This book provides an accessible introduction for architecture students to all aspects of architectural structural physics, structural elements and forms, heating, lighting, environmental control, and computer modeling. It will also help students to integrate their design thinking with appropriate structural and environmental solutions.
The book explains the relationships between physical phenomena, materials, building elements, and structural types using simple classification systems and real world examples. In addition, it explores current computer techniques for assisting students to predict the structural and environmental behavior of buildings. It also uses historical precedents to explain how the success of a technology is directly related to its cultural context. This second edition includes new sections on environmental design, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and two new case studies.
Written by three experienced teachers, this book will be invaluable for those contemplating the study of architecture and for those already embarked on such a course.
In those 76 pages, I caught 2 factual errors that drove me crazy (due to poor editing). For example: “the average distance from the earth to the sun is around 93 miles” on page 76.
In my opinion, the book was both too basic and too inaccessible at the same. I think this is due to its ambitious goal of getting each subtopic to fit onto two pages (with one of those pages dedicated to photos).
I hate quitting on a book but there’s a first time for everything.