book-2

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ARCHITECTURAL AND STRUCTURAL FORM 39671 Ridge truss2 Radiating truss3 Concrete columns4 Masonry walls5 Pools6 Services7 Changing facilities125 3540 5 10 m▲ 3.34Simplified ground floor plan.structural grid in the changing rooms and ancillary spaces dissipates inthe recreational and pools areas. Here, any grid-like influence vanishesleaving structure to follow the informal organic geometry. It is as if thedesigners considered a rectilinear grid antithetical to a recreationalenvironment. Uneven exterior column spacing reflects the ‘elongations’and ‘compressions’ that occurred during the building plan ‘distortion’.Columns define a curving perimeter envelope which in turn suggeststhe plan orientation of the roof trusses. They are generally positionednormal to the perimeter walls, except over the main pool where secondarytrusses deliberately avoid forming a rectangular grid. In planeach truss is straight, but an obvious sag acknowledges its informalarchitectural setting (Fig. 3.35). Within an irregular form two structuralmaterials and numerous structural systems combine to form a coherentand attractive work of architecture.Irregularity of architectural form is not synonymous with curved forms.Consider the complex origami-inspired form of the Serpentine GalleryPavilion 2001, London, also known as ‘Eighteen Turns’ (Fig. 3.36).Designed as a temporary building and constructed from planar sheetsand ribbed elements, it was dismantled after the summer months of2001 and relocated. The superstructure, excluding timber flooring, isfabricated entirely from aluminium – both structure and cladding. Ribs