Students and faculty observe the results of crushing a concrete slab.

Crushing Concrete

Published July 18, 2017 This content is archived.

The slab (a beam stretched thin) is perhaps the most ubiquitous and yet under-appreciated of all structural elements. They are present in virtually all of our buildings as they form the floors upon which we walk and the ceilings and roofs just above our heads.

In doing so, they clearly have load-carrying capacity and tremendous space-making architectural potential. Students of the Structures 3 course were tasked with designing a slab based on an optimized strength-to-weight ratio that feeds of a mode of experimentation.