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136 STRUCTURE AS ARCHITECTURE▲ 7.8 Tobius Grau KG office, Rellingen,Germany, BRT Architekten, 1998. Structurein the office interior.▲ 7.9 Fine diagonal bracing reads as‘stitching’.surpassed by two lines of slightly inclined timber posts that delineatecirculation from office area (Fig. 7.8). Spindle-shaped, the slender postsare capped top and bottom by conical steel shoes. The two bays oftension-only bracing are also far more elegant than usual. They avoidrepeating the simple and conventional diagonal cross-braced solutionwhere straight members connect to diagonally opposite joints. Structuralrefinement in the form of two additional rods that extend from theupper corners of the bays avoid the ubiquitous pair of diagonals. Thisstructural complication yields a more visually interesting arch-likeshape, increases the width available for circulation underneath the bracingand helps raise the level of structural sophistication to that of itssurroundings. Even in the warehouse, fine rod cross-bracing has beenso carefully designed and integrated with the portals, the wall-lining andthe structurally essential horizontal members, that it reads more likesewing stitching than conventional bracing (Fig. 7.9).Structural detailing also expresses aspects of building function at theKunsthal, Rotterdam. When visitors approach the building at streetlevel their aesthetic sensibilities are assaulted by two structural details.First, a large brightly painted unrefined I-beam projects crudely abovethe roof (Fig. 7.10). Secondly, adjacent to the main entry, three columnswithin close proximity to each other are detailed completely differently.