Resistant structure in present architecture (continuation)

Abstract

The article addresses the relationship between a building.s support structure and the building itself in the context of the latest architectural tendencies.
Today.s civil engineering has developed strength capabilities in terms of materials, structural layouts and construction processes so highly that there is a structural solution for any architectural approach, no matter how novel . or preposterous. The outcome may be the disconnection between the spatial and the structural conceptions of a building. The more novel a proposal, the more intensely architect and engineer must work together
. Structure is not just something that any building should have, such as air conditioning, but in the larger picture is unessential. Most of today.s architecture: minimalist, deconstructionist, or high-tech, is fundamentally structural.
Polytechnic architects should be distinguished from fine arts formalizers, who ultimately formalize better and more freely. A number of recent examples of buildings are reviewed in this light, grouped under the following headings: de-construction; high-rises; polyhedrons, cubes and so forth; Shigeru Ban and orthodox theories of strength; and finally, soft forms.