Skeleton frame
A skeleton frame is a framed structure often used for the construction of multi-storey buildings. It incorporates a network, or system, of columns and connecting beams which support the building’s interior floors and exterior walls and carries all loads to the foundations.
Skeleton frames can be constructed from timber, concrete or structural steel components, with the building envelope formed by glazing, brick, cladding and so on hung on the outside.
The skeleton frame was introduced in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, and allowed for the rapid erection of buildings, such as the early skyscrapers. It enabled interior floor layouts to be free of immovable walls, making them more flexible spaces, and meant that different materials could be used for the facades. This had the effect of reducing the importance of masonry from something that was a structural element to having a more decorative role.
|
| Framework of Flatiron Building. Circa 1901. |
[edit] Find out more
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
- Braced frame structure.
- Concept structural design of buildings.
- Concrete frame.
- Gusset.
- Multi-storey building.
- Portal frame.
- Shell and core.
- Skyscraper.
- Steel frame.
- Structural principles.
- Structural steelwork.
- Structural steelwork: a quality perspective.
- Timber frame.
- Tube structural system.
- Types of frame.
Featured articles and news
Delivering radical reform in the UK energy market
What are the benefits, barriers and underlying principles.
Information Management Initiative IMI
Building sector-transforming capabilities in emerging technologies.
Recent study of UK households reveals chilling home truths
Poor insulation, EPC knowledge and lack of understanding as to what retrofit might offer.
Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment
Overview, regulations, detail calculations and much more.
Why the construction sector must embrace workplace mental health support
Let’s talk; more importantly now, than ever.
Refurbishment for net zero; the BSRIA white paper
The everyday practice of tackling energy efficiency, fabric first, ventilation, air quality, and occupant wellbeing.
Sustainable construction design teams survey
Shaping the Future of Sustainable Design: Your Voice Matters.
Ensuring the trustworthiness of AI systems
A key growth area, including impacts for construction.
Foundations for the Future: A new model for social housing
To create a social housing pipeline, that reduces the need for continuous government funding.
Mutual Investment Models or MIMs
PPP or PFI, enhanced for public interest by the Welsh Government.
Stress Awareness Week ends but employer legal duties continue.
A call to follow the five Rs for the business and for the staff.
Key points and relevance to construction of meeting, due to reconvene.
Cladding remediation programmes, transparency and target date.
National Audit Office issue report on cladding remediation.
HBPT and BEAMS Jubilees. Book review.
Does the first Labour budget deliver for the built environment?
What does the UK Budget mean for electrical contractors?
Mixed response as business pays, are there silver linings?