ground floor piers approximate circular cross-sections at their bases
and widen smoothly to become thin blades at their tops (Fig. 7.6). The
main stairway, tucked into a service core behind the primary circular
form, also incorporates rounded details. The rounded top and bottom
surfaces of the precast concrete stringer are also consistent with the
architectural form (Fig. 7.7).
Building function
In the following two examples, a commercial building and an art gallery,
structural detailing both expresses and contributes positively to aspects
of their functions. In the first case the detailing is highly refined, while in
the second, it has been deliberately designed to appear relatively crude.
Structural detailing responds to and reinforces the distinctive purpose
of each building.
The Tobias Grau office and warehouse facility, Rellingen, illustrates a
most appropriate relationship between detailing and building function
(see Fig. 3.30). The company designs and manufactures high quality
light-fittings which have been incorporated extensively into its new
facilities. In this setting, structural detailing maintains an equivalently
high aesthetic standard. The structural details are more readily compar-
able to those of furniture design than to typical building construction.
The attractiveness of the main curved glue-laminated portal members is
STRUCTURAL DETAILING 135
▲ 7.6 Perimeter blade-like pier. ▲ 7.7 Rounded precast concrete stair
stringer.