Building Technology (Technology in Action Series)

Describes advances and innovations in architecture and construction and shows how the development of new building materials will strengthen future designs

Grade 3-6-- A look at the entire field of building technology including structural and civil engineering, architecture, and construction materials. After a two-page introduction to the construction industry, Lambert allots three pages each to summaries of building materials and design basics. Additional chapters are devoted to more in-depth, but still brief, discussions of foundations, wall and floors, arches, roofs, roads, bridges, tunnels, and dams. Readers will be frustrated by either too much detail for the scope of the book or oversimplification and misinformation about complex topics. A glossary explains terms such as ``cladding'' and ``screed'' but omits ``wall tie'' and ``courses.'' The full-color photographs and cross-section diagrams are generally of good quality. They are, however, occasionally placed several pages away from the appropriate text, and the floor plan and elevation used to represent house plans appears to be from a 19th-century home. A title of little use in most collections. --Jeanette Larson, Texas State Library, Austin
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.