Shaping Structures: Statics (Simplified Design Guides)
Category: Books,Engineering & Transportation,Engineering
Shaping Structures: Statics (Simplified Design Guides) Details
From the Publisher This book uses the basic conditions of statics to show readers how to understand and create elegant, highly efficient forms for suspended and cable-stayed structures, arches, trusses, and shells. It offers a contextual understanding of the natural flow of forces and shows how to calculate the stresses of various forms using both numerical and graphical techniques. Throughout the book, the authors inspire their readers by analyzing and illustrating in detail the simple, powerful design techniques of the world's great engineers and architects. It is an innovative, highly visual book that can be used for the "statics" portion of the mandatory structures sequence in the architecture curriculum. Read more From the Back Cover In Shaping Structures, an engineer and an architect, both longtime teachers of structures at major American universities, collaborate to present an inspired synthesis of the creative and the technical, explicating both the principles of statics and their application to the fascinating task of finding good form for structures. This richly visual volume features: * An easily understood development of the fundamentals of statics * Step-by-step demonstrations, using both numerical and graphical techniques, of simple yet powerful methods for finding form and forces for arched structures, suspended structures, cable-stayed structures, and highly efficient trusses * 120 photographs and more than 300 crisp drawings that illustrate and explain the magnificent structural triumphs of master architects and engineers -including Gustave Eiffel's famous tower, Robert Maillart's soaring bridges, Pier Luigi Nervi's landmark Turin Exhibition Hall, and many others * Calculations in both SI metric and conventional units throughout the book Requiring only the most rudimentary mathematical background yet accurate and fully functional, Shaping Structures provides an inviting point of entry to the study of structural design for engineering and architecture students -proving that the science of statics doesn't have to be lifeless, simplistic, or dull. Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
The lack of answers to the study questions in this book was part of what prompted me to go back to school for a degree in architecture. Now that I have earned my degree, I am using this book to study for the structures portion of the ARE. The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is that I cannot find a resource with solutions to the end of chapter questions so that I might check my work. The lack of solutions in this text book undercuts its value. I have the same problem with "free online courses" that promote themselves as a way to bring knowledge to the masses, when without a way to check ones answers, the process of learning is severely truncated. Our culture's obsession with winning at any cost, and in this case, what I'm assuming is a fear of cheating in order to win at any cost, undermines the possibility of learning for those of us who just want to understand the world around us.
