Quote:
Originally Posted by pilsenarch
The "vertical steel beams" are actually called structural 'tubes', they are in tension, and are there to hang the floor below from the cantilevered concrete angled columns and the floor above... take a look at the renderings or even the on-site photos and imagine if that floor were not hung... that would be one miracle cantilever!
the hanging 'tubes' are not depicted in the renderings (not unlike all of the exterior concrete shear walls that also disappeared in the renderings) and although their primary structural purpose is to hang the floor, I wouldn't be surprised to see them reinforce the window wall horizontally... still, that trapezoidal window wall will have to have it's own structural integrity built in...
couldn't help but also notice that the frustum window wall appears significantly different in the renderings and does not depict any operable windows which so far, with what little is already installed, will be making a significant pattern on the elevations...
|
Crazy. I had always thought those were added after-the-fact in preparation for the windows. Just went back through my photos and realized they've been there the whole damn time. I suppose it never occurred to me that it would have been an impossible cantilever for a normal floor slab.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kolchak
I found another rendering. It shows how the structural tubes ;-) will look.
 |
Good find!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cozy
Thanks so much for this. When you say "hang the floor" you mean support it, right? Since they are called tubes, I am assuming they're hollow. Why is that better?
|
Correct, those tubes are supporting the slab from above. It's not better per se, but in order to keep a column free space below, it is necessary.
Here you can see the way the slab sticks out from the base of the angled columns with the tubes holding up the weight along the outside edge.
