Product Description

Between a nomad's tent and the Sears Tower lies a revolution in technology, materials, and structures. Here is a clear and enthusiastic introduction to building methods from ancient times to the present day. B/W line drawings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #125845 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 328 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393306767
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Parts you slog through, parts you gobble
Salvadori clearly explains, with the invaluable aid of lots of little pictures, how and why buildings stand up. There are chapters on cathedrals, the Eiffel Tower, the Hagia Sophia, bridges, domes, and so forth. The chapter on wind is particularly fascinating--I found out a lot of things I'd had no idea of. Other chapters, like "Form-Resistant Structures," were pretty deadly dull. Overall, though, the book was well worth reading. It's not always entertaining, but it's always informative, and sometimes tremendously interesting.

clear and understandable
This is a book that sums-up alot of material about loads, properties of building materials, beams and columns, and translates it into the strength of modern structures. I found the book fascinating and it answered many questions, among them why the height vs base of the pyramids automatically contain the value of PI. This book discussed the anchoring of todays skyscrapers and large structures. This is a book that explains where the forces and loads are projected and how they are contained and countered without getting into the mathematical aspect of it. This author did an excellent job in conveying
the logic behind structural engineering. Well done.

Why do buildings keep standing up?
This book was recommended to me by my architecture professor and it is well worth reading. Without going into too much physics the author explains clearly the importance of forces like wind on structures like bridges, skyscrapers, domes etc. To illustrate these infuences there are chapters on some of the architectural wonders of the world: Eiffel Tower, Pyramids, Brooklyn Bridge and Aya Sofia to name but a few.

There are no photographs in this book but crudely drawn pictures, which actually makes the reader understand the concepts better.

If you like buildings and architecture in general this book is instrumental in the understandings of why buildings stand up.