Mastering Hybrid Roof Structures via Students’ Research Activity

Hybrid roofs have advantages over ordinary building constructions. They are promising from the architectural point of view and comprise recyclable materials thus complying with the concept of sustainable development of the modern society. Hybrid roofs are, however, sophisticated building constructions which require competent specialists to bring them to life.The present paper illustrates the problem-based strategy for mastering the hybrid roofs. The whole roof system is split into the main cable structure and supporting structures which can be improved and investigated separately. Flexible and rigid supporting structures are considered and analyzed. It allows raising the problems of high deformability of the roof and undesirable partitioning of the internal space of the building, as well as the problem of large horizontal forces (the thrust) induced by vertical external loads. The main cable structure is adopted in the form of a ‘tensegrity’-system, which primarily consists of continuous flexible elements. Different embodiments are considered in order to illustrate the process of continuous structural enhancement.