Structural design for achitectureFig. 2.5 East Pavilion,
Groninger Museum,
Groningen, Netherlands,
1990-94, Coop Himmelblau,
architects. Parts of this build-
ing were manufactured in a
shipyard using shipbuilding
techniques. It is a relatively
rare example in architecture
of the employment of a
large-scale industrial process
to create a complex form.
[Photo: R. Talbot]rationality-, of regularity and repetition, which
symbolised the production line; and of straight
lines and sharp edges, which symbolised
manufacture by machine rather than by hand
crafting (e.g. Figs 1.2 and 4.6). Thus, at the very
time when developments in structural
engineering could have released architects
from the tyranny of the straight line and the
right angle they voluntarily restricted
themselves to the use of little else. In recent
years the mood has changed, however, and
architects of the late modern Deconstruction
school, in particular, are now availing
themselves of the freedom which their prede-
cessors failed to exploit.
This may be seen in buildings such as
those illustrated in Figs 2.1, 2.2 and 4.20. It is
interesting to note that in the East Pavilion of
the Groninger Museum (Fig. 2.5), major
elements of the steelwork were manufactured
in a local shipyard using shipbuilding
techniques. This allowed the use of shapes
and configurations which, in the context of
building, were exciting and new. It is a matter
of conjecture whether this can be taken
seriously as a method by which buildings
should be constructed but it does show that
architects are finally making use of the full
potential of the materials which industry has
placed at their disposal.
One of the reasons for the continuation, into
the twentieth century, of the relatively simple
structural geometries of architectural tradition
was the elementary one of convenience.
Arrangements of rectangular rooms with
horizontal floors and ceilings are more
suitable, for most human purposes, than
enclosures made from curvilinear surfaces or
wall and roof planes which intersect at acute or
oblique angles. There was no technical reason,
however, why buildings with complex forms,
with non-vertical walls, inclined roof planes
and curvilinear enclosures could not have been
constructed once materials such as steel and
reinforced concrete became available to the
designers of buildings in the late nineteenth
century.
Yet another factor, which is not strictly
technical but which may have inhibited the use
of irregular forms, is obviously that of cost.
Complicated forms are difficult and therefore
expensive to construct. This is why artefacts
such as motor cars or aeroplanes are relatively
more expensive than buildings, despite the
economies of mass production which are
associated with their manufacture. The cost
per tonne of steel used in a motor car is an
order of magnitude greater than that of a struc-
tural steel framework for a building. The same
is true of timber used for yacht construction 27