These buildings are distinguished by pronounced

• patterns of columns, skeletal structures,

• large spans of their floors, and
• the new methods of dividing large wall surfaces by strips of glass in meta
l frames;
• they exercised significant influence on 20th-century architecture as a who
le.

• Characteristic features include

• large and long facades;
• large, unbroken blank walls and
• glasssurfaces, corresponding to a single, undivided internal space;
• and repeated faces of parallel spans.
• Other features are peaked, stepped, or curvilinear roofs;
• distinctive stairwells;
• and various engineering structures, such as flues and ventilationducts, pip
elines, and exposed equipment.
• The appearance of industrial building depends in great part on the artistic
treatment of the materials and structures used, the shape of structures, the
system used to divide walls into prefabricatedelements, the surface finish,
and the color of structural and finishing materials. This is especially true
when prefabricationmethods of construction are used. Glare
reducers, sun deflectors, decorative lattices, and other elements for provid
ing shadegreatly affect the appearance of industrial buildings in southern
regions.
Industrial buildings are classified according to certain basic characteristics. The
most important of these is the number of stories: one, two, or more.
Based on the handling equipment used, buildings are classified as either crane-
equipped (withelectric overhead cranes or with electric or manual suspension cr
anes) or as non-crane-equipped.
Based on the type of illumination, buildings are said to have
 natural illumination (side and overhead),
 permanent artificial illumination (withoutwindows or skylights),
 or combined illumination (both natural and artificial).

According to the type of air exchange systemused, buildings are said to have
 total natural ventilation,
 mechanical ventilation, or
 air conditioning.

Based on temperature control in production areas, buildings are classified as

 heated or
 nonheated.

Onestory industrial buildings are the most common type to be found at industria
l enterprises and constitute 75 to 80 percent of
total industrial construction today. They usually house industrial works with hea
vy-duty production and handling equipment;
works involved in the production of large and bulky items;or works in which ex
cess heat, smoke, dust, and gases are released during operations. One-
story industrial buildings create favorable conditions for the efficient organizati
on oftechnological processes and the modernization of equipment.
They allow the bases of heavy equipment and units with largedynamic loads to
be placed directly on the ground and they also provide uniform illumination and
natural ventilation offacilities by means of lighting and ventilation fixtures in th
e roof. Compared to multistory buildings, however, one-storybuildings require l
arger areas and therefore larger expenditures to prepare building sites.
In large-scale construction, industrial buildings are mostly one-story, crane-
equipped, multispan, and rectangular in plan, withskylights that provide overhea
d natural lighting and ventilation by means of aeration devices or mechanical sy
stems. Such
industrial buildings are characteristic of enterprises in ferrous metallurgy, machi
ne building, metalworking, and theconstruction-materials industry. When produ
ction processes involve considerable release of heat or harmful gases, the roofou
tline of industrial buildings is determined by aerodynamic design to optimize th
e conditions for removal of heated orpolluted air. Removal is accomplished by
means of thermal or wind pressure through vents and shafts in the roof.

