Integration of Architectural Design with Structural Form in Non-Orthogonal High-Rise Buildings

Abstract

Although high rise buildings were designed mainly in box forms throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, their architectural forms have undergone dramatic changes in the second half of the 20th century due to the demand for iconic buildings in growing cities. With the beginning of the 21st century, a number of unconventional, non-orthogonal forms can be seen throughout the Middle Eastern and Asian cities, which are now the leaders of high rise building construction throughout of the world. Until the 1980s, the International Style and modernist tall buildings were characterized by repetitive, prismatic and vertical combinations were predominant, as well as the flat roofs. The exterior facade was generally of a constant or a smoothly varying profile designed with rigourous disciplines. With the boredom of this monotony, these box forms were then replaced by non-orthogonal and non-conventional forms, such as cylindric, curvilinear, aero-dymanic shapes, by the advent of advanced structural systems, such as diagrids, mega frames, outrigger systems, and etc. By these advances in the form and structure of tall buildings, the non-orthogonal and iconic structures have emerged. Such changes in the architectural form and organization of high rise buildings were necessitated by the emerging architectural and structural trends in design, economic demands, and technological developments in the realms of technological innovations, such as structural analysis and digital design methods made possible by the advent of high-speed digital computers.

This paper tends to draw attention to the close interaction between the architectural and structural design of high-rise buildings of non-orthogonal forms. Initially the emergence of non-orthogonal forms is defined, and the non-orthogonal forms utilized for high-rise buildings are classified. After dealing with the structural design considerations and presenting a number of structural systems widely used for non-orthogonal high-rise buildings, the significance and necessity of the integration between architectural and structural design process is presented. Finally a framework is adviced for achieving a successful integration in order to evolve an architecturally pleasing and structurally efficienct high-rise building.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.7.2.7046