Ever wonder how a suspension bridge can cross a gap thousands of feet wide? Want to know how to build a comfortable lounge chair out of cardboard boxes? Or what keeps a massive cathedral dome from collapsing? Discover the answers to these and many more questions in Steven Caney's Ultimate Building Book, a wonderfully comprehensive exploration of design, construction, and invention that will stimulate the curiosity of children and adults alike. Much as David Macaulay's blockbuster The Way Things Work did for machines and devices a decade ago, this definitive volume from best-selling author Steven Caney details the ins and outs of construction in all its fascinating forms. Packed with exciting building projects guaranteed to engage anyone from age 4 to 104, the Ultimate Building Book gives easy-to-follow instructions for creating amazing models and toys that are as much fun to make as they are to play with! Readers are also introduced to a wide variety of household materials and tools that can be used for building, along with fascinating insights into the architectural and design properties of everything from drinking straws to yurts. A mammoth project in its own right, this book has been under construction for more than a decade. The result is hundreds of superbly illustrated pages that will enlighten and fascinate armchair architects of all ages for years to come.

Building Systems Magazine (BSM) is an award winning United States-based trade magazine read by builders, developers and general contractors using or considering using innovative construction technologies. Once commonly known as "pre-fab," today's modern building systems employ innovative materials and techniques to create residential or commercial structures in a factory setting in a fraction of the time it takes to site build. BSM focuses mainly on log, timber frame, modular, panel, and structural insulated panel building technologies. Since factory fabrication and site preparation take place simultaneously, structures are finished and ready for occupancy in weeks, rather than months or years as required by conventional site-building schedules.

Books and blocks bring together two siblings with nothing in common in this story from Megan Wagner Lloyd (Finding Wild) and illustrator Brianne Farley (Secret Tree Fort). Katie loves to build. She loves the way the blocks click together, the way they crash when they topple to the floor. But most of all, she loves to build something brand-new. Unlike her brother, she hates reading. Owen loves to read. He loves the way the pages rustle when he turns them, the way the paper smells. But most of all, he loves to read something brand-new. But, unlike his sister, he has no interest in building. When their rivalry finally comes to a head, a librarian suggests a solution. Books for Katie to read and books for Owen to shelve. Can they learn to appreciate their siblings hobbies and build something together?

An engaging introduction to buildings, with a deft mix of nonfiction and fiction elements.

Weak or failed states - where no government is in control - are the source of many of the world's most serious problems, from poverty, AIDS and drugs to terrorism. What can be done to help? The problem of weak states and the need for state-building has existed for many years, but it has been urgent since September 11 and Afghanistan and Iraq. The formation of proper public institutions, such as an honest police force, uncorrupted courts, functioning schools and medical services and a strong civil service, is fraught with difficulties. We know how to help with resources, people and technology across borders, but state building requires methods that are not easily transported. The ability to create healthy states from nothing has suddenly risen to the top of the world agenda. State building has become a crucial matter of global security. In this hugely important book, Francis Fukuyama explains the concept of state-building and discusses the problems and causes of state weakness and its national and international effects.

For SCRABBLE(R) and other word-game players, the winner's handbook is here! Become a master of the game with this essential guide for top-scoring play. You'll discover: The 94 all-important two-letter words -- in one handy list A special section of over 800 three-letter words, 550 of which can be

In the nineteenth-century paradigm of architectural organicism, the notion that buildings possessed character provided architects with a lens for relating the buildings they designed to the populations they served. Advances in scientific race theory enabled designers to think of “race” and “style” as manifestations of natural law: just as biological processes seemed to inherently regulate the racial characters that made humans a perfect fit for their geographical contexts, architectural characters became a rational product of design. Parallels between racial and architectural characters provided a rationalist model of design that fashioned some of the most influential national building styles of the past, from the pioneering concepts of French structural rationalism and German tectonic theory to the nationalist associations of the Chicago Style, the Prairie Style, and the International Style. In Building Character, Charles Davis traces the racial charge of the architectural writings of five modern theorists—Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc, Gottfried Semper, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and William Lescaze—to highlight the social, political, and historical significance of the spatial, structural, and ornamental elements of modern architectural styles.