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Elements and Materials

Load-Bearing Wall

Structural Principle

A wall that carries the weight of the structure above it down to the foundation, rather than merely enclosing space. It was the primary structural system of masonry construction until the development of the steel frame and the reinforced concrete frame in the nineteenth century, which transferred the building load to a skeleton of columns and beams and allowed the outer wall to become a lightweight, non-structural curtain wall instead.

Facts
Element Kind
Structural Principle 1
First Used Era
Prehistoric and ancient, the earliest masonry construction 1
Era
Era (category)
Prehistoric (general/unspecified) 1
Connections

Associated With

Adobe, Elements and Materials
Buttress, Elements and Materials

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Source Buttress (Wikipedia)
Fired Brick, Architectural Materials
Rammed Earth, Elements and Materials

Critiqued Here

Curtain Wall, Elements and Materials

The curtain wall replaced the load-bearing wall as the outer skin once the steel and reinforced-concrete frame carried the structural load instead.

Source Wikipedia
Additional Source Curtain Wall (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases

Era Of Origin

Prehistory

Also in History Atlas: the era this subject comes from.

Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Wikipedia: Load-bearing wall
    A load-bearing wall or bearing wall is a wall that is an active structural element of a building, which holds the weight of the elements above it, by conducting its weight to a foundation structure below it.
  • Wikipedia: Load-bearing wall, history section
    The development of the flying buttress in Gothic architecture allowed structures to maintain an open interior space, transferring more weight to the buttresses instead of to central bearing walls.
  • English Wikipedia, Load-bearing wall, lead section, first sentence
    A load-bearing wall or bearing wall is a wall that is an active structural element of a building, which holds the weight of the elements above it, by conducting its weight to a foundation structure below it.
  • In Category: Elements and Materials
View the Source
Buttress (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Buttress, Lead
Quote, Associated With: Buttress, Lead
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall.
View the Source
Curtain Wall (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Curtain WallView the Source
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