34
the helicoidal staircase, which is made of a wide and thin slab band acting as a circular bow girder with one end displaced vertically out of the plane of the other.
some
Compared with other structural components of a building, stairs have unusual characteristics. The cost of the stairs for instance often represents a very small proportion of the total cost of the structure, but a reduction in the waist (slab), and consequent increase in the weight of reinforcement, may make a difference between clumsiness and grace. increase in the cost of the reinforce- ment may be negligible as compared with the total cost of the building.
Shear walls
The
With many modern structures the exterior frame is clearly expressed as mullion-columns connected by fairly deep spandrels that together constitute a frame of considerable stiffness.
In this type of construction, the shear walls, as structural members to resist lateral loads due to wind or seismic force, are inherent. There are two types of shear wall: (1) the ex- terior type composed of a frame with no girder connection in the frame, between the frame and shear wall, and (2) the interior type consisting of a frame with a coplunar girder con- nection to the shear wall.
Shear walls are used in all recent government tenement construction where the trend is towards column
free interiors, long spans, minimum floor to floor heights and maximum liveable areas.
Flat plates
forms of structural design has in turn produced better construction methods, since precision in design must be matched by precision in the prepara- tion of forms, laying of reinforcing bars construction joints, placement and curing.
Other relatively new structural forms in Philippine government build- ings are found in the floor systems. Flat slabs for instance are really three Book
dimensional structures (the columns belong to them) and are capable of carrying heavy loads. Traditionally flat slabs have been supported on columns with flaring heads (capitals). Present developments have been to eliminate the column capital altoge- ther to give flat plate floors.
The slab band beams are used on the column lines in preference to deep beams in order to reduce the storey height as compared with the beam and floor slab system. The two-way ribbed flat slab with solid slab at the column, apart from giving a very dis- tinctive ceiling, is economic to build. All shores are of the same height and the use of removable metal fillers reduces the cutting of form lumber into short lengths.
Conclusion
Perhaps the most distinctive trend in modern Philippine architecture is the move towards a more sincere ex- pression of the structure. The variety of new forms is producing more func- tional design and construction.
The introduction of these new
concrete
Liverpool Builds 1945-65, prepared by Ronald Bradbury, PhD, MArch, FRIBA, AMTPI, city architect, in collaboration with the chief officers of the Corpora- tion concerned with the city's building programme. Published by Liverpool Corporation. Price 30s.
This is a pictorial record of Liver- pool's building achievements in the 20 years following the war. It tells of the houses, flats, schools, libraries everything from a bus depot to a cemetery chapel
which make up the 2,000 building contracts carried out for the Corporation at a cost of over £100 million.
Dr. Bradbury was city architect and director of housing from 1948 until 1963, when the architectural and housing functions were divided into separate departments. One of the many housing developments carried out under his direction was at Kirkby, where 10.000 dwellings were com- pleted within nine years. This is included in the book.
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