Structural Engineering

Architects may design the buildings we see around us, but civil engineers have to figure out how to build them safely and economically so that they can withstand all expected loads.

Habitat, Expo 67
Multi-family housing community along the St. Lawrence River in Montréal. Prefabricated individual cubes are stacked in apparently random order and connected by steel cables. They are placed in such a way so that each apartment has a balcony on the roof of the apartment immediately below.
   
Spaceship Earth Pavilion, Epcot Centre, Florida
The world's first geosphere is 180 feet high and weighs around 16 million pounds. It's supports are sunk between 120 feet and 185 feet into the ground and 1,700 tonnes of steel were used to build the structure. Rain water is channeled through a special drainage system to the nearby lagoon.

The Sydney Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point in the Sydney harbour. Construction started in 1959 and was completed in 1973. The building is supported on 580 concrete piers sunk up to 25 m below sea level. The roof was built of 2194 pre-cast concrete sections and is supported on 32 concrete columns.
View a close up of the roof courtesy of Dr. Shelley Lissel.
The Hungary Pavillion at Expo 2000 was an unusual wooden structure.
photo courtesy of Dr. Shelley Lissel

This is a thirty storey column free high-rise in Borneo.

Oahu

Eiffel Tower, France

More pictures of the Eiffel Tower courtesy of Dr. Loov

    

BACK


Home | Traditional Areas of Study | New & Emerging Areas
Online Games | Careers | International Opportunities | Civil Engg Departments | Contact Us