, Kenzō Tange.
  St Mary's Star of the Sea Cathedral, 1958-62, Darwin, Australia, architect Ian Ferrier
  Toast Rack (building) (originally Domestic Trades College, Manchester Polytechnic) 1960, Fallowfield, Manchester, United Kingdom, city architect, Leonard Cecil Howitt
  Theme Building, 1961, Los Angeles International Airport, Pereira & Luckman Architects, Paul Williams and Welton Becket
  Priory Chapel, Saint Louis Abbey, 1962, Creve Coeur, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK), with Pier Luigi Nervi
  Gateway Arch, 1960-5, St Louis, a tall freestanding catenary arch designed by Eero Saarinen
  Allen Lambert Galleria, 1992, Toronto, Canada, Santiago Calatrava
  L'Umbracle (catenary shade house) 2001, Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences), Valencia, Spain, Santiago Calatrava
  L'Oceanogràfic aquarium, 2003, Valencia, Spain, Felix Candela.
  Sheffield Winter Garden (catenary), 2003, Sheffield, UK,  Pringle Richards Sharratt Architects and Buro Happold
  Fjordenhus, 2018,  Vejle Fjord, Denmark, Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann
caption: Former main post office, Utrecht
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