How Buildings Work: The Natural Order of Architecture by Edward Allen

How Buildings Work: The Natural Order of Architecture by Edward Allen

Illustrated with hundreds of illuminating line drawings, this classic guide reveals virtually every secret of a building's function: how it stands up, keeps its occupants safe and comfortable, gets built, grows old, and dies--and why some buildings do this so much better than others.
Drawing on things he's learned from the many buildings he himself designed (and in some cases built with his own hands), Edward Allen explains complex phenomena such as the role of the sun in heating buildings and the range of structural devices that are used for support, from trusses and bearing walls to post-tensioned concrete beams and corbeled vaults. He stresses the importance of intelligent design in dealing with such problems as overheating and overcooling, excessive energy use, leaky roofs and windows, fire safety, and noisy interiors. He serves up some surprises: thermal insulation is generally a better investment than solar collectors; board fences are not effective noise barriers; there's one type of window that can be left open during a rainstorm. The new edition emphasizes green architecture and eco-conscious design and construction. It features a prologue on sustainable construction, and includes new information on topics such as the collapse of the World Trade Center, sick building syndrome, and EIFS failures and how they could have been prevented. Allen also highlights the array of amazing new building materials now available, such as self-cleaning glass, photovoltaics, transparent ceramics, cloud gel, and super-high-strength concrete and structural fibers.
Edward Allen makes it easy for everyone--from armchair architects and sidewalk superintendents to students of architecture and construction--to understand the mysteries and complexities of even the largest building, from how it recycles waste and controls the movement of air, to how it is kept alive and growing.

Edward Allen, FAIA, has taught for more than thirty-five years as a faculty member at Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and as an invited guest at institutions in the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia. He has designed more than fifty constructed buildings and is the best-selling coauthor of The Architects Studio Companion, Architectural Detailing, Form & Forces, and Fundamentals of Residential Construction, all published by Wiley.

Joseph Iano is an author, illustrator, and practicing architect who has taught design and technology in schools of architecture throughout the United States, as well as work in the construction trades. He has collaborated with Edward Allen on numerous publications over the span of more than twenty-five years. Currently, he heads a Seattle firm that provides technical and quality management consulting to architects and others in the design and construction industry.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780739465905
ISBN 10	0739465902
Title	How Buildings Work: The Natural Order of Architecture
Author	Edward Allen
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	1797-01-01
Number of pages	270
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable