Developments in Structural Form - Hardcover

Mainstone, Professor Rowland J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0750628936 ISBN 13: 9780750628938

Publisher: Architectural Press, 1998

Synopsis

In the critically acclaimed first edition of this book, Mainstone offered a brilliant and highly original account of the structural developments that have made possible the achievements of architects and bridge builders throughout history.

In this extensively revised and expanded new edition, the story is brought up to date with the incorporation of new insights and a full coverage of recent developments in both design and construction.
The book identifies features that distinguish the forms built by man from those shaped by nature and discusses the physical and other constraints on the choices that can be made. It then looks in turn at all the elementary forms - arches, domes, beams, slabs and the like - which combine into the more complex forms of complete structures, and at the different classes of the complete forms themselves. The development of each form is traced chronologically, but with an emphasis less on the chronology than on the problems that designers have continually faced in trying to serve new ends with limited means or to serve old ones in new ways. The book concludes with a chapter on the processes of design, showing how the designer's freedom of choice has been widened by a growing understanding of structural behaviour.

360 photographs and drawings, mostly original and prepared by the author himself, including over 100 that are new, accompany the richly imaged text.
Covers all aspects of structure providing the reader with a comprehensive text on the subject
Learn from the vast knowledge of this experienced author
Over 300 photographs and drawings make the book easy to comprehend

About this title

Review

'This is a remarkable book, conceived in an original way and one which, so far as I know, has not previously been attempted.'
Sir John Summerson.

'This book should be an inspiration to all architects. . . (it) will become a classic in the history of conservation. . . a remarkable book. It must be studied.'
Sir Bernard Feilden

'Mainstone has been everywhere and seen everything. This is a book for architects, structural engineers and architectural historians - and also for anyone interested in the genesis of structural form.'
Architectural Research Quarterly

'It is a treat to have a second edition of such a treasured book.'
Tony Hunt, The Architectural Review

'No other single volume challenges this new edition of Mainstone as an informed and readable account of its fascinating subject.'
Construction History

About the Author

Rowland Mainstone is an honorary architect as well as being a civil and structural engineer. Though chiefly engaged for some 30 years in research into many aspects of the design of buildings and bridges today, he has also undertaken extensive studies of their earlier history. More recently he has been a consultant on the structural conservation of historic buildings and a visiting professor of architecture and structure at several universities in this country and abroad.

Edition details

• Publisher: Architectural Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0750628936
• ISBN 13: 9780750628938
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 384