The Spiral Staircases Of The Mexico Cathedral As An Example Of The Art Of Wood Construction

Abstract

This article presents technical findings that emerged during the manufacture of an
interactive model, which offers a complete view of the wooden helical stairs of more
than 14 m in height, located in the bell towers of the Cathedral of Mexico. Likewise, it allows to recreate its construction system with its structural behavior, as a non-destructive research method to analyze practical and safe restoration procedures.
Through its progressive structure, it tries to provide elements capable of clarifying various hypotheses about the construction system of these eighteenth-century stairs,
drawn with avant-garde geometry for its time, where the ellipse was first implemented as an element of architectural composition in Mexico. Technically the stairs are an extraordinary structural curiosity and although they present deformations with some natural deterioration mechanisms, they have found on their own their admissible state of structural equilibrium.