In brief, as the author explains, this book offers the history of some of the great monuments of architecture and an explanation of why they stand up. He describes in detail the challenge of weight distribution, the role different materials play, and equilibrium provided by beams and columns, He then looks at specific types of buildings and how their construction has evolved, from houses to skyscrapers. The next chapters deal with specific structures, including the Eiffel Tower, some famous cathedrals and the domes that characterize them, and some famous bridges. He also deals with “form-resistant” structures. He ends with a discussion of natural disasters and how buildings can (or don’t) withstand them.

The book goes into quite a bit of technical detail, and although it makes for difficult reading, it definitely provides answers to questions you have about, for example, how pyramids and cathedrals could have been constructed without modern equipment, and how bridges could have been erected in water. ( )

Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture Interesting. ( )

This is my second read, the first more than a decade ago. The theoretical chapters near the beginning (loads, materials, beams) are better than the chapters that get caught up in 'explaining architecture.' It's a good explainer book for structure, I'm not sure it's a good critique/history book, but both subjects get equal time. ( )

This had a lot of great information for someone like me; an interested layperson with no professional design training. The style is a classic sort of stuffy academic prose, and in places goes on at length about how much of a genius someone was (the paragraph-plus extolling the mind of Gustave Eiffel being a good example), but its certainly informative and engaging if I put that aside.

I did feel like a lot of what was here was similar to Edward Allen's (no relation!) book, How Buildings Work: The Strength of Architecture, which I read recently. Allen was rather broader in range of topics, and Salvadori more in depth in examining structural design theory and specific historical and modern buildings. It was worth a read, for sure. ( )

The writing (or translation) is a little awkward, but the book is essential for understanding the engineering of buildings. Covers the Pyramids, residential dwellings, skyscrapers, beams and columns, bridges and cathedrals. ( )