The Science of Architecture
How forces act on buildings & how buildings resist them
What Forces Affect Buildings?
• Gravity Forces
• Lateral Forces
• Temperature
Gravity Forces – Live Loads
• People
• Furniture
• Equipment
• Snow
Gravity Forces – Live Loads
• People
• Furniture
• Equipment
• Snow
Gravity Forces – Dead Loads
• Building structure
Substructure
Foundations
Below Grade Sp.
Gravity Forces – Dead Loads
• Building structure
Superstructure
Columns
Beams
Walls
Roof
Lateral Forces
• Wind
• Seismic
• Waves
Lateral Forces – Wind Loads
• Act horizontally and sometimes upward
• Can cause buildings to sway back and forth
• Buildings must be designed to resist these forces
Lateral Forces – Seismic Loads
• Violently shakes ground back and forth
• Can cause severe structural damage
• Buildings must be designed to absorb forces
Lateral Forces – Wave Loads
• Constant and tremendous force at base of building
• Can push superstructure off of foundation
• Buildings must be designed to allow waves to penetrate and go through structure
Forces Due to Temperature
• Expansion
• Contraction
Forces Due to Temperature• Expansion
– When a material heats up it can elongate or expand causing failure or damage to places where beams and columns connect.
• Contraction– When a material gets
cold it can shrink or contract also causing the same type of failure at connections.
Building Structure
• Superstructure– Beams– Columns– Walls– Roof
• Substructure– Foundation– Basement
Building Structure
• Beams– Resist a load or force
applied perpendicular to the beam. The beam bends to resist the force.
– The top of the beam is pushing together in “compression”.
– The bottom of the beam is pulling apart in “tension”.
– The strength of beams depend on two factors
• Strength of material
• Shape of the beam
Building Structure – Beam Diagram
Building Structure
• Columns– Resist a load or force
applied parallel to the column
– The columns resists the load in “compression”.
– The columns can also bend due to lateral loads.
– A column is really just a beam that is vertical or standing straight up.
Building Structure - Column Diagram
Building Structure - Connections
• Beams and Columns are connected together in different ways to form a “rigid” structure.
• These types of connections are one major way that buildings resist forces that act upon them.
Building Structure - Trusses
• A truss is a collection of structural members connected using “triangulation”. This method allows for a very lightweight and rigid structure that is commonly used in buildings and bridges.
Building Structure – Truss Diagram
Building ExamplesPyramids of Giza, Egypt
Building ExamplesThe Parthenon, Greece
Building ExamplesGothic Cathedral – St. Patricks’s, NYC
Building ExamplesEiffel Tower, Paris
Building ExamplesWorld Trade Center Towers
Building ExamplesJohn Hancock Building, Chicago
Building ExamplesSears Tower, Chicago
Building ExamplesPetronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Building ExamplesTaipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan
Building ExamplesBurj Dubai Tower, Dubai, UAE
World’s Current Tallest Buildings
World’s Tallest Buildings Timeline
Let’s Build!
Brian M. Taylor, AIABrian M. Taylor Architects P.C.