The staircase of the Bonaval convent in Santiago de Compostela

The teachers at CPEE Manuel López Navalón special education school wanted to create a model to demonstrate to their students the functionality of a striking structure designed around the year 1700 by Domingo Antonio López de Andrade, the renowned chief architect of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

This structure is the triple spiral staircase located in the convent and church of San Domingos de Bonaval in Santiago de Compostela. Remarkably, this staircase doesn't require any wooden support or temporary structure for its construction, significantly reducing costs and construction time.

We undertook the task of analyzing, designing, and creating a 3D model of the structure. The design was based on the following article:

Fernández Cabo, M. C., González Uriel, A., De Miguel, M. (2017). La triple escalera de caracol en el Convento de Santo Domingo de Bonaval (Santiago, España): hipótesis de diseño y construcción. Informes de la Construcción, 69(546): e202, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3989/ic.16.119.