When production processes require certain prescribed and stabilized conditions

of temperature, humidity, and air purity, one-story multispan industrial buildings
are built with suspended ceilings. The ceilings separate the floor where engineer
ingequipment and supply lines are located (in the space between the trusses) fro
m the main area of the building, which can thenbe safely isolated from the envir
onmental effects. Such buildings usually lack skylights and are equipped with ar
tificiallighting, mechanical ventilation, and air conditioning. They are used in th
e manufacture of radio and electronic equipment,instruments, and precision tool
s; they are also used in the chemical industry to manufacture synthetic fibers as
well as in thetextile industry.
The following design parameters are characteristic of large one-story buildings:
12–36-m spans, 6–12-m column spacings,5–12-m ceiling heights in non-crane-
equipped buildings, and 10–12-m ceiling heights in crane-equipped buildings. E
nlarged
column networks are used in certain cases to provide a more efficient use of the
manufacturing area and better operationalconditions for equipment. When prod
uction conditions require large spans and high ceilings, one-story industrial buil
dingsmay have spans as great as 100 m; such buildings are used at enterprises th
at build ships, airplanes, and transportmachinery. In the chemical and sugar-
refining industries, it is advantageous to construct one-story industrial buildings
thathave their equipment in shelves; these buildings are called industrial pavilio
ns.
Multistory buildings are constructed mainly for plants that have to organize vert
ical (gravity-flow) production processes. They
are also built for plants that use relatively lightweight and small-scale equipmen
t, including plants that build precisionmachinery and instruments, plants in light
industry, and plants in the electronics, radio-engineering, food-processing, andpr
inting industries. Multistory industrial buildings are usually illuminated naturall
y by light that is admitted through side inlets;wide multistory buildings have co
mbined illumination systems.
In large-scale construction, most multistory industrial buildings have three to six
floors and ceiling loads of 5–10 kN/m2. When land area is limited, industrial bui
ldings may have ten or more stories. Modern multistory buildings usually have
columnnetworks of 6 m × 6 m, 9 m × 6 m, or 12 m × 6 m, and there is a tendenc
y to use even more extended networks. The totalwidth of multistory industrial b
uildings is usually 36–48 m. In multistory buildings designed for processes with
strictrequirements for air purity and temperature and humidity stability, technica
l floors are constructed for engineering equipmentand supply lines; the supply li
nes may be located within the trusses of intermediate floors. There is a tendency
to makegreater use of multistory industrial buildings in industrial construction b
ecause of the need to economize on urban sites andlands suitable for agricultural
use.
The most common industrial buildings today are wide two-story multispan indu
strial buildings with expanded columnnetworks and natural overhead lighting. I
n such buildings, the major production operations are located mostly on the seco
ndfloor, with storage and space for heavy equipment on the first floor. Variants
of two-story industrial buildings include buildingswith a lower technical floor,
which are used in foundry and in rolling plants, and buildings with an intermedi
ate technical floor,which are used for production processes with strict requireme
nts for a stable internal microclimate.
No matter how many stories they have, modern industrial buildings generally ha
ve framed structures, with a reinforced-concrete, steel, or combined skeleton. T
he choice of skeleton depends on operating conditions, considerations related to
saving on major construction materials, and the extent of investment in the build
ing.
One-story industrial buildings generally have skeletons in the shape of cross fra
mes, with columns embedded in thefoundation and rafter beams or trusses hinge
d to the columns. The longitudinal stability of the framework is ensured by asyst
em of rigid ties between the columns. In one-story industrial buildings, this syst
em consists of foundation, tie, and cranebeams and roofing elements (girders an
d decking) in addition to frames. The reinforced-concrete frames of one-
storyindustrial buildings are usually precast, but parts of them may be cast in sit
u. The protective structures of the roofs of suchindustrial buildings are made of
precast concrete slabs or as thin-walled reinforced-concrete shells and corrugati
ons thatcombine pre-casting and casting in situ.
The columns, trusses, and girders used in the steel skeletons of one-story industr
ial buildings are made of rolled sections(channel beams, I-beams, and angle bra
ckets) or sheet steel and open thin-walled and tubular bent sections. The roofs of
metal-frame industrial buildings generally take the form of light decking made o
f sectional sheet steel or asbestos panelsalong steel girders. In industrial buildin
gs with combined skeletons, the columns are made of reinforced concrete, the ra
ftersare made of steel, and the roofs are made of reinforced-concrete slabs. Incre
asingly, metal structural elements are beingused for the roofs of industrial buildi
ngs; the elements exist in the form of steel crossbeam space structures with a lig
htdecking of sheet materials. The use of industrial prefabricated wood structural
elements in industrial buildings is alsogrowing.
Reinforced-concrete frames are the type most often used in the construction of
multistory industrial buildings. These frameseither accommodate horizontal forc
es by means of rigid frame joints or consist of a bridging system that transfers th
ehorizontal forces to diaphragms, stairwell walls, and elevator shafts. The frame
work of a multistory industrial building isgenerally made of precast units or is p
artially cast in situ, with or without bridging joists. Joist floors consist of joists r
esting onprojecting or hidden column corbels and smooth pierced or ribbed slab
s supported by joist flanges. Beamless flooring isusually used in industrial build
ings in which the production process requires smooth ceilings, as in the food-
processingindustry, warehouses, and cold-storage warehouses. In the beam-less
method, the flat slabs of the intermediate floor aresupported by column heads or
rest directly on columns, with rigid cross reinforcement within the flooring to se
rve as columnheads. Beamless flooring structures of industrial buildings are ma
de largely of concrete cast in situ; in some cases, the lift-slab method is used.
For the upper floors of two-story industrial buildings with column networks that
are extended relative to the first floor, thedesigns of one-story industrial buildin
gs are generally used. Floors are made with beam structures that have steel orrei
nforced-concrete spandrel beams, bars, and reinforced-concrete decking.
The wall structures of industrial buildings are either self-supporting or enclosure
types (framed). The major types of wallstructures used for heated industrial buil
dings are large panels made of light-weight or cellular concrete and enclosures
madeof thin sheet steel, aluminum, asbestos cement, and other sheet materials w
ith efficient insulation. Wall structures ofunheated industrial buildings and shop
s that release excess heat are usually made of reinforced-concrete panels, with li
ghtervariants made of corrugated sheets of asbestos cement, sectioned sheet stee
l, or fiberglass.
In the future, widespread
standardization of design may serve as the basis for a transition to total-
prefabricated construction of industrial buildings from
structures and elements manufactured in factory-construction combines. Moder
n construction is characterized by a tendency
to minimize the weight of structural members in order to reduce consumption of
materials and the cost of construction andinstallation. In line with this,
the reinforced-concrete structural members used in industrial buildings are bein
g improved through the use of high-strength concrete and concrete with light-
weight aggregates. Metal structures are being improved through the use of high-
strength steel and aluminum alloys and thin-walled rolled and bent sections. Im
provement of metal
structures is also related to the introduction of prestressed metal structures and t
he construction of light-weight industrial-building systems that make use of thin
sheet-covered surfaces.