Architectural Term Query

[Dungrange]

The photograph below is, I think, a university in Mexico, and the image is copied from the website https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/gallery/2021/02/11/mexico-a-university-campus-defined-by-arches-and-modular-volumes.html

 

 

Is there an architectural name for the pale concrete coloured horizontal lines between the floors?  I'm assuming that this is in fact nothing more than a concrete floor slab that extends through the line of the wall and that this could therefore be replicated in model form by adding a plain plastic section between brick panels.  I'm also assuming that there are UK buildings with this feature or something similar.  The reason I ask is that I'm looking for a way to increase the height of an H0 kit so that I can incorporate it with other buildings that have a higher floor to floor height.

[phil_sutters]

A quick search brings up this definition.

stringcourse (1301 pic)

a horizontal band or course, as of stone, often molded and sometimes richly carved. (rhcd 1301)

String courses don't have to be white concrete. They can be in a contrasting stone or brick and can be plain or a shaped moulding, like the ones on Camberwell Baths. They certainly seem like a good way to upscale HO buildings to OO.

Older building can have plain string courses like the Custom House in the City of London

 

Later - I don't know why I didn't initially remember the former Bermondsey Library as I worked there until 2005!

Edited May 27, 2021 by phil_sutters

[Paul H Vigor]

38 minutes ago, Dungrange said:

The photograph below is, I think, a university in Mexico, and the image is copied from the website https://www.domusweb.it/en/architecture/gallery/2021/02/11/mexico-a-university-campus-defined-by-arches-and-modular-volumes.html

 

 

Is there an architectural name for the pale concrete coloured horizontal lines between the floors?  I'm assuming that this is in fact nothing more than a concrete floor slab that extends through the line of the wall and that this could therefore be replicated in model form by adding a plain plastic section between brick panels.  I'm also assuming that there are UK buildings with this feature or something similar.  The reason I ask is that I'm looking for a way to increase the height of an H0 kit so that I can incorporate it with other buildings that have a higher floor to floor height.

Might it be a simple form of architrave?

[phil_sutters]

Post withdrawn - inaccurate

Edited May 28, 2021 by phil_sutters

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

From my (limited to having to work out where the holes needed to be for flues and gas and water pipes) building experience of these, they were referred on site as oversailing Bison floors, although as Bison is a trade name that was probably a bit specific.

 

Mike.

[Nearholmer]

An architrave is a feature of the exterior of a building in classical architecture, but whether what we’re looking at here would be so described I’m not sure.

 

I think the puzzle is that a ‘string course’ is purely decorative, whereas in the OP’s example we seem to be looking at the edge of a floor-slab, a structural item, exposed to become decoration (very clever that!).

 

It may be that the architect has invented something new, decorative use of an over-sailing floor (not that it actually over sails from what I can make out!) in modern materials, and that it doesn’t have a name yet. Decorative use of over-sailing structures  in timber has a long history, of course, on the posher sort of jettyied buildings.

[73c]

I was told but could very well be wrong, that that is a 'Ring Beam'

[Edwardian]

A number of things going on here.

 

First, I agree with Phil that 'string course' is an appropriate term.

 

Second, his examples are species of classical architecture, which brings us to Kevin's post.  In Phil's example, the 'string course' is representational of an entablature (architrave, frieze, and cornice), i.e. the bit that sits atop temple columns.  On some of the examples Phil posted you also see pilasters representing the columns.

 

Put it this way, on a classical facade, there are always columns and entablatures, but sometimes they're invisible!  The columns and entablatures no longer have a structural function, but are important, even if not actually represented, as they are how a classical architect divides up the space, horizontally and vertically; as if there were columns and entablatures. On a very plain facade, the columns might be entirely 'invisible' and the entablature marked by a string course.

 

Why this is important is because it determines where a string course will run.

 

Third, on the other hand, some buildings will have string courses unassociated with the division of the facade into classical proportions based on the components of temple architecture! A vernacular building, for instance, could throw in a decorative string course wherever it fancied.

 

Fourth, the nice thing about the OP's Mexican example is that it appears to be an extension of the floor, as noted, which returns to the entablature to something functional, rather than merely decorative and representative. 

