ABSTRACT
The structure is part of a building and should not be conceived in isolation, but as part of the whole design. The structure of the building is part of the building construction, and plays the role of giving the construction sufficient strength to withstand the loads to which the whole building is subjected. The idea of conceptual load paths is to establish a path of structure through a building for every load case, but conceptual load paths give no information about the actual geometry of the load paths. The conceptual load path has to act structurally, and its geometry gives guidance to its behaviour. For both vertical and horizontal loads there is a bending moment in the column which means it acts as a spanning structure. Even with specific structural elements such as reinforced concrete columns in an office building, the building construction can influence their shape and position.
