Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures

✍ Scribed by Andrea Deplazes, G. H. Söffker

• Publisher: Birkhäuser Basel
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 479
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This internationally prizewinning volume now appears in its second, revised and expanded edition. Since the first edition was published in 2005, it has been adopted as a textbook at many universities.

Organized into chapters on ''Raw Materials/Building Materials (Modules),'' ''Building Components (Elements),'' ''Building Methods (Structures),'' and ''Buildings (Examples),'' the book now includes a new section on translucent materials and an article on the use of glass. The chapter on ''Building Elements'' now includes a discussion of facades, and the chapter on ''Structures'' has been expanded to cover ''Principles of Space Creation.'' The examples section now includes extensive documentation of current projects whose systematic character is oriented around the production process.

Experience with the preceding edition has shown that the book has become an indispensable handbook for reference and reading not only for students and teachers but also for architects.

✦ Table of Contents

3764371900......Page 1
CONSTRUCTING ARCHITECTURE......Page 2
Credits......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
Preface......Page 10
MATERIALS – MODULES......Page 16
The importance of the material......Page 17
The pathos of masonry......Page 21
On the metaphysics of exposed concrete......Page 54
Wood: indifferent, synthetic, abstract – plastic......Page 75
Why steel?......Page 111
The “invisible” building material......Page 137
Glass – crystalline, amorphous......Page 145
ELEMENTS......Page 149
Building underground......Page 150
The wall......Page 167
For and against the long window......Page 172
The doubling of the sky......Page 202

Introduction
The roof......Page 208
Flights of fancy......Page 222
STRUCTURES......Page 237
An attempt to classify horizontal and vertical space development......Page 238
Sustainability......Page 277
BUILDINGS......Page 288
Structural issues......Page 289
CATALOGUE OF COMPONENTS......Page 393
Preparation of drawings for buildings......Page 394
Plinth, single-leaf masonry......Page 403
Single-leaf masonry, rendered......Page 413
Hinged door, external – wood......Page 423
Hollow clay block floor......Page 428
Pitched roof – warm deck......Page 439
APPENDIX......Page 455