heads of the self-tapping screws that connect the different components
together, are exposed in a rare architectural move.
At the Carpentry Training School, Murau, exposure of structural detail-
ing extends beyond ‘informing’ to ‘educating’ (Fig. 7.23). The timber
roof structure can be envisaged playing an important pedagogical role in
the life of the school – like the sprung-tensioned system of the Parisian
civil engineering school (see Fig. 3.51). Given that the structural mem-
bers of the workshop-spanning trusses are ordinary straight lengths of
glue-laminated timber, their visually prominent connections awaken
interest in structural detailing. The deep roof structure relies upon
steel plates to join its timber members together. The plates, inserted
into and fixed to the timber members by pressed-in steel dowels are
then bolted together (Fig. 7.24).
Another more elegant detail, but less visible due to its height above
ground, occurs at the level of clerestory glazing (Fig. 7.25). Stainless
steel plates are bolted to timber studs to extend their height to eaves
level. This unusual detail enables the combined timber–steel studs to
span vertically between the floor slab and the roof diaphragm to which
they transfer wind face-loads. Importantly, the detail expresses the fact that
the exterior walls do not provide vertical support to the roof – the thin
vertical plates are weak in compression. Under lateral loads, however,
they bear horizontally against a steel rod that passes through theirSTRUCTURAL DETAILING 143
▲ 7.22 Exposed construction of an
exterior wall that curves towards the theatre
roof.
▲ 7.21 Fisher Center, Bard College, Annadale-on-Hudson, New York, USA, Frank O. Gehry &
Associates, 2002. Side elevation with the main entry canopy to the right.