Structurally sound: Masters of Structure: engineering today's innovative buildings.MASTERS OF STRUCTURE: ENGINEERING TODAY'S INNOVATIVE BUILDINGS. By Sutherland Sutherland or Sutherlandshire, former county, N Scotland. Under the Local Government Act of 1973, Sutherland became (1975) part of the new Highland region (now a council area). Lyall, London London, city, Canada London, city (1991 pop. 303,165), SE Ont., Canada, on the Thames River. The site was chosen in 1792 by Governor Simcoe to be the capital of Upper Canada, but York was made capital instead. London was settled in 1826. : Laurence King, 2003. [pounds sterling]45 Sutherland Lyall has always been a strong advocate of the principle that engineers should get more recognition for the work they do in collaboration Working together on a project. See collaborative software. with architects, and this book is a very good apologia ap·o·lo·gi·a n. A formal defense or justification. See Synonyms at apology. [Latin, apology; see apology. for the influence of engineers and engineering on architecture. It has an extensive introduction followed by 25 case studies of building structures, mainly throughout Europe but some worldwide. The first paragraph of the flyleaf fly·leaf n. A blank or specially printed leaf at the beginning or end of a book. flyleaf Noun pl -leaves the inner leaf of the endpaper of a book Noun 1. begins: 'Sometimes architects design extraordinary buildings, but in accepting the praise for innovation and creativity, especially the case of unusual building forms, the contribution of the building's engineer is forgotten. This book seeks to set the record straight through the examination of some of the most significant engineers working today, together with a selection of the most remarkable recent buildings'. In his introduction, the author refers to the fact that engineering has developed all the new materials and techniques including iron, steel, glass and reinforced concrete reinforced concrete Concrete in which steel is embedded in such a manner that the two materials act together in resisting forces. The reinforcing steel—rods, bars, or mesh—absorbs the tensile, shear, and sometimes the compressive stresses in a concrete and has been in the forefront of prefabrication prefabrication, in architectural construction, a technique whereby large units of a building are produced in factories to be assembled, ready-made, on the building site. The technique permits the speedy erection of very large structures. techniques. The author quotes Sigfried Giedion's Space, Time and Architecture, where Giedion said that 'the seeds of the architecture of our [present] day were to be found in technical developments'. Giedion also said of the great bridge engineer Maillart, 'in designing the bridge Maillart began by eliminating all that was nonfunctional; thus everything that remained was an immediate part of the structure'. This surely is the art of engineering. It is interesting to note that, almost without exception, the examples illustrated are non-orthogonal; building structures have moved on from the cartesian grids of the late twentieth century. The case studies present clear and understandable descriptions of the structural design and details of the projects. At last, engineers are beginning to get the recognition that they justly deserve. Both young engineers and architects should be inspired by this book to join the spirit of collaboration between the two disciplines. And a copy of Masters of Structure should be on the desk of all today's practising architects. Book reviews from this and recent issues of The Architectural Review The Architectural Review is a monthly international architectural magazine published in London since 1896. Articles cover the built environment which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism as well as theory of these subjects. can now be seen on our website at www.arplus.com and the books can be ordered online, many at special discount. |
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