Ground and structure
Load-bearing wall
housing school warehouse low-rise building
It is a wall that, besides enclosing the space, carries the weight of the floors and the roof.
What it solves
It combines structure and enclosure in a single piece. With good mass it dampens the heat of the day. In seismic zones it needs reinforcement or confinement so it does not crack.
Today
Confine the walls with columns and tie beams at corners, intersections and the edges of doors and windows. Align the walls from floor to floor and distribute them in both directions.
Common mistake
Removing or opening a load-bearing wall in a renovation without knowing its function, which weakens the whole house.
Tomorrow
Compressed earth blocks made with hand presses in the community itself bring back interest in the load-bearing wall. Training local crews in their use is part of the project.
Fact In the 1985 earthquake in Chile, 76 percent of confined masonry houses were left undamaged.
Where it comes from
- 1Load-bearing wall construction worldwide, since prehistory
It is one of the oldest ways of building, with stone, earth or brick. - 2Adobe house Costa Rica, 18th and 19th centuries
Thick adobe walls supported tile roofs. After the 1910 Cartago earthquake, adobe was banned in the main cities of the Central Valley. - 3Confined masonry Chile, since the 1930s
After the 1928 earthquake, brick walls were framed with concrete beams and columns.
Masters
- Anna Heringer METI School, Rudrapur, Bangladesh, 2005
She raises the ground floor with thick walls of earth and straw made by hand by the community. The walls carry the bamboo upper floor and keep the coolness in the hot climate.
Appears in the routes
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.