ABSTRACT
Tubular framing was first popularized in space-frame & geodesic dome applications, where long clear spans and light-weight were key requirements. However, latest developments with this technology, using advanced design, fabrication and installation techniques, is now providing novel, complex, ‘customized designs’, but at ‘commodity prices’, and more rapidly than traditional structural steel solutions. Tubular framing is proving to be the key to a new era of ‘shell-type’ or ‘free-form’ architectural building shapes that are rapidly growing in popularity with developers and designers. This paper illustrates these latest developments in steel and aluminum tube structures, with reference to a unique New York museum roof, where innovative jointing and cladding arrangements achieved unusual geometry, accommodated abnormal loading, and also substantially reduced material, freight & installation costs & time.
