<<Longspan Roof>>

Collaborators: Robert White

The longspan roof was conceived as a funicular arch made of concrete with steel rebar reinforcement. The roof makes a massive reach of 400' and would accommodate a train or public transit station. In order to determine the forces at play, we used graphic statics to map the loads at every segment in the arch. Initially, the desired span was much smaller, but we found that at a certain point, the concrete shell's optimal thickness becomes too small to properly accommodate rebar reinforcement for the areas dealing with tensile forces. We chose to increase both the span and the thickness of the concrete to a more appropriate amount based on the structural challenges we were attempting to solve.

Tyler Crain