Light, Wind, and Structure: The Mystery of the Master BuildersThe Sydney Opera House, with its vast cost overruns and its years of delay, is a glaring example of misbegotten notions of structural honesty. MIT's Kresge Auditorium was conceived for visual effect without regard for technological flaws that arose from the misapplied criteria of form-follows function and forced its closing for more than a year. And in the building of Boston's John Hancock Tower, structural imperatives, were literally thrown to the winds. These are just a few of the eases in which the role of technology in the design of a large scale building has been either neglected or confused. In this book Robert Mark shows how an understanding of the technology of historical architecture can illuminate, even help eliminate, such costly misconceptions. Mark focuses on three eras - ancient Rome, the era of structural experimentation in High Gothic architecture, and the time of the great Renaissance domes - that have had lasting impacts on architectural planning. He makes full use of sophisticated computer modeling to gain new insights into early design methods insights that allow him to reinterpret technological precedents that are often misunderstood in contemporary architecture. Mark's provocative findings provide a stronger technological focus for architectural history and a basis for more rational criticism of contemporary design. Robert Mark Professor of Architecture and Civil Engineering at Princeton University, is the author of "Experiments in Gothic |
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Contents
The Technology of Light Wind and Structure | 19 |
Reinterpreting Ancient Roman Structure | 49 |
Structural Experimentation in High Gothic Architecture | 91 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Light, Wind, and Structure: The Mystery of the Master Builders Robert Mark No preview available - 1994 |
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aisle Amiens Amiens Cathedral arch architect barrel vault base Beauvais bending Bourges Branner brick builders building building's caused century chapter Chartres choir clerestory clerestory wall compression concrete configuration construction cracking dead-weight loading deformation dimensional analysis dome of St early effect engineering flying buttresses forces Gothic Architecture Gothic cathedral Gothic churches Gothic Structure Hagia Sophia Hence High Gothic high vaults hoop horizontal illustrated in figure indicated interior John Hancock Center John Hancock Tower light masonry massive materials medieval meters modern mortar nave Notre-Dame de Paris observed Pantheon Paul's Cathedral Peter's pinnacle pozzolana prototype quadripartite vaulting Reims Robert Roman Roman architecture rotunda scale semidomes sexpartite vaulting shear Sheldonian shell span stability stepped rings stone struc surface tensile strength tensile stresses tension thick timber tion truss tural ture University Press upper flyers vertical Viollet-le-Duc weight Westminster Hall wind loadings Wren's design
Bibliographic information
| Title | Light, Wind, and Structure: The Mystery of the Master Builders New Liberal Arts Series |
| Author | Robert Mark |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Mit Press, 1990 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | Nov 13, 2007 |
| ISBN | 026213246X, 9780262132466 |
| Length | 209 pages |
| Subjects | › › Architecture / Criticism Architecture / General Architecture / History / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |