Designing Long Spans
Columns ruin the best rooms.
Learn to make them vanish.
Unlock the structures behind vast open spaces — halls, terminals and arenas — and gain the confidence to design generous rooms that nothing interrupts.
Long spans will feel like a chance, not a risk, to you.
- Span with confidence — understand trusses, arches and cables and what each achieves
- Shape structure beautifully — turn raw engineering necessity into the drama of the room
- Know the limits — sense when a span is ambitious and when it is fantasy
- Control depth and cost — balance structural height against budgets and floor levels
- Collaborate at high level — work with engineers on signature spaces as a true partner
- Pitch bold rooms — sell uninterrupted space to clients with technical credibility
Built by one of the most-read architecture platforms in the world.
RTF | Rethinking The Future has spent over a decade publishing the ideas, projects and voices shaping architecture — and now brings that depth to learning. Every course is researched, written and produced by the RTF team.
Big rooms need brave, informed architects.
A clear path. Five steps.
Everything unlocks instantly with membership · learn at your own pace
If you see yourself here, start today.
A few hours from now, you could already see differently.
Long spans made me nervous, so my designs quietly avoided them. Understanding trusses, portal frames, cables and shells as a menu with clear logics removed the fear. My latest project has a forty-metre roof and I chose the system myself, deliberately.
Simple by design.
Watch
Short, focused video lessons — each one a single idea, clearly explained.
Apply
End every lesson with a small task that pushes your real project forward.
Transform
Watch your work develop a point of view that is unmistakably yours.
Answered simply.
When do long-span structures actually appear in practice?
Sports halls, markets, airports, auditoriums, warehouses — whenever columns must disappear. Knowing the options makes you the person trusted with those briefs.
Is this too advanced without a structures background?
No — it builds on visual intuition about trusses, arches and cables, and every system is explained through built examples.
Do I need any prior experience?
No. Every course starts from where you are and builds up step by step, in plain language.
Is this software training?
No — software changes yearly. The thinking you learn here lasts a career.
How does it work?
Short video lessons with a small practice task after each. Any device, your pace.
What does membership include?
One membership unlocks every course on RTF Academy — all 450+, nothing sold separately. And you stay in control: cancel anytime in one click, and you will never be charged again.
Ready to see your work change?
Your next project could be the one that feels truly yours.
- 5 Sections
- 25 Lessons
- 4 Hours
- 1. What It Does and How It Fails5
- 2. The Options Compared5
- 3. The Detail5
- 4. Performance5
- 5. Specifying and Building It5
Reviews
Online and at your own pace.
Get access to all learning content
and every RTF Academy course with RTF Academy Pro
Long spans made me nervous, so my designs quietly avoided them. Understanding trusses, portal frames, cables and shells as a menu with clear logics removed the fear. My latest project has a forty-metre roof and I chose the system myself, deliberately.
You might be interested in
-
0 Students
-
25 Lessons
-
0 Students
-
25 Lessons
-
0 Students
-
25 Lessons
-
0 Students
-
25 Lessons
Sign up to receive our latest updates
Explore Courses
Policy
- © 2026 RTF Academy | Rethinking The Future. All Rights Reserved
- Connect with us