WHOA! An architectural blog post, no way!

   Seeing as the study or architecture is what got me to Bangkok at all, I suppose it's time I throw in a bit of that for the blog. Granted, this post will not be what you expect. It WILL be unexpected, and not analysis of local architecture here in Thailand, I promise that.

   For our continuing efforts on a community center in an underprivileged, unofficial settlement in a Bangkok suburb, I have been put in charge of structural and environmental factors for the design. Since this project is to be built, certain realities of economy and feasibility must now be met, as we move away from dramatic theoretical gesturing and into cold hard concrete, steel and budgets. Or, in the case of this climate, hot hard concrete and steel (but we will fight that off with plenty of clever tricks and climatic analysis.)

   Since being tasked with this, what I can easily say is my favorite part of architecture - the nuts, the bolts, all the systems and technical know how - I have begun to collect images of simple structures around town that might inform the final design. I can say this much about what I have in mind: I am leaning toward a steel frame because of it's tendency toward repetition without loss of expression, it's low mass and therefor low thermal gain in the ever-hot weather, and the skill set it may pass along to the community members involved in the erection of the project.

   So now, here's a quick look at a fairly clever little bus stop. As far as I have seen, it is one of a kind, not the usual production-model stations sprinkled all over town.

   That's like, "so what" right? But when you know what you are looking at, it's actually a pretty neat little trick the designer pulled off. Now, I am assuming this was intentional. If not, call it a happy accident. At center span, we see the depth of the truss is at it's minimum, and the quarter points is where it maxes out. That is really goofy if you understand how a structural member acts in bending. The strength of the member is determined, in extremely simplified terms, by the square of its depth. Along with that, we need to know that bending forces are at their maximum at center span under a uniform load, which we clearly don't have here by looking at the roof - it's in 5 points - but we'll call it uniform today because the points are spaced in a manner that we can call it close enough for the purposes of this post.

   So then, this thing is built totally wrong, with the weakest point at the exact location where it needs to be the strongest. Or is it?

   In fact, it is perfectly designed under these parameters, with a simple illusion being pulled on the eyes. Center span of the truss is in fact directly above the columns, and this is effectively four spans with columns uncharacteristically located at the center of two individual trusses, which have been tacked together at their ends for stability. Otherwise it would all be a giant balancing act, waiting to ruin someone's day once a breeze came along. In the end, it's really four cantilevers, two of them meeting at what appears to be the center of a completely backwards truss design. The touchdown at the columns only happens maybe 18" above my head, but the ceiling is closer to 10' at the low point of the arches. Kinda cool.

 - Nick