The DEVELOPMENT of a NEW LANGUAGE OF

STRUCTURES in ARCHITECTURE

during the second half of the 20th century

This presentation will introduce the new generation of structures

that has developed primarily during the 1950s to about 1990. It is

emphasized that structure is architecture and not just plugged

into architectural space.

I will concentrate on the experience of building structures from a

visual point of view primarily, as seen through the eyes of a

design engineer and architect, rather than a detailed discussion

of structural behavior, refinement of structural performance, or

efficient construction methods. In other words, this lecture will

celebrate the joy of structures as architecture and

engineering art.

The cases are shown in the context of education as unique

solutions, which demonstrate the complexity and creative mind

of designers and express the infinite richness of architectural

form.

I like to briefly remind you of the basic position of the structural engineer

which often is perceived by architects as a very narrow one. The structural

engineer is responsible for safety, to him the building is a body that is alive,

its bones and muscles are activated by external and internal forces. As

it reacts, it deforms and suggests the pain it must endure at points of stress

concentration.

The arrangement of space, which defines members and their spans,

becomes most important in controlling the force flow to the foundations and

reducing stress concentrations to a minimum. In other words, engineers

visualize buildings in an animated state moving back and forth as can

be convincingly expressed by computers through virtual modeling.

In contrast architects must respond in the design of buildings to the

broader issues of the environmental context, be it cultural or physical.

I like to emphasize that the theme of my presentation is not addressing the

difference between structural engineers and architects is, but that

STRUCTURE DOES NOT ONLY PROVIDE SUPPORT BUT ALSO CAN

BE ARCHITECTURE.

A. Introduction:

S T R U C T U R E I S A R C H I T E C T U R E

First I like to remind you that the development of modern building

support structures has its origin in the inventive spirit of structural

engineering and the rapid progress in the engineering sciences during

the 19th century, as reflected by:

The enormous volume of the iron-glass structure system of the

Crystal Palace in London (1851, Joseph Paxton), constructed in the

short period of only six months.

The longest span of 480 m (almost 1600 ft) of the Brooklyn Bridge in

New York (1883, John and Washington Roebling),

The unbelievable height of the 300 m Eifel Tower (nearly 1000 ft) in

Paris (1889, Gustave Eifel)

The unbelievable height of the 300 m

Eifel Tower (nearly 1000 ft) in Paris

(1889, Gustave Eifel)

The longest span of 480 m (almost 1600 ft) of the Brooklyn

Bridge in New York (1883, John and Washington Roebling),

The enormous volume of the iron-glass structure system

of the Crystal Palace in London (1851, Joseph Paxton),

constructed in the short period of only six months.

This world of engineering was absorbed into

architecture by the early modernists at the beginning

of the 20th century. They were concerned with the

articulation of the functional spirit: FORM FOLLOWS

FUNCTION, and the honest expression of building

construction by freeing the hidden structure from its

imprisonment of the wall, by exposing it. A celebrated

example of this new philosophy of architecture is the

Villa Savoye by Le Corbusier.

Villa Savoye, 1929, Poissy-sur-Seine, France, Le Corbusier; the new aesthetics of modernism is

expressed by: (1) the pilotis or ground-level supporting columns, (2) the flat roof used as living

space, (3) the free plan made possible by elimination of bearing walls, (4) the freely designed

facade unrestrained by load-bearing considerations consisting of thin skin and windows

(the free plan) achieved via pilotis (thin structural columns) and non-load-bearing walls

freely arranged as spatial dividers

Bauhaus 2, Dessau,

Germany, 1925, Walter

Gropius

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Bauhaus.JPG

The full integration of the spirit of structural engineering into architecture happened during the 1950s and early 1960s or so, i.e. STRUCTURE IS ARCHITECTURE.

One group of architects even went so far to claim, ARCHITECTURE IS

STRUCTURE. It was the work of the pioneer design engineers Robert Maillart,

Eduardo Torroja and Pier Luigi Nervi that had a strong impact on the new

generation of architectural designers of the 1950s such as Eero Saarinen, Kenzo

Tange, Marcel Breuer, and many others.

