Contenido DEVELOPMENTS IN STRUCTURAL FORM

In the critically acclaimed first edition of this book, Mainstone offered a brilliant and highly original account of the structural developments that have made possible the achievements of architects and bridge builders throughout history.

In this extensively revised and expanded new edition, now available in paperback, new insights and a full coverage of recent developments in both design and construction are incorporated. The book identifies features that distinguish the forms built by man from those shaped by nature and discusses the physical and other constraints on the choices that can be made. It then looks in turn at all the elementary forms - arches, domes, beams, slabs and the like - which combine into the more complex forms of complete structures, and at the different classes of the complete forms themselves. The development of each form is traced chronologically, but with an emphasis less on the chronology than on the problems that designers have continually faced in trying to serve new ends with limited means or to serve old ones in new ways. The book concludes with a chapter on the processes of design, showing how the designer's freedom of choice has been widened by a growing understanding of structural behaviour.

first edition
Preface to the second edition

Part 1: Introductory

Chapter 1: Introduction

Natural and man-made forms
Practical limitations on the choice of man-made forms
Other aspects of choice
The development of structural forms

Chapter 2: Structural actions

Loads and their effects
Active and reactive loads
Associated movements and deformations
Dynamic and static loads
Internal actions
Tension, compression, bending, torsion, and shear
Actions of the human frame
Actions of the built structure
Structural requirements
The basic geometrical requirement
The complementary needs for adequate strengths and stiffnesses
Static equilibrium
The equilibrium of some structural elements acting in simple tension or compression
The catenary and the arch
Equilibrium calling for both tension and compression
The simply-supported beam
The domical shell and the dome
Buckling
Structural interdependence
Statically determinate behaviour
Statically indeterminate behaviour
Cracks and deformations as clues to structural actions

Chapter 3: Structural materials

Stone
Brick
Concrete
Timber
Iron and steel
Reinforced concrete
Prestressed concrete
New composite materials

Chapter 4: Construction and form

Operational aspects
Setting out
The use of in situ centering or formwork
The use of prefabricated elements or components
Intermediate possibilities
Other operational aspects
Structural aspects
Ensuring adequate strengths during construction
Ensuring the stability of the incomplete structure
The use of centring for arches and vaults
Construction without centring
The effects of deformations occurring during construction
Prestressing

Chapter 5: Structure and form

Simple elemental forms
Ties, struts, and columns
Plane membranes and walls
Catenaries and arches
Singly-curved membranes and vaults
Doubly-curved membranes, vaults, and shells
Beams
Slabs
Trussed and framed analogues
Portal frames
Plane trusses and space frames
Proportions
Complete structures

Part 2: Structural elements

Chapter 6: Arches and catenaries

Origins
Masonry and concrete arches
Timber, iron, and steel arches
Reinforced- and prestressed-concrete arches
Catenaries

Chapter 7: Vaults, domes, and curved membranes

Origins
Concrete and masonry domes and related forms
Concrete and masonry groined and ribbed vaults
Masonry spires and fan vaults
Thin reinforced-concrete shells
Timber counterparts
Slung membranes and cable nets
Air-supported and pneumatic membranes

Chapter 8: Beams and slabs

Early forms
Later timber and iron and steel beams
Reinforced-masonry beams
Reinforced- and prestressed-concrete beams and related forms
Floor and deck systems and slabs

Chapter 9: Trusses, portal frames, and space frames

Origins
Roof trusses
Trussed equivalents of the beam and arch
Portal frames
Space frames

Chapter 10: Supports, walls, and foundations

Early forms
Later masonry and concrete and reinforced-concrete columns, piers, and walls
Later timber and iron and steel columns and struts
Hangers and ties
Foundations

Part 3: Complete structures

Chapter 11: Early forms

Primitive shelters and later house forms
Column-and-beam temples and palace and public halls
Tombs, pyramids, and some other structures

Chapter 12: Pre-nineteenth-century wide-span buildings

Roman timber-roofed basilicas and large vaulted and domed halls
Early domed churches and related later churches and mosques
Pre-Gothic timber-roofed and stone-vaulted churches
Timber barns and Gothic stone-vaulted churches
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century vaulted and domed churches

Chapter 13: Nineteenth- and twentieth-century wide-span buildings

Halls with framed and trussed counterparts of arched and domed roofs
Halls with reinforced-concrete arched and shell roofs
Halls with beam, slab, truss, and space-frame roofs
Halls with cable-supported beam, truss, or space-frame roofs
Halls with cable-net and membrane roofs or canopies

Chapter 14: Bridges

Masonry arch bridges
Timber, iron, steel, and reinforced-concrete arch bridges
Beam (including cantilever) bridges
Simple cable and stressed-ribbon bridges
Bridges with cable-supported decks
Suspension bridges
Cable-stayed bridges

Chapter 15: Multi-storey buildings and towers

Towers
Pre-twentieth-century bearing-wall buildings
Nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century fully-framed buildings
Later twentieth-century framed and bearing-wall buildings of medium height
Taller framed and core-stiffened buildings of the 1960s and 1970s
Later twentieth-century taller framed and core-stiffened buildings
Alternative forms

Part 4: Design

Chapter 16: Structural understanding and design

Understanding and design up to the Renaissance
Growing understanding and its impact on design from the Renaissance to the eighteenth century
Further developments from the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century
The use of physical models and computers as aids to design in the later twentieth century
Changes and underlying continuities
Glossary of structural terms
Notes
Index