Structure in Architecture: History, Design and Innovation (Variorum Collected Studies) - Hardcover

Mainstone, Rowland J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 086078763X ISBN 13: 9780860787631

Publisher: Routledge, 1999

Synopsis

All buildings must stand. An adequate structure was as necessary for the simplest primitive hut as it is for the tallest or widest-spanning modern building. However, this requirement became more difficult to satisfy as designers became more adventurous and the experience already gained became less directly applicable. The present papers look at the consequent evolution of design methods and the types of understanding that have been essential guides. A particular focus is the question of how earlier innovations, made without the benefits of modern theory, were possible. Other papers look in detail at the most outstanding of these achievements, such as the church of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and the dome of Florence Cathedral.

About this title

About the Author

Rowland J. Mainstone, formerly Building Research Establishment, University College, London, and University of Leeds, UK and University of Leuven, Belgium

Review

'During 40 years Rowland Mainstone has been a prolific and original writer on developments in the history of architectural structures. This collection of 22 of his papers demonstrates their quality and authority...These papers should help destroy the popular myth that we do not know how cathedrals and great works of antiquity were designed or built...They should be essential reading for everyone engaged in restoring and conserving buildings, and will be equally rewarding for the sheer pleasure of better understanding the enormity of our debt to the technical achievements of past centuries.' Architectural Review '...very readable and has much to interest the practising engineer or anyone with a visual sense and an enquiring mind.' Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings News 'With the depth of research reported, the great wealth of its references, and its illumination of such diverse themes and topics, the book must easily claim space in architectural libraries and provide stimuli for further studies. Significant assistance to the wide variety of studies which can be envisaged is given by the inclusion of three separate indexes, for 'subjects', 'bridges, buildings and places', and 'persons'.' Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain Newsletter

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 086078763X
• ISBN 13: 9780860787631
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 436