Customer Reviews

Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Salvadori clearly explains, with the invaluable aid of lots of little pictures, how and why buildings stand up. There are chapters on cathedrals, the Eiffel Tower, the Hagia Sophia, bridges, domes, and so forth. The chapter on wind is particularly fascinating--I found out a lot of things I'd had no idea of. Other chapters, like "Form-Resistant Structures," were pretty deadly dull. Overall, though, the book was well worth reading. It's not always entertaining, but it's always informative, and sometimes tremendously interesting.

This is a book that sums-up alot of material about loads, properties of building materials, beams and columns, and translates it into the strength of modern structures. I found the book fascinating and it answered many questions, among them why the height vs base of the pyramids automatically contain the value of PI. This book discussed the anchoring of todays skyscrapers and large structures. This is a book that explains where the forces and loads are projected and how they are contained and countered without getting into the mathematical aspect of it. This author did an excellent job in conveying
the logic behind structural engineering. Well done.

This book was recommended to me by my architecture professor and it is well worth reading. Without going into too much physics the author explains clearly the importance of forces like wind on structures like bridges, skyscrapers, domes etc. To illustrate these infuences there are chapters on some of the architectural wonders of the world: Eiffel Tower, Pyramids, Brooklyn Bridge and Aya Sofia to name but a few.

There are no photographs in this book but crudely drawn pictures, which actually makes the reader understand the concepts better.

If you like buildings and architecture in general this book is instrumental in the understandings of why buildings stand up.

Overall this book gives good information on building, general techniques and general material usage. It pretty well covers all of the big general building concepts and is suitable for a structural or civil engineering novice.

However, there are a few problems I found with the author and the parts of his character that he put in the book. Mainly centering around his compulsion to make all things mystical or special in some way that they are not deserving.

First of all he refers to a computer as a "slave". Why does he feel the need to personify the computer? I have a few ideas but they are beyond the scope of this review.

Next he dedicates an entire chapter to The Eiffel Tower and in this chapter, his tones are as if he nearly worships the thing. From an engineering perspective, this seems a bit silly. There was no special feat in building the tower as it only has to hold itself up with very little extra. It has no solid walls to catch the wind, so it didn't even have to be braced in that regard. Further the tower serves no real purpose other than to just give a view of Paris, so I fail to see how an architect or civil engineer could hold it in such high regard.

My last complaint about the book is that in nearly every chapter he tends to digress from the topic and go on some mystical, political or social rant that usually only lasts for one or two lines and a paragraph at most. The most irritating of which is on Page 141 where speaking of the building of the Panama Canal by the French (and Eiffel) he says "A combination of bribes, political corruption, anti-Semitism, and hostility from the United States put a sudden end to this gigantic endeavor". Ignoring the factual standing of his statements for the moment, such blatantly socially "agenda-ized" remarks have no place in a book about architecture.

The technical side of this book is superb. The simple line drawings help to explain some of the classic and even complex concepts of engineering as applied to architecture. What's missing unfortunately is a bit of soul. The book tends toward the dry side of technical writing and that can be a dive from which it's difficult to recover. There seems to be a lack of the human element in the writing that can (when present) be effective in adding greater interest to scientific topics.

As a textbook, for use in classes or courses at the high school level or above, this book is probably better than most. It's not so dull as to be unreadable. And it presents some wonderful and wonderfully useful information. As a recreational read it perhaps falls a bit short and thus I'm giving it 4 starts, though shading toward 4 and a half.

Salvadori's "Why Buildings Stand Up" is perhaps best introduced by the author's own words in the preface, succinctly and appealingly written: "This book was written for those who love beautiful buildings and wonder how they stand up." A somewhat lofty goal, the author nevertheless does a wonderful job of introducing the basics of building mechanics and then to describe how those mechanics - both static and dynamic - are at play in a wide variety of structures ancient and modern. The book is a thoroughly enjoyable read that leaves one much more greatly informed than one might expect, despite the obvious implication and stated goal of the title.

The book truly represents a door opening into the world of structural issues in architecture. After a brief introduction on the historical background of the field of architecture, Salvadori introduces the pyramids of Egypt as one of the earliest examples of empirical approaches to structural erection ("empirical" meaning that much of this effort was trial-and-error, in spite of some basic understandings of how gravity affects, and creates, structural "loads" in any construction). Having allowed us to focus our thoughts on these early construction programs, we then are introduced in turn to essential engineering architecture concepts such as loads, beams, columns, and building materials. These discussions, which are covered in extensive, but nevertheless clear, text, serve as the foundation pieces for everything else examined throughout the remainder of the work.

