Structural Design for Architecture
Fig. 3.42 Terminal
building at Stuttgart
Airport, Germany. The
roof structure here
consists of a series of
complex 'trees',
constructed from steel
hollow sections, which
support a regular grid of
secondary elements on
which the cladding is
mounted. The sub-
elements of the trees are
subjected to high levels
of bending load and it is
the great strength of
steel which makes this
type of arrangement
possible. [Photo: A.
Macdonald]
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3.6.2.4 Frames with special geometries
The overwhelming majority of single-storey
steel frameworks for buildings can be placed
into one or other of the categories described
above-, these represent the most sensible,
straightforward and economic ways of using
the material. There are, of course, exceptions
which arise due to the existence of unusual
design requirements or simply as a response
to the desire to produce an unusual or
spectacular structure.
One example of a departure from the normal
frame arrangement is a two-way-spanning
system based on a series of structural 'trees'.
