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66 Understanding the project e design process Understanding the space Organising the space e human interface Sustainable design Communicating design Understanding building structures Building construction principles As previously described, all buildings are subject to various forces that must be resisted if the building is not to collapse. Although the fi rst structures in history were built through intuition rather than any theoretical understanding, they used many of the same principles that underpin building construction today. Essentially, the structure of almost every building can be described in one of two ways; they are either frame or load-bearing. ese two terms describe how the loads that the building experiences are transmi ed to the foundations. Framed structures Framed structures are essentially a collection of horizontal beams (forming each fl oor level) that transmit forces to vertical columns. ese columns in turn provide a pathway through which the forces can travel downwards to the foundations and from there into the ground. e vertical columns may form the walls at the perimeter of the building, or they may be distributed throughout the space. Where they are part of a wall structure, they will be covered with suitable materials to create the fi nished walls. When positioned within the space, two or more columns may be joined to create internal divisions, or they may be le as discrete columns. e great benefi t of this multi-level framework is that, because the columns are transmi ing the loads vertically, solid-wall structures are not needed to support the fl oors above, and can therefore be omi ed (creating large open-plan spaces punctuated by the supporting columns), or walls can be created using non- structural materials such as glass. Framed structures allow us to build high-rise buildings that are o en characterised by facades apparently composed entirely of glass, though the materials used for these curtain walls (that are mechanically suspended off the frame) can be practically anything. Radical architects of the Bauhaus movement in Germany in the 1920s fi rst conceived the use of glass in this innovative way. Because of the strength of frames, buildings can be made very tall. It was the development of framed structures in the la er part of the nineteenth century that lead to the fi rst high-rise buildings. If the internal divisions are not carrying any load (other than their own weight), they can be moved or altered without the need for any signifi cant interventions to the surrounding structure in order to maintain its integrity. For the designer, therefore, framed structures can give a lot of freedom in planning spaces.