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"Illustrated with many line drawings, this guide provides information on 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. It is intended for architects, superintendents, and students of architecture and construction."@en
""We expect our buildings to do many things: stand up, shelter us from weather, keep us comfortable, provide clean water for drinking and clean air for breathing, dispose of our wastes, give us privacy and security, power everything from tools to toasters, and connect us with the world outside through windows, doors, telephones, and mailboxes. They should be easy to move around in, and shouldn't require excessive expense to maintain. But how does a building do all this? This is the question Edward Allen addresses so engagingly in the completely revised and updated second edition of How Buildings Work. Illustrated throughout with several hundred clear, sometimes whimsical line drawings, more than half of them from the author's own hand, this easy-to-read work 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. Everyone who has ever asked such questions as "why can't they get the temperature right in here?" "why does my basement flood every summer?" or "can't they build buildings so I don't have to hear my neighbors argue every morning?" will find an answer here. Drawing on things he's learned from the more than sixty buildings he himself designed, including his own house, 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, showing, for example, how to use the structure itself to mask troublesome noises such as the impact of rain, slamming doors, and the occasional creaks and groans caused by the push and pull of heat and humidity. And he illustrates how all buildings, from a backyard shed to the tallest skyscraper, are never at rest--they continually experience virtually irresistible forces that would tear them to pieces if not taken into account by the designer. 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. How Buildings Work will enlighten and entertain anyone interested in the way things work."--Jacket."
"What do buildings do, and how do they fuction? Edward Allen's new book provides a full and elegantly articulated answer to these fundamental questions about architecture. "A house of snow in the Arctic obeys the same physical laws as one of bamboo in the tropics," writes Allen, "and a steel-framed skyscraper is not so far removed from a tree house as we would sometimes believe." But the principles involved in the functioning of buildings has never been clearly laid out in one place. Edward Allen's book is the first comprehensive, nonmathmematical physiology of architecture, and will enable lay people as well as professionals to understand how buildings work. Every chapter of How Buildings Work concisely describes one aspect of building function. Here, for the first time in a single volume, are chapters on thermal considerations in architecture, keeping water out of buildings, reducing danger from fire, fitting buildings to people, the structural behavior of buildings, and much more. Each is a complete introduction to its topic, and each is unique for the clarity and simplicity with which it describes an often complex phenomenon. Over 300 original illustrations accompany the text to explain key points. A book of design and construction principles, How Buildings Work will take a natural place among the basic books on architecture and building construction. A comprehensive index and glossary of terms make it a convenient reference manual as well."
"Uses 700 drawings to explain 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."

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"Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme)"

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"How Buildings work : the natural order of Architecture"
"How Buildings Work the Natural Order of Architecture"@en
"How Buildings Work The Natural Order of Architecture"
"Cómo funciona un edificio, principios elementales"@es
"Cómo funciona un edificio principios elementales"@es
"How buildings work"@en
"How buildings work the natural order of architecture"@en
"How buildings work the natural order of architecture"
"How buildings work : the natural order of architecture"
"Cómo funciona un edificio : principios elementales"@ca
"Cómo funciona un edificio : principios elementales"@es
"Cómo funciona un edificio : principios elementales"

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