How Structures Work: Design and Behaviour from Bridges to Buildings

Structural engineering is central to the design of a building. How the building behaves when subjected to various forces the weight of the materials used to build it, the weight of the occupants or the traffic it carries, the force of the wind etc is fundamental to its stability. The alliance between architecture and structural engineering is therefore critical to the successful design and completion of the buildings and infrastructure that surrounds us. Yet structure is often cloaked in mathematics which many architects and surveyors find difficult to understand.

How Structures Work has been written to explain the behaviour of structures in a clear way without resorting to complex mathematics. This new edition includes a new chapter on construction materials, and significant revisions to, and reordering of the existing chapters. It is aimed at all who require a good qualitative understanding of structures and their behaviour, and as such will be of benefit to students of architecture, architectural history, building surveying and civil engineering. The straightforward, non–mathematical approach ensures it will also be suitable for a wider audience including building administrators, archaeologists and the interested layman.

Reviews of the first edition
How Structures Work is the most compelling [book] on structures that I have ever read. And I have read a lot of books on structures.
R. L. Brungraber, Ph.D., P.E. Timber Framing: Journal of the Timber Framers Guild, December 2009

The author writes beautifully. It is a user–friendly engaging book to read and one that is very easy to understand. One learns a lot by reading it. . I think it should be a compulsory text for all first year engineering students.
From a review of the first edition commissioned by the publisher

David Yeomans is an engineer and historian. He taught structural design at the Oxford and Liverpool Schools of Architecture, building construction, history and conservation at Manchester University, and currently teaches on the MSc course in timber conservation at the Weald and Downland Museum. He also practices as a structural engineer specializing in timber structures both new–build and conservation work, and was formerly secretary of the International Scientific Committee for the Analysis and Restoration of Structures of Architectural Heritage, an ICOMOS scientific committee.