The Technology of Qomi-poosh Vaults in Iranian Traditional Architecture

Arches and vaults are of the most important parts of traditional buildings of Iranian architecture. In the traditional architecture of Iran, before oil was discovered, fuel (such as wood) was one of the high-ranking issues. Therefore, Iranian traditional architects did their best to reduce the use of wood. There was however, a revival of the use of brick in construction. Qomi-poosh technology is one of the most impressive and admirable achievements of traditional architecture of Iran, which was invented by Ostad Hassan Qomi. This paper aims to study Qomi-poosh vaults and its execution techniques. Our investigation shows that Qomi-poosh technology could span nearly 6 metres with only 5 cm thickness (the width of a brick), which is equal to one a hundred and twentieth.