The Catalan turn or Volta tabicada (in Catalan) is a turn of plain bricks, carried out ordering bricks on the flat part, that is, with the greater side of surface formed by the length and the width of the brick, which makes it much more light than the turns constructed with other methods or constructive systems. Geometrically guideline it is a cylindrical turn with its director arch very much reduced, or a turn vaïda (with double curvature) with the generatrix and guideline archs reduced.
It is widely and traditionally used in Catalonia and has been worldy spreded by Catalan architects such as Gaudí and Josep Puig i Cadafalch.
A study about the stability of the turn of plain brick, known as the "Catalan turn", is keeped at the archive of the Institute of Catalan Studies, said to be entrusted to Esteban Terradas i Illa, by the President of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya, Josep Puig i Cadafalch.
