ie School of Architecture

concept - "free plan"

The free plan is conceived as the modern space. It was possible due to the new constructive techniques of reinforced concrete (as it is use in Rue Franklin) and steel, which gives us the opportunity to focus the static strength elements in a thin skeleton structure that give the right conditions for the formulation of the open-plan theory.

Modern architecture explodes the new construction techniques to make new artistic forms and be able to do large windows or glass walls that make possible the absolute contact between inner and outer space. The interior partition walls, which don’t belong more to static functions, can be straight, bend, move freely. This entire new possibilities permit to connect the rooms and move from the static floor of the old house to the free plan of the modern building. The free plan offers unlimited possibilities of interior partitions directly in space and networking space without the necessity to take into account a wall.

Frank Lloyd Wright uses the free plan due to the Japanese’s influence, to not separate the rooms and have flowing spaces. The entire complex of Praire Houses has in common the flowing interior spaces one to another. In the other hand Le Corbusier established in one of his “five points” the free-plan but with other conception, as the achievement trough separation of pilotis from the division walls.

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2009

listas: learning_CONCEPTS , s_XX

RAUMPLAN

Also called Spatial Plan, the Raumplan is a concept developed by Adolf Loos that groups the volumes in the building in 3 dimensions. Loos gave a different importance to each one of the rooms in the house, and this spatial organization has consequences that deeply affect the configuration of the building. It provides a large economy of space, as there is a maximum use of the existing space. In section for instance, bathroom and living room no longer have the same height, due to the different needs their uses provide. The footprint of the lower room can be used as extra space in the room above. Not only the height, but also the size of the room was directly related with its importance. This creates a certain promenade within the building, with small flights of stairs that relate the different rooms. The elevation is also affected, as Loos worked with the building as a pure box, and the interior spatial configuration appears in the façades in the form of cut-out windows. The size of the openings goes with the needs of each room. These ideas were incompatible with a structural coherence, traditional construction techniques such as loadbearing exterior walls were needed.
The Raumplan was used in the domestic realm, the culmination being the Müller House in Prague, but Loos also applied it in his public building in Michaelerplatz, in which there are 4 different heights only on the ground floor. He also tried to apply the Raumplan in his designs for public housing, where the cube was transformed into a terraced house.
The origins of the Raumplan can be traced back to Wright´s Prairie houses, where the use of the promenade and the space flow is very visible, also to the Art Nouveau, and Victor Horta´s Tassel House, in which different flights of stairs and different heights in the rooms make the perfect environment for this promenade to happen. Loos´ designs also had a great influence in Le Corbusier.

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2009

listas: learning_CONCEPTS , s_XX

etiquetas: concepts

By 1830, the use of cast iron as internal structure was a fact. However all the buildings had an external enclosure, to protect the building from
weather, fire, and they provided the building against overturning. The skeleton frame has not enclosure at all, and it needs by itself to bear the loads and provide stability.

They afford this with 4 different methods:
1- Rigid connections between columns and beams (Hungerford Fish Market,1833 by Charles Fowler). Usually accomplished by interior masonry (or concrete) stair towers and elevator shafts that creates a vertical rigid core that resists deformation and torsion of the building due to external lateral forces.
2-Shear Walls - Exterior (or interior) walls built of masonry or concrete that act as a vertical cantilever beam resisting lateral loads. Problems - may interfere with exterior windows, labor intensive, heavy.
3-Moment-Resisting Beam-to-Column Connections - Typically accomplished by fabricating extra connection angles, welds and bolts that greatly increase the rigidity of the connection. Problems - extremely labor intensive and expensive.
4-Diagonal Bracing: The addition of diagonal "X" or "K" bracing that resists lateral loads. Problems - may interfere with exterior windows.. It was very used in railway stations
(Pennsylvania State railway, 1910).
Crystal Palace, with no enclosure at all, just glazing, Paxton, 1850. As an skeleton frame we can include the Eiffel tower, 1886.

The skeleton frame made the curtain walls and glazing possible, since all the dead loads are in the internal structure and not in the enclosure anymore.

The advantages of steel skeleton frame:
1. Can build very tall and wide (tallest buildings in the world)
2. Light weight and strong (much lighter and stronger than concrete)
3. Prefabricated - frames assemble quickly
4. Precise and predictable (excellent quality control)

Disadvantages of steel skeleton frame:
1. Steel is an expensive material (much more expensive than masonry or concrete)
2. Frames are unstable
3. Needs fire protection
4. Needs separate "skin" (walls and floors).

Connections while making a skeleton frame:
1 Rivets - Generally not used any more for reasons such as low strength, safety and poor quality control.
2 Bolts - Come in two varieties - carbon steel and high-strength. The carbon steel bolts obtain their strength through shear (or tension) along the shaft of the bolt only.
3 Welding - Welding is accomplished by mechanically joining steel together by heating electrodes into a molten state, which forms one piece from two. Creates extremely rigid connections. The most common type of weld used for building structures is the "fillet" weld, which joins pieces at right angles. It is common to shop-weld connection angles to beams and columns, then field-bolt them together at the job site.

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2009

listas: learning_CONCEPTS , s_XIX

etiquetas: skeleton frame , steel

A curtain wall is a façade in a building that does not carry any dead load from the building itself other than its own dead load, and one that transfers the horizontal loads that are incident upon it. These loads are transferred to the main building structure through connections at slabs or columns of the building. In mediaeval architecture, the term referred to the defensive outer wall of a castle.

With the advent of the structural concept of shear walls and building cores, the exterior walls of buildings no longer had to support dead loads and could be designed as much lighter and more open than the brick and steel facades of the past. This gave a way to increased use of glass as an exterior façade, and the modern day curtain wall was born.

Curtain walls are designed to resist air and water infiltration, wind forces acting on the building, seismic forces and its own dead load forces.
Curtain walls are designed with extruded aluminum pieces, although the first curtain walls were made of steel. The aluminum frame is typically infilled with glass, which provides an architecturally pleasing building. Other common infills are stone veneer, metal panels, louvers, and operable windows or vents.

Curtain walls differ from storefront systems in that they are thought to span multiple floors, and take into consideration design requirements such as thermal expansion-contraction; building movements, water diversion, and thermal efficiency for cost-effective heating, cooling, and lighting in the building.

ie School of Architecture lo descubrió en diciembre de 2009

listas: learning_CONCEPTS

etiquetas: concepts