Use the comments to enter your reflections on Reading 3.
Arch 1231 BTech 1 D567, Fall 2019
A City Tech OpenLab Course Site
Use the comments to enter your reflections on Reading 3.
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After reading the different types of structural forces, components, and types, I have a better understanding of what is needed to make sure a building doesn’t collapse or isn’t destroyed by the elemental forces. Understanding the fundamentals of how forces work is important when constructing various parts of a building such as columns, beams, trusses, and walls. You want to make sure when constructing these components of a building, that there is equilibrium to prevent any damages when constructing or when the building is finished down the future; by doing that you have to figure other what kind of forces are you dealing with such as colinear, concurrent, nonconcurrent, and moment forces. Aside from understanding the various different forces, I think it is important to be familiar with structural units, spans, and patterns and how they are incorporated with combining different components such as for example different types of beams and walls to create a room. As architects, I think to grasp the concept of how a building is put together is vital when designing.
Yes, I agree structure should always be part of the design process
This reading was more technical in my opinion and shows how thoughtful buildings are constructed. I was particularly interested in the grid section of the reading. An example is shown where the grid stays the same and only a portion is rotated but it keeps the same basic pattern. Honestly I had never thought about that as a possibility and was drawn to that.
Good point, the grid is an organizer of the structure but it can me manipulated. it can also function as an organized of the space and not just the structure.
I agree with Braulio that this was a very detailed technical reading. Some of it took a bit of thought to really understand. I feel some of it would be better understood hands on than from a book. I enjoyed learning about the framing systems because I have seen them a lot but I now understand better why different kinds are used at different situations. I also appreciated learning how a floor distributes the load. When the book wrote about the outer skin under wall systems it gave some examples and I began thinking of others that weren’t mentioned like salty sea air where you see a lot of wooden wall systems. One question that I had was is the reason that doorways have been recommended during earthquakes because of the lintel or beam across the top that is needed when cutting an opening into a loadbearing wall? Is that what possibly makes it a safer spot?
Interesting, connection to earthquake. although it may seem like under a doorway would provide more saftey because of its construction, a door way will offer little protection from falling debris. during an earthquake the safest place in a modern building is probably under a sturdy table.
this reading was mainly focused on the structural integrity of the building’s components. for example, chapter 2 discusses columns and their support loads. Ching displays drawings in his book which, when reading about buckling, helped me comprehend how and why slender columns deflect laterally. The reading also displayed flooring components, being types of wood, concrete, and steel and how there implemented in it.
good summary but please continue to make more personal connections with the reading.
When I think about a building and how it is built most of the time I stop at the design but with this reading and the first one I have learned to also understand what goes into the building in order to support itself during normal conditions and other conditions. This reading highlighted the fact that a building weight into the ground is replicated back from the ground in order for the building to stay up at all times, I learned that, For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, before but I never actually thought how it would work with a building until now and it makes sense because if it the ground was not replicating the same weight back we would have built, like de pizza tower in Italy, all over the world.. Also, the way a building distributes its weight through the floor, columns, beams, bearing walls and foundations is really interesting and something that we don’t really get to see or experience if it no one tells us about it. Finally, I agree with Jonathan when he says that as architects we need to know how structures are being held in its place because it will help in the future when we are designing and developing a structure.
Yes, please dont forget that connection of structure and design.
This reading gave me a better understanding of the importance of the most smallest details of a structure and how it can have a huge affect on a building. It revealed how a thick column can just crash just because the load is not centered or how a beam can be bend and make the effect of a building almost leaning. This chapter taught me to be more careful about the smaller details of the structural elements of a building for future references. It shows all the ways you can easily mess up a building and how the forces work with the stresses to either built or ruin a building. It also showed how a building equally distribute its weight through the different structural components such as: columns, beams, slabs, bearing walls , floor and trusses.
good summary, please try to make a more person connection to the reading. Find things in your day to day observations that apply to what you read.
After this reading, it opened my eyes to what goes through the process of building a structure. To understand the multiple structural components. As well, it discusses some actions such as deflection, bending moment, and bending stress. These are the result of a structure that faces tension and overload.
In fact, the efficiency of a beam is brought up which is finding the moment of inertia with the smallest possible area. It also explains how the role of joints is important when connecting a column and a beam effectively. Floor systems are also brought which is an important topic when understanding structures. In conclusion, we as architects must understand every little detail when designing and developing a structure.
I was really interested in how the smallest parts of a structure join and hold up the mass of the bigger elements. For example, it goes as far as a simple screw that will determine whether the building will withstand all of the weight that is built upon the structural elements the screw has joined together. Another thing I found interesting was how forces are transferred equally from element to element, as it goes from the slab to the beam, from the beam to the columns, and down to the foundation.
Yes it is interesting how the building structure works as a system. each of the part no matter how small all work together to support the building.
After reading this chapter of the book I started to understand the structural and technical components of a building better. I found very interesting the fact how the weight and loads distributed through the joists, beams, columns, and more. It’s like the building itself knows how and where to transfer loads.
That is an interesting point that it’s almost like the building knows how and where to transfer loads because in a way it does but you as the designer need to “stack” the structure correctly to begin with.
The reading helps me better understand what it takes to create a strong, sturdy building and all this things that you should be thinking about. As architects its not all about aesthetics. We also need to understand how to properly construct a column, beam etc. and need to understand how forces are traveled through them. During the first drawings, I never thought that the grid was necessary and would be used much, but to really understand how a building is planned out, the grid helps with that and can me constructed in many ways depending on its use. It also helps during class, when you show us visuals with the blocks and how it works. I understand and learn more from that and hope that you show more stuff like that.
Glad you realize the importance of the grid. Thanks for your comments regarding manipulatives.
I really liked this reading. It is very interesting how the structural system of a building works, how loads are transferred from one member to another to stabilize a building and how structural members are arranged and sized to support any type of load and prevent that the building collapse. In this reading I have a better understanding of beams, columns,loadbearing walls and structural frame, I learned the different types of beams and how structural frames work to resist certain forces. Also the floor and wall systems reading are really interesting to me because they show that we really need to pay attention to small details such as the finish material which this small detail add load to the structure and we need to have it into account at the moment of design the structural system.
This reading help me understand that The structure of a building is as important as the design of it. Some people just think about how they want their houses or buildings to look like, but they also should care about the structure of the building. It is interesting how when you place all beams, joists, columns, etc together; they create a solid space, which can last for a long time if placed them correctly. I now understand more about the structure of a building and What are the pieces that make it stand.
Reading #3 not only introduced some new information for me personally, but also covered some aspects I was familiar with, like arches, domes, vaults, and basic physics of the buildings. I’ve learned many new definitions like span, shearing, truss, and etc., as well as some new concepts: the introduction of triangle and its rigidity in construction was a discovery for me personally. I’ve seen the use of triangles in construction before, but never thought it was intentionally. I really appreciated pictures in the chapters, providing graphical representation of some concepts, it made much easier to understand text. Nevertheless, in some chapters (like joints connections) even pictures couldn’t clarify information for me. I feel that in order to understand some of terms and concepts you would actually need to learn how to apply and work with them in the field. I really enjoyed the actual demonstration of classical mechanics in construction done by the professor in the class, it made so easy to understand.