behind the façade (Fig. 4.40). The exposed structure includes slender
secondary columns, mullion-columns on the exterior bay window cor-
ners and ground floor piers supporting the columns (Fig. 4.41).
If an exploration of structural expression begins by considering the
slender gun-metal columns, one notes their similarity to the bronze
columns of the old building. The scale of both old and new columns and
their fineness recalls Gothic attached-shafts. At first floor level where
the columns meet their base-brackets, short cantilevers express struc-
tural actions. Tapered arms reflect internal bending moments, and a
stainless steel rod with its enlarged end connection detail expresses its
tensile role in preventing the bracket from over-turning. Solid stone
piers carry and express compression, the dominant structural action.
The truss framing the main entrance and supporting the roof canopy
also expresses structural actions, and like the columnar structure
displays equally high levels of craft and design elegance (see Fig. 7.39).
Individually cast and highly refined, its elements exude a sense of qual-
ity. Such a high standard of design is consistent with the client’s expec-
tation that the building ‘shall offer respect to the great architectural
achievements of the past, dominate this century and realize the vision
of the next’.^11 Quite a demanding brief!
Any discussion on the expressive roles of exterior structure must con-
sider the expression of another important architectural issue – the rela-
tionship between a building and its foundations, or in other words, howBUILDING EXTERIOR 75
▲4.40 Bracken House, London,
England, Michael Hopkins and Partners,
- Main façade.
▲4.41 Metal columns, a cantilever bracket and a
stainless steel rod behind a stone pier.