The expression of structures during this era of the 1960s took many directions

ranging from the minimal and functional forms of Mies van der Rohe, Philip

Johnson, SOM (e.g. Bruce Graham/ Fazlur Khan, Myron Goldsmith), and I.M.

Pei, to the more sculptural forms of Paul Rudolph, Marcel Breuer, Kisho

Kurokawa, and Bertrand Goldberg.

During this period, the experimentation with structures, as started by the design

engineers of the 19th century, continued by adding the integration of complex

geometry and bionics (i.e. natural systems), especially as related to minimum

weight and surface structures which was brought to a high level of sophistication by

Frei Otto, Robert LeRicolais, Buckminster Fuller, Felix Candela, Heinz Isler, and

many others. This world of structural experimentation was convincingly represented

by the space frames, cable structures, prestressed membranes, and

pneumatics skins of the Expos in Montreal (1967) and Osaka (1970).

The experimentation with structures is also reflected by the constructivist art

of modernism and was first articulated particularly by the dreams of

designers such as the pioneers Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo at the

early part of the 20th century in Russia, and later by Alexander Calder's

kinetic art and Kenneth Snelson's tensegrity sculptures.

The early position of architecture as structure is very much reflected by the drawing of Mies van der Rohe's

52-story, 212-m IBM Tower in Chicago (1973) celebrates the frame and the geometrical order of the grid the

building organization is controlled by the geometry of the 9 x 12 m bays (30 x 40 ft); the mathematical regularity of

the frame layout almost subdues the expression of its structural action. This regular frame layout is typical for

many buildings today because of its simplicity of construction

Lake Shore Drive Apts, Chicago, Ludwig Mies van der

Rohe, at Chicago, 1948 to 1951

This expression of minimal geometry, however, is surely not dated as expressed by the rational, neo-classicistic

Fuji Television Headquarters in Tokyo (1996) , designed by Kenzo Tange more recently. Here office and media

towers are connected by 100 m long sky corridors providing urban spaces and elements such as small plazas,

promenades, stair cases, bridges, and terraces at various levels. The mega-framework consists of

Vierendeel steel columns and beams with reinforced concrete that support a 32-m titan covered globe containing

a restaurant.

B. THE BIRTH OF UNIQUE STRUCTURES : a period of transition

During the late 1960s and early 1970s or so, architects understood

the spirit of the engineering discipline and began to separate

themselves from the predominance of structural engineering

thinking. They had matured and developed the necessary courage to

invent their own structures by superimposing upon them other ideas

and meanings such as the effect of context, symbolism, possibly

fragmentation in geometry and material. In other words, during this

period, also sophisticated individual structures occurred in response

to particular situations quite in contrast to the catalogued structure

systems as identified by numerous types of line diagrams and rules

of thumb.

The 22-story, 100-m high,

BMW Building in Munich,

Germany (1972, Karl

Schwanzer) consists of four

suspended cylinders. Here,

four central prestressed

suspended huge concrete

hangers are supported by a

post - tensioned bracket cross

at the top that cantilevers

from the concrete core.

Secondary perimeter columns

are carried in tension or

compression by story-high

radial cantilevers at the

mechanical floor level. Cast

aluminum cladding is used as

skin.

BMW Building consists of four suspended

cylinders. Here, four central prestressed

suspended huge concrete hangers are

supported by a post - tensioned bracket

cross at the top that cantilevers from the

concrete core.

Secondary perimeter columns are carried

in tension or compression by story-high

radial cantilevers at the mechanical floor

level. Cast aluminum cladding is used as

skin.

C. A NEW GENERATION OF STRUCTURES : the beginning

It was during the time of post-modernism of the late 1970s and early 1980s

when the progress of new structural thinking went unnoticed by most

architects in the USA and particularly in architectural education where

architectural theory began to flourish. The potential of those new

structures as space makers was not studied; the structures remained

hidden and solely used to do their job as support. In contrast, in Europe

the experimentation with structures continued by often brutally exposing

structures and expressing them in a rather animated fashion.

Citicorp Center (59 stories), New York,1977, Stubbins + William LeMessurier