ON STRUCTURE: an essay 2 Jan 2000 by M. Calvino

M. Calvino

On Structure

It has occurred to me recently that true architecture cannot be conceived or realized without the co-conception, by the same mind, of an integral structural system. The design of the “thing” – and this term is used because we are not speaking of only habitable space, but also the design of objects, furniture, products, etc. – must be completely and totally involved with its means of being. By this I mean that the reason for a thing’s standing up, and not falling down, not blowing away in the wind, not eroding away with the rain, dust and sands, must be designed. The structural system must be conceived of with more meaning and more thought than just the intent to make it stand. A building’s – or thing’s – structural system must reach beyond itself into the concept , to the analogous development of the project. The structural system must be designed by its architect, it must be expressive of spatial and material systems, light, shadow, and compositional ideas.

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A: Close up view of overhead structural truss, Tokyo International Forum. Architect: Rafael Viñoly. ARCHITECTURE, October 1996, p. 136.

Photo is from: Kenneth Frampton Yukio Futagawa, Modern Architecture 1920-1945, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. 1983. p. 402.

Mies van der Rohe’s Berlin National Gallery is a thing whose design, conception, and realization is all about its structure, the place is conceived as a sort of non-space, one that is without walls. The main level gallery becomes a universal space by defining a “plinth” which is ground plane, an overhead plane, and remain without vertical edges to allow freedom of spatial division and movement both physically and visually.

The building is only structure, but in being so carefully and comprehensively structure, the building goes beyond structure and beyond architecture . . . it becomes an experience, a moving space, a place that touches one’s soul.

In the Johnson Wax Building it is as if Frank Lloyd Wright conceived of only its structure, and this structure embodied every concept and expression that the architect envisioned. In a public television documentary on Wright, Philip Johnson recalls the building as a typical office building program ” . . . and what does he do? He makes lily pads . . .”

The beauty is in the way that the structure was conceived to define space, regulate the natural light transmission, protect the space from the elements, provide the structural integrity of the building, and most of all, to invoke an emotional response to the space. There is a grandeur quality, a monumentality to the space because of its completeness of conception.

Photograph is from: Eggen, Arne Petter & Bjørn Normann Sandaker, Steel, Structure, and Architecture, A Survey of the Material and its Applications., Whitney Library of Design, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications/New York., p. 14. Credits, p. 246, “National Gallery, Berlin, 1962. Photo: Christian Norberg-Schulz.”

The structural system changes as spatial implication, light, and ventilation requirements change. Bearing walls and column systems imply different spatial qualities and are composed within a system of measurement defined in a lifelong quest for beauty by Le Corbusier.

Structure is the spatial concept, they are integral, conceived of as one entity . . . by one mind . . . the architect.

Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame Du Haut, Ronchamp, France. Elevation Above, Plan below

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, Bear Run, PA.

The spaces and terraces are all formed by the composition of the structural elements and systems. The terraces are only possible because of their floor system which is essentially an inverted, concrete waffle slab. These floating planes are structurally and spatially dependent on the vertical stone masses which house storage, utilitarian functions and are the structural anchor for the cantilevered terraces. The structure could not have been conceived of separately.

The Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York. Frank Lloyd Wright.

The spiral is the structure.

Architecture as an art form does not exist when the “architecture” and the “structure” are separate entities . . . the “thing” must be conceived as an inseparable whole. Architecture cannot be conceived without a complete understanding of structure, of structural forces, statics, strengths and properties of materials.

Rafael Viñoly’s Tokyo International Forum:

(Also photo on p.1) The space and building are defined with nothing but structure. Nothing is superfluous. There would be no building without the designed system. The singular space is defined by two columns supporting an innovated, ribbed truss, and walls of glass supported by a two way cable-truss resisting both positive and negative wind pressures. The entire system is designed and innovated to define this space . . . this place, which has in its structure and being, nothing superfluous . . . only the essence of what the space is and of this intangible message of monumentality, of awe, of “butterflies” in one’s stomach, that the place now has for its occupants . . . The space is completely defined by only its essential elements . . . ground plane, overhead plane, and vertical enclosure . . . these, in turn are designed and defined as if they were to be the most beautiful of elements. The elegance and power of the space comes from the efficiency with which the structure works, and is, in itself, a work of art, a piece of sculpture. This sort of definition of place is only accomplished by an artist who is an engineer and an architect . . . an architect who is a sculptor and an engineer . . . an engineer who is an architect and an artist.

The understanding of shear stresses, moment stresses, section modulus, moment of inertia, as well as properties of materials and structural systems are crucial to an architect’s ability to conceive of and realize things in their essence. The architect must be the first engineer, he must be able to work with and manipulate statics, reactions, material stresses, and sectional properties of materials. The structural consultants then become an ally, a complimentary resource, a second line of defense so to speak, in checking for accuracy and completeness in the architect’s work. It is the responsibility of the architect to define structural systems, materials, and even member sizes and shapes first. Furthermore, these responsibilities and processes must be integral with the poetic conception and metaphorical development of the project. Each project must grow as from a seed, from a single source so as to become an honest, truthful, creation . . . and with practice . . . a place and thing of meaning that can touch one’s soul.

—M.Calvino 2000