Buildings: Design and Engineering for STEM
By Alex Woolf
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About this ebook
Alex Woolf
Alex Woolf is a senior lecturer in history at the University of St Andrews. He holds a BA in Medieval History and Medieval English, an MPhil in Archaeology and a PhD from the University of St Andrews. He is the author of a number of articles and books on medieval Scottish history, including From Pictland to Alba: Scotland, 789 to 1070, Scandinavian Scotland: 20 Years After and Beyondthe Gododdin: Dark Age Scotland in Medieval Wales.
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Buildings - Alex Woolf
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Designing and Making Buildings
The Life Cycle of a Building
Designing a Building
Materials
Constructing a Building
Operating and Maintaining a Building
Demolition and Deconstruction
Timeline
Glossary
Building Material Assessment System (BMAS)
Find Out More
Index
Copyright
Back Cover
DESIGNING AND MAKING BUILDINGS
We spend a lot of our lives in buildings, although hardly any of us think too much about how they came to be created.
Before we get into that, let us first try to establish exactly what we mean by a building. A building used to be defined as any human-made structure that has a roof and walls and stands permanently in one place. Today, that definition no longer works in all cases, as it is possible to find portable buildings (see the box on page 5). Also, some modern buildings are dome-shaped, so they do not strictly have a roof and walls.
The Basket Building
in Newark, Ohio, is the headquarters of the Longaberger Company, a manufacturer of (surprise, surprise!) baskets.
The one factor that unites all buildings is that they have to be designed. The art of designing a building is called architecture. The architecture of a building depends on its function and the needs of its users, as well as how much money there is for construction (the budget) and what building materials are available. Architecture is also influenced by changing fashions.
Early buildings
It was around 3500
BCE
that the first large-scale buildings were constructed, including enormous stone pyramids and temples in Mesopotamia and Egypt. During the Classical Era, which occurred in Europe and the Mediterranean from 800
BCE
to 500
CE
, buildings were made according to mathematical rules.
The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, is one of the most universally admired buildings in the world.
The modern era
Over the last 200 years, building designs have been transformed by industrialization, new materials, and mass-production techniques.
Perhaps the greatest innovation of the late 19th and 20th centuries was the skyscraper. These tall, multistory buildings were made possible by the use of steel frameworks from which walls were suspended. Before that, walls were always used to support the weight of upper stories. As construction technology has improved, skyscrapers have become taller and taller. Today, the tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which stands at 2,716 feet (828 meters).
PORTABLE BUILDINGS
A portable building is one designed to be movable rather than located permanently in one place. Today, many portable buildings are modular, which means they consist of many modules (sections). These modules are delivered from a factory and then assembled on site. This saves money and produces less construction waste. They can be built in remote locations where it is harder to build conventionally. They are also easily adapted by adding, moving, or removing modules.
Important terms
There are a number of concepts that lie at the heart of building design and construction. They are important to understand before reading this book. Some of these concepts are explained below.
Life cycle
Like all things natural or made, buildings have life cycles. Today, architects design for a building’s entire life cycle, from construction to demolition. For example, lighting and heating systems are designed to be energy efficient, and materials are chosen for their recyclability.
Architecture
Architecture is the art and practice of designing and constructing