ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates how structure can express or reinforce a wide range of architectural concepts and qualities, and, by extension, and suggests that there will be few situations where exposed structure cannot enrich an architectural design. According to A. Pressman, architectural concept refers to the essential formative scheme, idea, or basic organizing principle of a building design. The chapter explores how structure has, is currently, and potentially might express concepts or ideas anywhere on the spectrum between order and chaos. Throughout architectural history, beginning with monumental Egyptian construction and continued by the Greeks and Romans, geometrical order has dominated plans and sections. The early temples, for example, were notable for their symmetry, at least about one major axis, and columns were always vertical and usually regularly spaced on an orthogonal grid. The most prevalent concepts found, excluding those that were programmeor site-specific, can be summarized as pairs of opposing concepts: order-chaos, stability-instability, static-dynamic, and grounded-floating.
