Structures

or why things don’t fall down – J.E Gordon

This lovely little book explains material and structural engineering with a very low maths content. The writing is personal and uses many anecdotes.

It is somewhat surprising to see so many examples of biomimicry in a book written well before the concept was large enough to receive its own label. The author praises feathers, trees, skeletons and similar throughout.

I’ve always been drawn to structures, photographically speaking, as the repeating structural elements have always had a calming, soothing, reassuring effect on me. The author really opened my eyes to the intrinsic properties of strength in many basic materials.

After building up the readers first principle knowledge of materials highly engineered structures are covered in great detail.

A really good book for the layman interested in learning more.