Under the roof : an investigation of the interaction of rational building structure with enclosed space

Abstract

As an architect works, his or her design grows and shifts, contracts and metamorphoses through many different shapes and configurations. Each shape and length of span imposes an order on the structure of a building; The Order of Gravity. This thesis proposes a way of understanding structure in a way that allows it to swing through limits of shape that can then be related by a designer to the space that a design suggests, and interact with it, proposing new forms. A description of malleable structure will be invaluable to an architect, for it will allow the structural elements, and their relation to each other, to contribute to the form of a building.