Building the Future

by Pfammatter, Ulrich

• ISBN13: 9783791339269
• ISBN10: 3791339265
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-04-30
• Publisher: Prestel Pub

Summary

Spanning the last two centuries??????and offering cogent analyses of how we will build in the future??????this volume presents over one hundred case studies of built structures that illustrate the marriage of building technology and culture. Including color photographs, drawings, and architectural plans, this book profiles some of the world's most interesting public spaces, commercial buildings, stadiums, and transport stations to reveal how prevailing social mores helped determine these structures' materials, appearance, and function. The innovative concepts these buildings signify and the integration of these ideas into the common lexicon are presented in chapters on the evolution of the greenhouse, artistic buildings, pioneering techniques in materials' use, the development of the building fa????ade, and the future of sustainable building design. This book uniquely blends a societal perspective with the latest technology, and is an essential reference for anyone interested in the crucial roles structural engineering and culture play in architecture.

Author Biography

Ulrich Pfammatter teaches design and construction at the schools of architecture in Lucerne and Chur, Switzerland, and since 2006 in Burgdorf-Berne.

Table of Contents

From greenhouse to 'high-tech hothouse' - virtual experience space of industrial and communicative societies	p. 12
Building as an art or the art of building? : railway sheds, expo pavillions, terminals - spatial landscapes of the future	p. 58
How concrete became lighter - 100 years of concrete pioneers	p. 102
The 'liberated facade' - from wall to partition to skin	p. 156
Process thinking conquers construction - industrialisation from the balloon frame to the skyscraper	p. 202
"Sustainable building design" - a future project	p. 248
Sir Ove Arup : the key speech, 1970	p. 298
Notes	p. 306
Bibliography	p. 313
Index	p. 318
Index of names	p. 318
Index of places and projects	p. 320
Exhibition and expo projects	p. 322
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