STRUCTURAL DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTURE

Masonry structures

the context of most of the stylistic types and
variations of the Western architectural trad-
ition.
The classical language of architecture orig-
inated in a system of ornamentation for post-
and-beam structures. Although the earliest
versions may have been constructed in timber
the primary sources of the classical orders
were the masonry temples of Greek antiquity
(Fig. 5.15). These were post-and-beam struc-
tures with vertical elements of masonry and
horizontal elements of timber or masonry. The
smallest of these buildings were single-cell
structures but, due to the need to limit spans,
larger versions were subdivided internally by
parallel sets of walls or columns which
conformed to the generic plan for the
loadbearing-wall building described above.
Versions of the generic plan occurred in
every period of Western architecture. A few
notable examples serve to illustrate this. The
villas of Andrea Palladio (Fig. 5.16), dating
from the sixteenth century, show the normal
pattern of parallel loadbearing walls as do the
many subsequent large houses of Europe and
North America whose forms were inspired by
those of Palladio and other architects of the
Italian Renaissance (Fig. 5.17). The much

Fig. 5.15 The Parthenon, Athens, 5th Century BCE. This

is the most refined example of post-and-beam construc-

tion in the Western architectural tradition. The short spans

involved are a consequence of the inherent weakness of

masonry in tension and therefore in bending. [Copyright:

RIBA Photo Library]

humbler tenement housing which was built in

the nineteenth century to accommodate the

growing urban populations of the cities of

industrial Europe shows a different plan-form

but one which nevertheless conforms to the

basic arrangement of parallel loadbearing walls

(Fig. 5.18). The variety of architectural treat-

ments of masonry structures in terms of

massing, ornamentation and fenestration is

therefore very great despite the similarities

exhibited by the plan-forms of loadbearing-

wall buildings through the centuries.

In the twentieth century, the vast majority of

masonry loadbearing-wall buildings have

conformed to the traditional plan-form and the

versatility of the medium is such that the

vocabulary of Modernism, with, for example,

large areas of wall glazing in the external walls,

has been accommodated without difficulty.

The development of new constructional

methods, especially the introduction of steel 159