© © Christa Lachenmaier / © HPP/ASTOC
Next to timber and steel, on rare occasions reinforced concrete is also used as a material for trusses. In the cafeteria building on the campus of Ruhr West University of Applied Sciences, such a truss makes a 10-m cantilever of the upper storey dininghall possible. This overhang creates a versatile, generous and protected outdoor spacein the middle of the campus. The spaceforms the forecourt area in front of the coffee shop on the ground floor. Thanks to thetruss, the added construction costs for thecolumn-free space were manageable, sincepillars would have been needed along theupper-storey dining hall facade in any case in order to support the roof. These 40 ≈ 40 cm pillars are now inclined at 60°, with about half of the diagonal members under tension instead of compression.