Global Vipassana Pagoda: Main features and history of construction

Global Vipassana Pagoda is the world’s largest span stone masonry dome. It is located in the North-East of Mumbai, India, and was erected during years 2000–2008. Despite it is a relatively new construction, its importance and the classic way of utilizing domes and masonry to carry gravity loads, makes it a heritage masterpiece to preserve and monitor with the aim of preventing undesired damages and structural deficiencies. This Pagoda exhibits unique features, since it is conceived as a dome over dome construction (one lower segmental dome, an intermediate inverse catenary and an upper conical dome), to achieve the impressive height of 90 meter. This paper recalls the main geometric features of the pagoda and gives a brief insight into the long construction history, that took about 8 years for the erection from the foundation to the pinnacle.