Final answer:
Whether a wall is loadbearing typically depends on the building's design and structure. Historically, interior walls had to be loadbearing due to material and engineering limits, while modern techniques allow for alternative support structures, enabling more design flexibility with non-loadbearing exterior walls in some cases.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question of whether interior or exterior walls are nearly always loadbearing walls depends on the building design and structure. By definition, load-bearing walls are crucial for the structure's stability because they support the weight of the elements above them. Historically, this meant that interior walls were often designed to bear loads due to limitations in materials and engineering, such as the need for stacking and piling where walls needed to be thicker at the base. However, with modern engineering techniques such as those used by Mies van der Rohe, the load-bearing function can be transferred to steel frames allowing exterior walls to be non-load-bearing, like the glass curtain wall concept in skyscrapers.
In older or traditional constructions, such as Romanesque churches or buildings with stone vaulting, interior walls needed to be thick and have limited openings to support the weight and handle the pressures exerted by the roof. Conversely, in contemporary residential buildings, it's common that exterior walls are load-bearing, providing structural support, particularly in houses that follow the post-and-lintel principle. Nevertheless, modern construction techniques have allowed for a variety of designs where not all interior walls are needed to bear loads, thanks to alternative support structures like columns and beams.