Reading Structures: 39 Projects and Built Works: 1983 - 2011 - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3037784725 ISBN 13: 9783037784723

Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers, 2016

Synopsis

This monograph presents 39 complex structures by the Princeton University professor and structural engineer Guy Nordenson. The body of work, developed with architects and artists including Raimund Abraham, Henry N. Cobb, Steven Holl, Michael Maltzan, Richard Meier, SANAA, and many others, reveals Nordenson’s unique contributions to a progressive collaborative design process as both engineer and designer. The structures in this volume span twenty-eight years, from his early work with Paul Weidlinger, to his formation of the New York office of Ove Arup & Partners, through the first 13 years since the 1998 establishment of his current independent practice, Guy Nordenson and Associates.
The volume is organized around three thematic sections: Engineering Ephemera, Simply Supported, and Building History. It includes Nordenson’s essays on these themes, as well as his individual project descriptions chronicling the vision and challenges of each. Barry Bergdoll, architectural historian, curator, and critic, provides an introduction.

About this title

Review

"In addition to presenting convincing proofs of Nordenson’s masterful designs, elegant solutions, and simply beautiful work, the book explores his skill in explaining the engineering considerations behind many of these projects and the way in which these considerations were intertwined with architectural goals. A huge range of structural engineering expression is to be found here, the work encompassing museums, staircases, opera houses, office buildings, bridges, and parking structures."

Civil Engineering, March 2016

"...The book delves into details without being dry or difficult to understand for the reader who doesn’t happen to be an engineer, or an architect, for that matter. Even for the lay person, Reading Structures offers incredible insight―from inspiration to design to politics―into how buildings, pavilions, parking garages, bridges, and follies get built, or don’t. And, maybe more important, how they stand up."

Architectural Record, August 2016

Edition details

• Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 3037784725
• ISBN 13: 9783037784723
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376