Tubular systems for tall office buildings with special cases from Turkey

Abstract

The advent of computers in conjunction with a boom in the construction industry following the Great Depression and World War II facilitated the development of new structural systems and forms. It is now possible to analyse and investigate different structural systems and concepts with the aid of the computer, which has never been possible before. This is in fact, a primary reason why conventional rigid-frame systems have been the prevalent structural systems for tall buildings until then. Fazlur Khan developed and refined the revolutionary tubular building concept, and the buildings reached to an unimaginable height with unimaginable amount of material. Here the building skeleton comprises closely T aced perimeter columns that provide much greater lateral resistance than is obtained with conventional systems because of the three-dimensional response of the building to lateral loads. This paper gives a brief explanation of tubular systems with a number of case studies from Turkey and abroad. In this context, the historical development of tubular systems is given firstly. Then, the tube concept is identified from the structural point of view as well as architectural point of view, and types of tubular systems - such as framed tubes, trussed tubes, and bundled tubes- are considered. While giving information about various kinds of tubular systems, a number of tall buildings are also presented.