The Collaboration of the Architect and Engineer in Post-War Building

MR. LESLIE TURNER, who proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the authors, said he was exceedingly pleased to do so for two reasons, firstly, to congratulate them on a really useful piece of research work on concrete which had been carried out in this country; and, secondly, because he was very grateful to them for confirming his own research, to which they had kindly alluded in the paper.

THE reasons leading to the choice of the structure here shown arose as follows: A public building had been erected containing a cinema hall 20 metres long by 16 metres wide, the walls of which had already reached roof level when the work was taken over. The original design provided for reinforced concrete beams in a general way, but as the use of intermediate columns was inadmissible, it was found that a simple beam arrangement spanning the 16 metre opening and carrying the ceiling as well as the roof would prove to be extremely heavy, unsightly and uneconomical. A considerable quantity of cement, 20 mm., 16 mm., and 8 mm. diam. reinforcing steel had already arrived on the site and, the Season being well advanced in a locality of severe winters, work had to be begun without delay; all these reasons limiting the choice of material to reinforced concrete. W. Cramer