Tube (structure)

In structural engineering, the tube is a system where, to resist lateral loads (wind, seismic, impact), a building is designed to act like a hollow cylinder, cantilevered perpendicular to the ground. This system was introduced by Fazlur Rahman Khan while at the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), in their Chicago office.^[1] The first example of the tube's use is the 43-story Khan-designed DeWitt-Chestnut Apartment Building, since renamed Plaza on DeWitt, in Chicago, Illinois, finished in 1966.^[2]

The system can be built using steel, concrete, or composite construction (the discrete use of both steel and concrete). It can be used for office, apartment, and mixed-use buildings. Most buildings of over 40 stories built since the 1960s are of this structural type.

^ Weingardt, Richard (2005). Engineering Legends. ASCE Publications. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7844-0801-8.
^ Beedle, Lynn S.; Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (1986). Advances in tall buildings. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-442-21599-6.

[1] Weingardt, Richard (2005). Engineering Legends. ASCE Publications. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7844-0801-8.

[2] Beedle, Lynn S.; Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (1986). Advances in tall buildings. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-442-21599-6.

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