STRUCTURAL DESIGN FOR ARCHITECTURE

Reinforced concrete structures

concealed by the upward sweep of the roof and
the columns were buried within the self-
supporting masonry walls.
It should be noted, however, that the relative
ease with which this complex form was
achieved, using a very basic type of structure,
was due to the small span of around 20 m. Had
the building been significantly larger, a more
efficient type of structure would have been
required ('semi-form-active' or 'form-active'). In
that case it might, for structural reasons, have
been necessary to adopt a slightly different
shape of roof and Le Corbusier would have
found himself in the position of having to
accept restrictions on his total freedom to
invent the form of the building.
Another famous building which illustrates
well the excellent structural properties of
reinforced concrete is the 'Falling Water' house
by Frank Lloyd Wright (1936) (Fig. 4.13). As
with the chapel at Ronchamp this is an
example of 'structure ignored'. The oversailing
and apparently free-floating horizontal

Fig. 4.12 Notre-Dame-du-Haut, Ronchamp, France, 1954.

Le Corbusier, architect. This form, with its elaborate roof

canopy which does not actually touch the tops of the walls

(there is a gap between roof and walls which is used to

good effect to introduce light into the interior) could only

have been constructed in reinforced concrete. It illustrates

very well the freedom to invent form which the material

confers on the architect. [Photo: P. Macdonald]

platforms which are one of the principal

features of this architecture, and which are

essential for conveying the ideas of free-

flowing space, the interpenetration of solid

and void and the blurring of the boundary

between exterior and interior, were not ideal

from a structural point of view. Their feasibility

depended on the use of two-way-spanning

reinforced concrete slabs supported on a

network of columns. As at the Villa Savoye,

the decks are not solid slabs but networks of

beams and cantilevers supporting a thin floor

slab. Some of the cantilevered beams are of

massive proportions and, as at Ronchamp, the 109