Major Project Research

After exploring Alvar Aalto’s oeuvre of work more thoroughly, I have come to admire, above all, his aforementioned Sports Hall at Otaniemi, near Helsinki, Finland. Well, this is perhaps not entirely true. But for the sake of this construction exercise, I feel that the gymnasium exemplifies all of the structural qualities needed for warehouse design. The common ground between the two buildings is of course the open, long span nature of both.

The building utilizes truss-like beams and columns (Swedish patented HB beam system) to create these rather sizable timber frames capable of spanning, in this case, 58 odd metres. The roof is not made from sheet roofing, but rather quaint tongue-and-groove timber panels with double bitumen felt for water proofing.

Whilst I have been unable to source any working drawings of the building, as the photographs suggest, the actual structure of the building is rather palpably expressed, and I believe, with a little bit of research into this particular truss / HB beam design, I will be able to extract all the information I need from photographs alone.

On this note, I have decided to construct a physical model for presentation as opposed to a 3D CAD model. I feel that for this exercise actually executing a physical, 1:10 model with my own two hands will put me in better stead as to actually understanding the structural composition of the section. Computers can be a little mind-numbing at the best of times :)