Concise but comprehensive, "Structural Elements for Architects and Builders" is primarilyfocused onthe design and analysis of structural elements: columns, beams, tension members and their connections. The material is organized into a single, self-sufficient volume, including all necessary data for the preliminary design and analysis of these structural elements in wood, steel, and reinforced concrete.

Every chapter contains insights developed by the author and generally not found elsewhere. Additionally, the Appendices included at the end of the text contain numerous tables and graphs, based on material contained in industry publications, but reorganized and formatted especially for this text to improve clarity and simplicity, without sacrificing comprehensiveness.
Based on the standards and codes from For timber: The American Institute of Timber Construction's (AITC), The American Institute of Steel Construction's (AISC) The American Concrete Institute's (ACI) Building Code Requirements for Structural Concrete and Commentary (ACI 318 and ACI 318R)and the American Society of Civil Engineers
Contains graphs, charts, and tables to solve basic structural design problems
Step-by-step illustrative examples
Cover common connectors such as nails, bolts, and welds
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In this book, the author argues that architectural functionality is often constrained by political and economic forces, while it is also effectively undermined by modes of expression. Utilitarian building elements-for example, windows or skylights intended to bring daylight into offices or factories-may be subject to excessive heat gain, thereby coming into conflict with an evolving politics of energy conservation and global warming mitigation. Yet at the other extreme they may be deployed as part of expressive systems whose value, understood in terms of symbol and metaphor, can overwhelm these utilitarian considerations. Politics and economics, in other words, establish lower and upper bounds for all utilitarian functions, whose costs and benefits are continually assessed on the basis of the profitable accumulation of wealth within a competitive global economy. Simultaneously, an artistic sensibility, also driven by competition, often contorts buildings into increasingly untenable forms. With utility both constrained by politics and attacked by expression, buildings-especially those that aim to be fashionable and avant-garde-often experience various degrees of utilitarian failure. The political constraints and expressive tendencies affecting architectural utility are separately examined in the two parts of this book, while an epilogue looks at the implications for architectural education.