Support I Materialise: Columns, Walls, Floors

Designing and constructing load-bearing building elements

Columns, walls and floors make up the skeleton of nearly every building. This third volume in the series SCALE, Support | Materialise, takes an in-depth look at these load-bearing structures, covering the development and realization of appropriate constructions from idea and design intention all the way to constructional implementation. Following the traditional building methods of massive, cross-wall, and skeleton construction, it points the way toward a material-appropriate constructional approach to these defining structural elements – columns, walls, and floors. Special attention is given to how constructional and technical considerations can be harmonized with spatial and formal commitments. The load-bearing elements are organized, described, and explored in detail from a material as well as a formal and constructional perspective. Their practical implementation is illustrated by a series of international examples.