Fundamentals
Hospital and Imaging Equipment Loads
A hospital floor is a set of very different zones, not one rate. Scanner masses, shielding, vibration criteria, and the loads hanging from the soffit.
Elena Marchetti··11 min
Load paths
Lift Machine, Shaft and Pit Loads
A lift touches the structure in three places: the head, the rail brackets, and the pit. Dynamic factors, shaft walls, and why pits float.
Sam Rivera··12 min
Fundamentals
Library and Archive Storage Loads
Shelved paper is heavier per square metre than almost anything else a building holds. Static stacks, mobile shelving on rails, and why deflection governs.
Sam Rivera··11 min
Fundamentals
Assembly and Crowd Loads Explained
Assembly floors are where people really do reach the code value. Unreduced rates, synchronised movement, barrier horizontal loads, stages and stairs.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Load paths
CLT and Timber Frame Load Takedowns
The method is the same, the proportions are not. Timber self-weight is a quarter of concrete, so live load dominates and connections govern.
Sam Rivera··12 min
Fundamentals
Construction Loads, Shoring and Reshoring
The heaviest load a slab carries usually arrives before the building is finished. Wet concrete, props, stacked pallets, and how load shares between levels.
Sam Rivera··11 min
Fundamentals
Swimming Pool Loads on a Suspended Slab
Water is 9.81 kPa per metre of depth, permanent and exact. Depth profiles, tank self-weight, balance tanks, and why an empty pool can govern.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Earth Pressure Loads on Basement Walls
Earth pressure depends on whether the wall can move, not on what it looks like. At-rest versus active, water as its own case, surcharge, and uplift.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Load paths
Crane and Hoist Loads on Building Structures
A crane never loads a building the way its tonnage suggests. Wheel reactions, hoisting impact, lateral surge, and where each lands in a column takedown.
Sam Rivera··10 min
Load paths
Slab Openings and Tributary Area
An opening redirects load, it does not delete it. Trimming beam reactions, punching shear near columns, repeating voids, and the conservation check.
Elena Marchetti··11 min
Workflow & tools
Beam Self-Weight Allowance in Load Takedowns, Closed Out
Guess, size, replace, confirm: how beam self-weight enters a takedown, the junction double-count that biases frames, and why the skeleton is 15-30 percent.
Elena Marchetti··10 min
Fundamentals
Facade and Cladding Loads on Edge Beams, Made Explicit
Curtain wall or precast, the facade is an eccentric line load with a strict deflection contract. How cladding weight, torsion, and wind load the edge members.
Elena Marchetti··10 min