Beam

Ground and structure

Beam

Timelesslintel · sill plate · girder · viga (Spanish)

housingbridgetechohigh-rise building

It is a horizontal member that spans the distance between two supports and works in bending.

Solves

What it solves

It collects the weight of floors, roofs and walls over an opening and delivers it to columns or walls. Tie beams also bind the structure together so that it responds as a whole in an earthquake.

Today

The depth of the beam responds to the span and the load. Plan where ducts and pipes will run before building so you do not have to drill through it later.

Common mistake

Cutting holes in an existing beam to run pipes, which weakens it where the stress is highest.

Tomorrow

Beams of plantation timber or laminated bamboo can be made in regional workshops near the site. That way the knowledge and the work stay in the area.

Where it comes from

  • 1Dolmens Europe and other regions, Neolithic
    A horizontal stone on two vertical ones is the post-and-lintel system in its oldest form.
  • 2Ancient Greece and India Mediterranean and South Asia, Antiquity
    The first temples used timber beams that were later translated into stone.
  • 3Timber architecture northern China, of diffuse origin
    The post-and-beam system was the main structure of its buildings.
  • 4Iron industry Belgium, 1849
    The rolled I-beam was patented, concentrating material away from the center, where it works hardest.

Masters

  • Lina Bo Bardi São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil, 1968
    She hangs the museum from two large concrete beams resting on only four pillars. Underneath she leaves a covered plaza with a clear span of 74 meters for the city.
  • Paulo Mendes da Rocha Brazilian Museum of Sculpture (MuBE), São Paulo, Brazil
    He stretches a single concrete beam of about 30 meters over the garden, marking the buried museum. The beam gives shade and shelter to those who pass underneath.

Appears in the routes

Sources

See also

Also in Ground and structure

Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.