I have just returned from Mexico, escaping the snow and the
cold for a 10 day stay. My wife and I took a side trip to a small island on the
Gulf Coast called Holbox. While there we stayed in a palapa that was totally
constructed using local materials. The palapa is a native structure that is
usually round with a peaked roof. The basic frame consisted of wood posts sunk
into the ground with a raised wooden platform. The walls were infilled with
adobe. The roof system consisted of probably 5 inch diameter wood poles running
to the peak with lateral purlins of wood only 1 inch in diameter, spaced at
around 16 inches on center. The roofing material was a grass material laced
into the purlins with twine. I am sure that no licensed engineer was involved
in the project. However the structure and others like it have survived at least
two major hurricanes in the past 20 years that have struck the Yucatan
Peninsula. I am sure there was some repair to be done, however the structures
are still standing.
This all made me think of how structural engineering has
evolved through the millennia. We would build something and if it fell down, we
would try again with either more materials or stronger materials. Structures
evolved over time. In this modern age we can build wonderfully complex
structures, but I wonder if sometimes we have lost the art and craft of
building. The computers and codes tell us what we have to use, but at times we
have lost sense of why things work and sometimes common sense seems to have
gone out the proverbial window. I guess that is a sign of getting older and
ruing about the olden days. As John Waller once told me he could produce a set
of drawings for an Elementary School for Virginia Beach on 8 sheets and they
were all still standing. I am thankful for all the design aids we have these
days, but sometimes we need to remember exactly how we have reached this point
in design and try to retain some of the art and craftsmanship.
