*** Featuring a foreword by Pritzker Prize Winner Shigeru Ban *** Bringing together experts from research and practice, Shell Structures for Architecture: Form Finding and Optimization presents contemporary design methods for shell and gridshell structures, covering form-finding and structural optimization techniques. It introduces architecture and engineering practitioners and students to structural shells and provides computational techniques to develop complex curved structural surfaces, in the form of mathematics, computer algorithms, and design case studies. • Part I introduces the topic of shells, tracing the ancient relationship between structural form and forces, the basics of shell behaviour, and the evolution of form-finding and structural optimization techniques. • Part II familiarizes the reader with form-finding techniques to explore expressive structural geometries, covering the force density method, thrust network analysis, dynamic relaxation and particle-spring systems. • Part III focuses on shell shape and topology optimization, and provides a deeper understanding of gradient-based methods and meta-heuristic techniques. • Part IV contains precedent studies of realised shells and gridshells describing their innovative design and construction methods.

*** Featuring a foreword by Pritzker Prize Winner Shigeru Ban *** Bringing together experts from research and practice, Shell Structures for Architecture: Form Finding and Optimization presents contemporary design methods for shell and gridshell structures, covering form-finding and structural optimization techniques. It introduces architecture and engineering practitioners and students to structural shells and provides computational techniques to develop complex curved structural surfaces, in the form of mathematics, computer algorithms, and design case studies. • Part I introduces the topic of shells, tracing the ancient relationship between structural form and forces, the basics of shell behaviour, and the evolution of form-finding and structural optimization techniques. • Part II familiarizes the reader with form-finding techniques to explore expressive structural geometries, covering the force density method, thrust network analysis, dynamic relaxation and particle-spring systems. • Part III focuses on shell shape and topology optimization, and provides a deeper understanding of gradient-based methods and meta-heuristic techniques. • Part IV contains precedent studies of realised shells and gridshells describing their innovative design and construction methods.

Shell structures are widely used in the fields of civil, mechanical, architectural, aeronautical, and marine engineering. Shell technology has been enhanced by the development of new materials and prefabrication schemes. Despite the mechanical advantages and aesthetic value offered by shell structures, many engineers and architects are relatively unacquinted with shell behaviour and design. This book familiarizes the engineering and architectural student, as well as the practicing engineer and architect, with the behaviour and design aspects of shell structures. Three aspects are presented: the Physical behaviour, the structural analysis, and the design of shells in a simple, integrated, and yet concise fashion. Thus, the book contains three major aspects of shell engineering: (1) physical understanding of shell behaviour; (2) use of applied shell theories; and (3) development of design methodologies together with shell design examples. The theoretical tools required for rational analysis of shells are kept at a modest level to give a sound grasp of the fundamentals of shell behaviour and, at the same time, an understanding of the related theory, allowing it to be applied to actual design problems. To achieve a physical understanding of complex shell behaviour, quantitative presentations are supplemented by qualitative discussions so that the reader can grasp the `physical feeling' of shell behaviour. A number of analysis and detailed design examples are also worked out in various chapters, making the book a useful reference manual. This book can be used as a textbook and/or a reference book in undergraduate as well as graduate university courses in the fields of civil, mechanical, architectural, aeronautical, and materials engineering. It can also be used as a reference and design-analysis manual for the practicing engineers and architects. The text is supplemented by a number of appendices containing tables of shell analysis and design charts and tables.

Shell structures is a term defining concrete or steel vaults of present century architecture that derive from the masonry vaults and domes of the past.

This book describes the design, detailing and structural engineering of filigree, double-curved and long-span glazed shells of minimal weight and ingenious details. Innovative, clear and understandable geometric principles for the design of double-curved shell structures are explained in a practical manner. The principles are simple to apply with the use of functions now available in most CAD programs. The author demonstrates how floating and homogeneous structures can be created on these "free" forms, particularly grid shells of planar rectangles. These are especially suitable for glazing with flat panes and offer structural, economical and architectural advantages. Examples are provided to illustrate in simple ways the latest methods of form finding calculation and holistic optimisation through the complex interaction of structure, form and topology. Numerous examples built all over the world from 1989 to 2014 offer orientation and assistance in the design of such double-curved shells. Essential design parameters, many details and node connections of constructed projects are presented and evaluated. These structures have been built all over the world in close partnership with renowned architects.

The East German engineer Ulrich Muther contributed an important chapter to the European history of shell construction. In 1963 he created the first concrete shell as the realisation of his diploma project in the former GDR. His career of the more than 30 years saw many milestones. Ulrich Muther realised his pioneering shell constructions in his homeland on the island of Rugen, in and around Rostock and in other parts of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. This book alternates between a classical architecture guide and an almost archaeological inventory. It furnishes a well founded insight into the euphoric belief in progress that attended the building boom of the sixties and seventies. All the relevant objects in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania have been assembled in one publication for the first time. The buildings are portrayed with the aid of current photographs, plans, texts and project information. Survey maps and addresses facilitate on-site visits.

The first monograph to celebrate the architectural legacy of the Guastavino family is now available in paperback. First-generation Spanish immigrants Rafael Guastavino and his son Rafael Jr. oversaw the construction of thousands of spectacular tile vaults across the United States between the 1880s and the 1950s. These versatile, strong, and fireproof vaults were built by Guastavino in more than two hundred major buildings in Manhattan and in hundreds more across the country, including Grand Central Terminal, Carnegie Hall, the Biltmore Estate, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Registry Room at Ellis Island, and many major university buildings. Guastavino Vaulting blends a scholarly history of the technology with archival images, drawings, and stunning photographs that illustrate the variety and endurance of this building method.