[Nick Holliday]

Looking at the drawings provided on the website quoted at the beginning, what we have is a substantial edge drop beam to the floor slab, with a boot lintel to support the brickwork. The drawing suggests that the boot lintel is to be left exposed, producing the visible string courses. More often the boot supporting the facade is slightly narrower than the brickwork it is supporting, allowing the concrete to be hidden by a thin slip brick. In this case it is probable that the edge beams have been precast to obtain the high level of finish, as the drawings do not show any cladding, although sometimes a stone panel is cast into the concrete, but, as there are no visible joints it is probably the concrete that is visible.

[phil_sutters]

Funny how we all get highly technical in these threads. The OP was simply asking if whacking a strip of plastic between floors of his HO kit would be a realistic way of heightening the building to match its OO neighbours. Watching the news tonight, I noticed that 10 & 11 Downing Street have plain horizontal whitish strips, if its good enough for those buildings, I consider it is good enough for any. This will of course take this thread off in at least one new direction and probably more.

Night all!

[Michael Hodgson]

String courses were mentioned in one of Portillo's rambles which I saw on the box only last night.  He visited York, where some surviving Roman fortifications had a similar line of red tiles in an otherwise stone wall.

[DougN]

A little note that it would be referred to as a string course. It would be unlikely to be the edge of the floor slab due to the old problem of water entering the building as the bottom course of brick work directly above would allow water penetration through the mortar bed. This is why above there is a boot profile in the down turn beam of the concrete slab. Allowing water to escape out side the building rather than into a floor area. 

 

Facade construction is a specialist area once you get into curtain walling and fire protection with spandrel panels and the such like.  Ok I am taking this away from the topic.... any how back to the topic there is a string course on the NER sigñal boxes which I would like to have a closer look at as they appear to be concrete in some cases. Next time I am in the U.K. I am going to seek out and explore this little detail. 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Off at a further angle, now I’ve been educated about the hows and whys of the edge of the slab.......

 

Would the slab be cast in situ, or lifted into place as large sections, or is it actually a series of cross-beams? I ask because casting in-situ with all that detail would be pretty time-consuming - complicated ‘knitting’ of re-bar, complicated shuttering etc.

 

Just curious, really.

[Nick Holliday]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Off at a further angle, now I’ve been educated about the hows and whys of the edge of the slab.......

 

Would the slab be cast in situ, or lifted into place as large sections, or is it actually a series of cross-beams? I ask because casting in-situ with all that detail would be pretty time-consuming - complicated ‘knitting’ of re-bar, complicated shuttering etc.

 

Just curious, really.

The answer depends on lots of factors, and all three proposed solutions might be used. Much would depend on slab thickness, spans, soffit finish and whether anything has to be cast into the slab, such as electrics or drainage.  The rebar complication will depend on the loads in the slab, and could be fairly simple, with straightforward laps to steel protruding from the pre-cast beam, or possibly a pre-stressed system of cables used.  A precast slab or beam will have reinforcement included, and often it would be a fairly thin slab, resting on the perimeter beam, and an additional layer of reinforcement laid before casting the rest of the slab. Any shuttering for a flat in-situ slab would be pretty simple, and, if required, waffles and troughs could be introduced to give a different finish to the soffit.

[DougN]

A form can be built into any shape really. The boot cross section is straight forward to build just extra whalers, studs and props really. as the form would be closed in once the reinforcing had been tied insitu. The main "problem" for older buildings would have been the vibration of concrete into the voids. Now there are vibrators mounted on petrol motors similar to strimmers (OK dont know the UK term as Australia we call them whipper snippers). These are steel with a weight inside them and about 2inch/ 50mm in diameter which spins around and vibrates the concrete into place (my lecturers would carry on about vibrate in place vs into place as the concrete segregates). the old versions were a motor about 2 times the size of mowers mounted on a upturned dish with a frame which could be pulled round onto of the reinforcing again with a similar "probe"  Now there is a lot of high plasticity concretes with good workability and high strength 50Mpa which will flow into such forms but this technology is relatively recent.  The reinforcing can be in a beam of about 8 inches (200mm) which is the minimum for the ligatures and main bars and to allow the concrete to flow around along with a clearance of 50mm for adequate cover over the reinforcing to stop rusting. Which causes concrete cancer. My understanding of this the carbonisation of the concrete allows for the alkaline concrete structure to be come reduced and allow the reinforcing to rust, expand, spall concrete off the face and generally degrade. 

 

A lot of this depended on the architect and structural engineer to design. and for a "visual appeal". 

 

Re reading all this you can see why when talking about all this concretors have a rye smile on their faces! I wonder what Andy's checker would have made of all this!!!