Masonry Magazine April 1965 Page. 22
Special Report:
On a subject of great importance
to the entire Masonry Industry
The Contemporary Bearing Wall
By James G. Gross, Director, Engineering & Technology
Structural Clay Products Institute
There are major changes taking place in architectural design today. There are trends away from openness and lightness towards mass and substance, away from transparency and flimsiness to pattern and texture, away from applied finish to finish and structure in one. Loadbearing brick masonry has much to offer today's designer in his quest for these qualities in building.
Bearing-wall construction is the construction of the past. The last major building utilizing loadbearing construction was the Monadnock Building, finished in 1893, designed by one of the leaders of the Chicago school, John W. Root. Ironically, the designer of this 70-year old building was also one of the founders of the structural frame, which was first receiving attention at that time.
Today we are seeing the development of a new structural system. It is still a wall-bearing system, but it is completely new in concept. The six-foot thick walls of the Monadnock Building were designed entirely by rule-of-thumb and depend upon gravity for their stability. In the design of wall-bearing structures today, the walls and floors are designed to work together, each giving strength to the other so that relatively thin walls can carry great loads. This reinterest in the use of clay masonry structural systems first developed in Europe. But we are also seeing increased interest in this system here in the United States.
European Buildings
The tallest loadbearing building in the world is a multi-story apartment building near Zurich, Switzerland. This 18-story building, finished in 1957, has exterior walls approximately 15 inches thick, and interior loadbearing walls approximately 5, 6 and 7 inches in thickness. Exterior walls were selected for their thermal insulation rather than their strength. They could have been thinner if strength had been the sole consideration. Reinforced concrete two-way slabs bearing on the walls provide the structural floor. During recent inspections no horizontal cracks were observed where stucco covers the concrete structural slab in the brick wall. This is attributed to the resistance to movement offered by the bearing wall structural system.
There are a number of apartment buildings near Biel, Switzerland, in which the exterior walls are loadbearing cavity walls approximately 1254 inches in thickness with the interior 6-inch brick wythe carrying the floor loads. Cavity walls used in the Biel