Scribd
Upload
72 views13 pages

TOA2 - Structures - The Beginning of Architecture

The document discusses the relationship between architecture and structure. It states that the purpose of a building is to perform a function, and that function is fulfilled through structural elements like walls, roofs, columns, beams and floors. It traces how structures have evolved from post-and-lintel systems to arches, flying buttresses, and steel framing. The document also notes there is often friction between architects and engineers because structure must obey natural laws but also accommodate design, and is costly. A good architect needs expertise in both design and engineering systems.

Uploaded by

Zhardei Alyson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
72 views13 pages

TOA2 - Structures - The Beginning of Architecture

The document discusses the relationship between architecture and structure. It states that the purpose of a building is to perform a function, and that function is fulfilled through structural elements like walls, roofs, columns, beams and floors. It traces how structures have evolved from post-and-lintel systems to arches, flying buttresses, and steel framing. The document also notes there is often friction between architects and engineers because structure must obey natural laws but also accommodate design, and is costly. A good architect needs expertise in both design and engineering systems.

Uploaded by

Zhardei Alyson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 13

STRUCTURES – THE

BEGINNING OF
ARCHITECTURE
Theory of Architecture 2
Architecture
Once again… -_-
■ The art and science of designing buildings and nonbuilding structures.
■ The art or practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable
ones.
Function and Structure

■ The purpose of the building is to perform a function.


■ The function of the building is fulfilled by the construction of surfaces
like;
– Walls and Roof
Function and Structure

■ Structural Component of a building assure that the elements required to fulfill its
function will stand up.
■ Structural components that make possible the architectural function:
– Columns
– Beam
– Floor
It is the development of structure that Architecture has
gone a revolution.
Post and Lintel - Trabeated Arches Flying Buttresses

Steel framing
The Architects and Engineer

■ Structure has always had a decisive influence in Architecture.


1st. Its unavoidable
2nd. Structure must obey the laws of nature and cannot always
accommodate the desire of the architect.
3rd. Structure, while necessary, is often hidden and does not appear
to contribute to the architecture it supports.
4th. Structure is costly.
Structure is often a cause of friction in the
relationship between the architect and his
structural engineer.
Therefore:

A good Architect today must be a generalist, well versed in


space distribution, construction techniques, and electrical and
mechanical systems, but also knowledgeable in financing, real
estate, human behavior, and social conduct. In addition, he is
an artist, entitled to the expression of his aesthetic tenets.

He must know about so many specialties that he is sometimes


said to know nothing about everything.
Therefore:

The Engineer, on the other hand, is by training and mental


make-up a pragmatist (practical and focused on reaching a goal). He
is an expert in certain specific aspects of engineering and in
those aspects only.
Structure and the Layman

■ “Layman” : He is the man for whom the building is being built or one of the
thousands of people who will use the building. He should be the most important.

■ A structure is an artifact expressing one of the many aspects of human creativity,


but it is an artifact that cannot be created without a deep respect for the laws of
nature.

■ A beautiful structure is the concrete revelation of nature's laws.


"To think that before it was built man had never seen such lovely curves!"
-Pier Luigi Nervi, Italian Engineer.
One of the pioneers of modern concrete and the last of the great master builder.

This does not imply that a correct structure is necessarily beautiful, but that structural
beauty cannot exist without structural correctness.

You might also like