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BUILDING EXTERIOR 65▲ 4.23 Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, Paris, France, AdrienFainsilber, 1986. Scaled-up columns relate to building scale andtruss dimensions.▲ 4.24 Law Courts, Bordeaux, France, Richard RogersPartnership, 1998. Human-scale rather than monumental columns.frail. Given a darker and monochromic background the structure mightbe read more positively – perhaps perceived as a protecting mesh or anet with an attractive fineness, rather than its current ambiguous readingof being neither too strong nor too fragile.The widespread practice of increasing the visual mass of columns,particularly in multi-storey buildings, seeks to avoid similar ambivalentreactions to structural scale. This strategy was adopted at the Cité desSciences et de l’Industrie, Paris (Fig. 4.23). During its conversion fromabattoirs to a museum of technology, reinforced concrete columnswere considered under-scaled relative to the long-span roof trussesabove them and the overall scale of the building. They were subsequentlysheathed by masonry walls to bulk them out and create moresuitable monumental ‘structure’.At the new Law Courts, Bordeaux, exterior structure typifies structureat human scale (Fig. 4.24). Exposed five-storey high columns are relativelyslender given their height and the size of the building behind them. Theirmodest diameter acknowledges the light loads from the delicate steeltrusses they support and their independence from suspended floors supportedby interior columns. On the façades, as in the interior public spaces,structural scale avoids monumentality, consistent with an architecturalgoal of creating a transparent and non-intimidating environment.CONNECTING THE EXTERIOR TO THE INTERIORIn contemporary architecture, structure that is exposed on an exteriorelevation sometimes bears some resemblance to the interior structure.This may be a consequence of a design process that begins by attending