Customer Reviews

Why Buildings Fall Down: How Structures Fail

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Such is our morbid fascination that this book is inevitably more attractive than one called "Why Buildings Stay Up". That said, I think I have not only learned more about structural engineering than I would have done from a positive counterpart, but I have also learned vastly more about the other factors, human and natural, that influence the ultimate success or failure of structures.

The book is based on the same material as the late 1990s TV series of the same name, and having watched that series many of the incidents and issues were familiar to me. The advantage of the book is the ability to digest information at your own speed and refer back to earlier pages, but it has to be said that the TV series communicated some of the issues better, helped by animated graphics and by the better mutual support of both pictures and narrative.

Each chapter takes a topic, whether a human factor like the law, a type of construction such as the dome, or a cause of failure such as metal fatigue, and then illustrates the issues by consideration of a number of case studies, frequently including some notable successes as well as dramatic failures. In the case of failures the book always attempts to assess both the practical cause, and also any human cause, impact and implications.

The book is very well written, in an accessible style supported by some useful appendixes on structural engineering principles. However, sometimes the simple line drawings and verbal descriptions of a structure don't manage to communicate a full understanding, and more sophisticated illustrations might have helped.

Mario Salvadori died in 1997 (at the good age of 90), and the surviving author, Matthys Levy updated the book in 2002. My feelings on the update are mixed: the chapter on terrorism, culminating with the collapse of the New York Trade Centre towers on September 11th 2001 is excellent; but why did the author not acknowledge the brilliant success of efforts to stabilise the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the late 1990s?

Overall I heartily recommend this book to anyone with a serious or lay interest in structural engineering, and the many complex human and natural issues which influence it.

We see all the time buildings working as they should (i.e., standing up and not collapsing), however, it is very interesting to read of some real life collapses. Salvadori does an excellant job of writing so that people without a technical background can understand why these structures failed. And he writes with such detail that engineers are not bored by lack of detail. Simpley explained, fully detailed, and thoroughly researched. Excellant book for anyone who is interested in buildings, structures, or failures

If you have read the book 'Why Buildings stand up' you should definitely read this one, since it is much more interesting to know why certain buildings collapse, since this makes the news.

There are some chapters almost the same as the first book, but most chapters are case studies on bridges (the famous galloping Gertie in Washington State), explosions, structural failures etc. An extra chapter is added to explain the collapse of the the World Trade Center Towers after the September 11 Attacks in 2001. Also 5 Appendixes are added dealing with stress, loads and more engineering things, which can also be found on the PBS site on buildings.

This was a great introduction to the fundamentals of building science - understanding why things don't work is a great help in understanding why they do. Each chapter discusses one example of something that went wrong and explains another reason why structures can fail.

An entertaining book for readers who know about structures, and an educational book for lay readers, WHY BUILDINGS FALL DOWN is an interesting collection of case studies concerning building failures. Never condescending, but never too technical, it's a fun way to learn about architecture or structural engineering.

I'm a young Civil Engineer from Portugal. Some months ago I went to New York and I found this fantastic book. I've also bought the book "Why buildings stand up" which is, again, amazing. The descriptions are in such a simple way that even lay people can understand easily the functioning of structures.

It was a pleasure to read such interesting books.

Meticulously and simply written, beautifully illustrated. Fascinating cases from antiquity to the present. You get a real feel for the field of large structures, their conception, design, building, maintenance, and the associated personalities.

I would encourage the authors to do a similar book on the World Trade Center collapses, including WTC7. Since they are associated with a company that was involved in WTC litigation, they might be in a good position to do such a review book.

And they might evaluate some of the associated factors, such as extreme high temperatures in the wreckage, possible iron microspheres in the dust, .....

I found this book in the bibligraphy of a report entitled "What Did and Did not Cause Collapse of WTC Twin Towers in New York" by Zdenek P. Bazant. Bazant is a very heavy academic hitter in the field of structure analysis and behavior. His article is very technical, laying out the establishment collapse scenario, which has been contradicted by the people that want a new investigation, e.g. [...], [...].

The US Government National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) study did not pursue the actual collapse, it just studied fire, and possible structural distortion up to the moment of collapse. Bazant follows the collapse but not in a lay intelligible manner.

Maybe the authors could do better.

This is one of the best books I've read on the engineering behind structural failures. The authors teach by example, exploring fallen apartment buildings, stadiums, bridges and other structure, and using each to illustrate an important engineering principle. The illustrations are also an invaluable aid to understanding the problems in each structure (particularly for readers who, like me, may find it difficult to follow verbiage on the orientation of strutts, the direction of braces, etc.).

I only had two gripes: a glossary provided the only introduction to many basic concepts; and political/historical/personal context would have made for a livelier account. The glossary was a very helpful resource for understanding basic things like, what "load" is, and how it effects structures. It might have been better to also work those descriptions into the text as the concepts arose - this would have made it easier for me to assimilate them. Also, I enjoyed it when the authors gave context for many of the engineering decisions made - for instance, that a stadium rooftop was designed, in part, because flaws in the city sewer system prevented the efficient disposition of significant rainfall. However, more of this kind of context - particularly historical and personal facts that had bearing on design decisions - would have made each example into a better story, and improved the reading experience for me.

Overall, a highly recommended book.

I am not an architect or engineer, but I found this book really fascinating. The authors explain things so that those not in the field could understand, but sometimes get too technical. The illustrations were great, but there should have been more, and some color photos would have been nice.

One thing the authors did not point out, is that hindsight is 20/20. It is almost as though they believe they would never make any errors like those they describe (though some designs they discuss really do sound irresponsible), that buildings they designed would stand forever regardless of environmental factors like earthquakes, floods, etc.

a good book explaining the details og building and bridge failures. im wondering why the author didnt include the word 'bridge' in the title since this book covers a lot of them. illustrations are very helpful as well