Atlas Trail
How the Dome Conquered the World
From the arch to the vault to the dome itself: one structural idea, traced from Rome's Pantheon through Byzantium and the Renaissance to a Chicago houseboat of stone.
Stop 1 of 7.
Elements and Materials
Start with the simple curve that carries weight in compression instead of bending.
Stop 2 of 7.
Elements and Materials
Extend the arch along a line and it becomes a vault, roofing a corridor rather than a doorway.
Stop 3 of 7.
Elements and Materials
Rotate the vault around a central axis instead, and it closes a space in every direction at once.
Stop 4 of 7.
Buildings and Structures
Rome's Pantheon is the dome's first great monument, its height equal to its own diameter.
Stop 5 of 7.
Buildings and Structures
Byzantium solves the problem of setting a round dome over a square room with the pendentive.
Stop 6 of 7.
Buildings and Structures
The Renaissance brings the dome home to secular life: Palladio's Villa Rotonda quotes the Pantheon directly.
Stop 7 of 7.
Buildings and Structures
And it ends at St. Peter's, where Michelangelo's dome closes the largest church in Christendom.
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