Prefabrication experiments - 119 - Structures - 10 - Open Frame Steel Skeletons

"The architecture of steel is a skeleton". Gio Ponti's take on steel construction in In Praise of Architecture identifies the resilient relationship between the manufacturing of steel from iron ore, the continuous rolling of assorted profiles and their assembly into grid-based structures. The steel producer and its capacity to efficiently manufacture infinite material variations is the emblem of the second industrial revolution. Steel elements can be laminated and rolled to any specified thickness, shape or alloy and are the basis of steel construction.

Posts, beams, girders, joists or hollow structural sections are the linear edges of platform frames, balloon frames, or any variant of post and beam construction from rectangular organisations to rounded skeletal compositions. Based on the basic principles of box frame construction, the vertical, horizontal or diagonal members are connected by simple means, nuts and bolts or rivets, to form interrelated planes and their edges. Steel relates to the essence of dry construction: It can be disassembled as easily as it is assembled making it both durable and sustainable. Properly maintained, steel frames can outlast a building’s functional service life and be economically reused for other purposes

Open spans up to nine meters characterize the basic advantage of steel frame construction: flexibility and adaptability of light bearing systems relying on repetitive elements to transfer loads. This type of frame construction requires special attention to the capacity of its connections to resist lateral loads.  This resistance is often achieved by diagonal steel rods or cables, which stiffen and brace building planes.

Today’s steel frame construction involves the complete combination of the design and manufacturing processes. Eco steel in the United States and Bone structure in Canada are two companies that propose an engineered to order building kit.  Both companies offer an integrated design, manufacturing and construction process. Their Building systems are custom designed kits of steel components. Data management and building information modeling are used to directly link design and production. The contemporary modeling and information management tools employed by these companies allow a totally customizable architecture produced as required. This budding business model challenges the long lasting paradigm of prefab companies producing repetitive architecture. 

(Left) Eco Steel website - (Right) Bone Structure website