Stone
Stone is the oldest building material known to man. The origins of stone date back to a period nearly 4000 million years ago. Recorded history is a mere 6,000 years old, so the use of stone by mankind in the ancient structures of Egypt and Greece represents a mere fraction of its life as an inorganic substance.
Shown
here is the Athenian Treasury, Delphi, Greece(490 BC). An exquisite small
building in the lowet part of the town. This early Doric structure was
the first to be built entirely out of marble.
Due to its crystalline
formation, stone is only able to withstand limited forces when used in
a mode of tension. For this reason, traditional building development has
exploited the material in compression.
In the simplest form of stone building, stones lying on the ground were gathered up and piled on top of the other in a descending silhouette to form cones, cairns and walls.
Within this family of early structures are the megalithic, Neolithic gallery graves- long narrow chambers- of 3,000 – 1,800 BC found in France, some of the first example of stone arcading enclosing interior space found in Europe. It is interesting to compare these structures, and that of Stonehenge, with those built in Egypt at the same time. At the other extreme, craftsmen have worked the rock face in situ, as Petra in Jordan in AD 120.
The great majority of stone structures have been built from pieces of stones designed to be bedded together to form a continuous fabric- an early form of prefabrication.
The main stream of architectural development in stone has been based upon organized systems of assembly. Examples have been relied upon premeditated projection of the structure, which has determined the size and proportion of each piece of stone.
It is possible to
trace an increasing sophistication and awareness, as stone become refined
and lightened in a conscious attempt to ‘dematerialized’ stonework, a process
that resulted in the high Gothic of northern Europe. Nowadays, it is frequently
used as a respectable veneer in institutional public building or organizations
anxious to project a picture of well-established importance.
Check out some of these sites on Stones in relation with architecture
Timber from broad leave from deciduous trees is called "hardwood", while conifers produce "softwood". Although it is true that hardwoods are generally harder than softwood, there are exceptions to this rule.
Seasoning is the natural process of drying the natural moisture out of the timber, so that it will relate properly to the humidity condition of its ultimate use without shrinking or warping. It is achieved by air-seasoning naturally in some form of open-sided structure, or by artificially drying in an oven or kiln. Modern kilns are so designed that an accurate control of moisture is achieved.
There are 4 basic methods of contemporary timber building.
Stick construction: used mainly in America, Scandinavia and Japan. Precut timber elements are delivered to the site and assembled.
Balloon Frame Construction: in this method, the external wallpanels are fabricated in various widths, but extends to two storeys in height and are therefor erected in one operation, so that the intermediate floors are suspended from the full height studs. The size of the panel restricts flexibility and maneuverability.
Platform frame construction: This is the predominant method of timber-frame construction in Britain. Wall panels are fabricated (usually in the factory) in storey heights and floors are then constructed on top of ground floor wall panels, acting as a permanent base for the upper wall panels.
Volumetric Construction: This method entails the fabrication of the entire building or part of the building in the factory and their subsequent transportation, in a virtually finished state, to the site for erection on prepared foundations. This type of construction can ensure rapid provision of very cheap houses, but the economic necessity for rigorous standardization, together with limitations on size of units for transportation can constrict the architect a great deal.
Timber is an essential component of buildings constructed in all other materials- generally as scaffolding or levels, or, specifically, as centering for masonry, form work and lining for concrete, or fixing for steel work. Its historical role in the construction of roofs is unique, while in the past, it has been extensively used as piles for foundations on unstable grounds.
Most everyday buildings
built in other materials could be copied entirely in timber, but the opposite
is certainly not true. The chief reason for this is that the fibrous nature
of wood, combined with the use of shaped and pegged joints, enables it
to accommodate both linear and rotational tension in structures.
Check out some of these sites on Timber in relation with architecture
Australian
Timber Buildings of the 2nd World
War
This page is done by an Australian University. It has some good picture
on timber framework.
Check out some of these sites on Bricks in relation with architecture
The
City Of Neubrandenburg
Take a tour in the city of Neubrandenburg. It has some very nice and
great buildings with Gothic brick architecture.
Use
Of Brick In Temple Architecture
This site shows the mass usuage of bricks in Temple Architecture of
Medieval Karnataka right from the 10th to the 13th centuries AD.
Iron is the second
most common metal and the fourth most common of the elements that make
up the earth. Cast-iron is the most resistant to corrosion and the easiest
to make, so its major use in building predates steel; wrought-iron is the
easiest to work; steel is the strongest, but unfortunately the quickest
to corrode.
