A barrel roof on the skylights of the Loop5 shopping mall in Darmstadt, Germany.
A barrel roof is a curved roof that, especially from below, is curved like a cut-away barrel. They have some advantages over dome roofs, especially being able to cover rectangular buildings,[1] due to their uniform cross-section.[2] They are mainly used as bulk storage industrial buildings due to their capability to have better space to structure ratio and larger spans.[3]