Structure as Architecture - School of Architecture

that reinforces the solid limestone masonry piers (Fig. 7.43). Specially

selected aggregates for the concrete blocks housing the nodes match

the colour of the surrounding stone blocks.

The School of Architecture, Marne-la-Vallée, Paris, illustrates less

refined detailing (Figs 7.44 and 7.45). An industrial quality pervades the

all-concrete-and-steel exposed structure. Consider the four steel

beams that span an internal atrium, partially occupied by a box-like

lecture theatre. Their unrefined cross-sections and longitudinal profiles

raise questions such as why their shapes have not been better inte-

grated with the saw-tooth roof form? However, this beam detailing

isconsistent with the basic quality of exposed steelwork elsewhere

whose galvanized surfaces are left unpainted. The standard of detailing

STRUCTURAL DETAILING 153

▲ 7.42 Refined roof truss detailing. ▲ 7.43 A post-tensioning node detail.

▲ 7.44 School of Architecture, Marne-la-Vallée, Paris, France,
Bernard Tschumi, 1999. Looking towards the main entrance.

▲ 7.45 Unrefined steel beams pass over a work-space atop the

lecture block inserted into the atrium.