Iron was traditionally
used cast in moulds of oil-bound sand, but steel can be finished in many
ways. Like iron, it can be cast; it can be drawn into thin wires or rolled
into thin sheets, which can be strengthened by corrugation. The most characteristic
steel form in building is the rolled section, where steel ingots are rolled
into standard profiles-I beams, channels, tees and hollow sections. These
have the advantage of being structurally efficient, easy to join and standardized,
the last being important now that the calculation of dimensions is a codified
procedure, enforced and checked by a government inspectorate.
The
Ironbridge, Shropshire, England (1779-81). Now a pedestrain bridge, this
59m (196ft) semicircular bridge was the first iron bridge in the world.
It spans the Severn Gorge and was built with iron smelted at nearby Coalbrookdale,
the virtual birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
Check out some of these sites on Iron in relation with architecture
The
Bennett Building
The Bennett Building in New York is a major monument to the art of
cast-iron architecture.
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Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France (Le Corbusire, 1950-55). Conscientious readers of Le Corbusier's writings might be surprised at this late work which seems contary to his mechanistic theories. Visitors to this pilgrimage church should ignore earlier propaganda and enjoy this amazing piece of sculpture on its own terms. The rough cast concrete walls have small, scattered windows set in deep embrasures which create a magical sequence of internal illumination programmed by the passage of the sun as it moves around the hill-top site. |
The insertion of steel rods, wire or mesh into the concrete matrix, completely transform the performance of the material. Previous deficiencies in tension and shear are made good, so that the material is capable of spanning. Thanks to the continuity of the steel reinforcement, separate elements of a building become homogeneous and monolithic. In that all the components act together, a reinforced concrete beam-and –slab system is structurally more efficient then, for example, a wooden floor composed of separate joists. When a series of beams and columns are rigidly connected together they form a frame that distributes the load and stresses of one part to all the others. Effectively, the entire framework becomes a unified whole.
The proper construction
of concrete beam, column or slab in situ- that is to say, poured in place
on the job- calls for a great deal of care and attention to detail. There
are many factors, not forgetting the human element, which will affect the
finished product. The denser the concrete, the stronger it will be. Varing
the type and quality of cement also affects ultimate strength, and especially
the rate of hardening. High water content reduces strength and increases
shrinkage. There should be no more water than is necessary to achive the
correct chemical reactions and minimum workability.
Check out some of these sites on Concrete
in relation with architecture
Linux
Kernel
Concrete Architecture of the Linux Kernel
The discovery that the three common materials- sand, soda, and lime- could be fused together by heat to form a hard transparent material is generally thought to have originated in the Middle East, sometime before 1,500 BC. Glass was at first used only for decoration, but when it was realized that in its molten state it could be cast or blown into shapes, simple hollow vessels were also produced.The Romans did much to perfect these techniques and were even able to make a type of flat glass for use in buildings by rolling out the hotglass onto a hard flat table.
Shown
on the left is the John Hancock Tower, Boston, Massachusetts (1969-76).
Reflecting glass enforces a feeling of seperation from the surrounding
world and emphasizes the soaring simplicity of this building.
The
surface finish of glass produced is smooth and has a natural brilliance,
without the need for grinding and polishing. However, the drawing process
does impart stains on the glass which shows as distortion. Such glass cannot
be used where great clarity is required.
During the day time,
reflective glass when seen from below can make a building seem to dissolve
and form part of the skyscape. In other conditions, such buildings can
look monolithic.
Check out some of these sites on Glass in relation with architecture
The
Glass House
The C.T.O.Glass House done by a Japanese Architect firm - KEN
YOKOGAWA ARCHITECT & ASSOCIATES INC.
ART
GLASS
A great index site showing the different companies doing glass Architecture.
Plastics is not just the newest of the primary construction materials available to the building designer today, it is also the most challenging. The basic building materials- brick, stone and timber- are natural raw material with a history as long as man. Even metal, glass and concrete are produced from natural materials and their basic principles have been understood from ancient times. Plastic has no such pedigree. There is no deep wealth of experience in its use, nor is it yet associated with any clear cultural meaning. It is unique in being an entirely manmade material, a product essentially of the 20th century.
Plastics such as acrylic can be simply formed into sheets by heating the raw material with a catalyst to form a viscous liquid. When this is poured between two polished surfaces, such as glass, and allowed to cool, it will harden to a sheet of even thickness with a smooth, flat surface. Transparent acrylic sheets made in this way are widely used as an alternative to glass.
The larger plastics components used in building, such as wall and roof panels, are more commonly molded from the rigid thermosetting resins. Polyester resin together with glass fibre reinforcements produces a material known better as glass reinforced plastic (GRP), or fibreglass.
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