The morphology of building structures

Abstract

The structural efficiency and the architectural appearance of building forms is becoming an increasingly important field of engineering, particularly because of the present wide-spread availability of computer facilities. The realisation of complex shapes comes into reach, that would not have been possible with the traditional means. In this contribution a technique is described, where structural forms are visualised starting from a geometry based on that of regular or semi-regular polyhedra, as they form the basis of most of the building structures that are utilised nowadays. The architectural use of these forms and their influence on our man-made environment is of general importance. They can either define the overall shape of the building structure or its internal configuration. In the first case the building has a centrally symmetric appearance, consisting of a faceted envelope as in geodesic sphere subdivisions, which may be adapted or deformed to match the required space or ground floor plan. Polyhedral shapes are also often combined so that they form conglomerates, such as in space frame systems. © Springer-Verlag 2002.