The text next moves into numerous specific building types, and examines the specific engineering issues surrounding each. By presenting the material in this manner, we are able to learn all about the sometimes complex statics and dynamics issues in a contextual manner, i.e., we see the actual real-life application of these concepts in the instances the author chooses as venues to teach these concepts. We look at houses from all ages, every major type of bridge, at domes, tents, balloon structures, and even "hanging dishes." We are also provided neatly crafted line drawings illustrating these concepts, and often reproducing specific sites that represent salient examples of the concepts under discussion.

Beyond discussing structural concepts, we are also treated to specific examinations, by chapter, of some of the most fascinating building projects around the world, and are made to consider the unique and often complex structural issues at work in these buildings. These include the Eiffel Tower, the Hagia Sophia, the Brooklyn Bridge, and even a whole chapter on the fascinating elements in play in the classic medieval European gothic cathedral. In the case of gothic cathedrals, Salvadori selects one of the most interesting of cases, the Saint Pierre cathedral of Beauvais, as a dual example of how gothic structural forces are controlled through the pointed arch, the ribbed vault, and the flying buttress, but also how that, in some cases, such as at Beauvais, collapse still ensued under certain conditions. The Beauvais case is particularly interesting, as the lofty goal of the edifice - to be the tallest gothic cathedral ever built - may not have been the actual cause of collapse, and the steps taken to prevent further collapse (such as the adding of additional interior piers in the 14th century) are not necessarily the only reason why collapse has not since occurred in the structure since the 16th century.

Salvadori's text is a companion to his other volume, "Why Buildings Fall Down," and although this might sound like a marketing ploy, upon reading the two texts one can see the very different approach and outcomes produced by these two approaches. You can certainly read either volume by itself and walk away satisfied, but if you read BOTH volumes, the opportunity is presented to the reader to more carefully integrate the learning into a more meaningful whole. One might view one approach as a top-down approach, and the other a bottom-up approach, although that metaphor slightly fails in some respects. But there is nevertheless a great value in seeing how stressors, tension, lateral forces, and so on balance in harmony in structurally-sound buildings and structures, and how unbalanced loads can force collapse in all types of structures.
As an adjunct reading to the mechanical engineer, I can heartily recommend both these texts to help contextualize and illuminate the concepts learned in engineering classes. For the general reader, I can equally recommend these books as fascinating and educational forays into the world of structures, both standing and not.

This is a great, great book to read for the non-engineer, non-architect who finds him- or herself needing to quickly pick up the basics of building construction. I wish he had written the textbooks on the subject I had to read later, which were boring enough to induce sleep. Covers also the interesting personal details behind the revolutionary builders/engineers throughout time, which, again, serves to keep it more interesting than your typical, dry civil engineering textbook.

If you have ever wondered how the why the Eiffel Tower stays up or why skyscrapers don't fall then this book will help to answer your questions.

The book deals with a technical subject in an understandable fashion. For instance in the chapter on skyscrapers or high rises, you get a bit of history about the development of these tall buildings, information on how the foundation is excavated and reinforced, and then of course you get a picture of how they are built so they don't fall.

Chapter one gives you a ten page down and dirty overview of structures so you have the basic understanding to follow the rest of the book. Chapters include the Pyramids, loads (weight), materials, beams and columns, houses, skyscrapers, the Eiffel Tower, bridges, (with a special chapter on the Brooklyn Bridge), form resistent structures, cathedrals, domes, churches, tents and baloons, hanging domes/dishes and then of course a wrap up.

If architecture fascinates you, but you have no desire to be an architect, this book is a good basic reference that has fascinating facts when it comes to answering the question: Why Buildings Stand Up.

This book provides a layman's explanation of structural engineering without being overly simple or condensending.

The early chapters on loads, materials, and beams and columns were a short but good foundation. The explanations of buildings, bridges, and dams, and other "non building" structures provides a useful broadening of perspective for those involved primarily in commercial building projects, but who may, on occasion, encounter more unusual complex sturctures.

For those who are not engineers, but make their living building commercial building every day - building owners, architects, contractors, lenders, and insurers - this is about as much information as they need and can handle.

Choosing Project Success - A Guide for Building Professionals

This is a book for everyone - even junior high kids will benefit from it. Salvadori's explanations of why we build as we do are basic and informative. High rises, bridges, roofs - all are presented.