The Case of the Disappearing Right Angle: Innovation in Architectural Steel

Classic rectilinear use of steel has given way to themes and combinations that present great opportunities in design. Architectural applications of steel structures have truly stretched all aspects of the industry during the last 20 years. The formal buildings of the Modern Movement have given way to innovative structures that, using a combination of exposed and concealed steel, challenge architects, engineers and fabricators to work together to design structures that showcase diagrids, tension systems, curved steel and castings. These new uses of steel require a different approach to design, one that is reflected in the speaker's new books Understanding Steel Design: An Architectural Design Manual (2012), Diagrid Structures: Systems, Connections, Details (2014) and Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel (2015), published by Birkhäuser. Through the examination of cutting edge recent construction by some of the architectural superstars, Boake gives us a fresh approach to thinking about designing and detailing in steel. This talk will focus on some of the specialty topics covered in the texts, including diagrids, tension structures, curved steel and castings. Most of the photos in the books were taken by the author, so this promises to be a highly visual talk that will take you "up close" to many of these internationally recognized projects.

About the Speaker

Terri Meyer Boake, BES, BArch, MArch, LEED AP

Terri Meyer Boake is a Full Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Waterloo in Canada. She has been teaching building construction, structures, environmental design and film since 1986. She works with the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (CISC) developing teaching resources for architectural education. She is an active board member of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat presently doing research on composite structural systems in tall buildings. Professor Boake is an avid photographer, documenting construction processes and completed buildings for her books, teaching, presentations and various image databases.

For more information, contact [email protected].