Since precious few architectural drawings and no theoretical treatises on architecture remain from the premodern Islamic world, the Timurid pattern scroll in the collection of the Topkapi Palace Museum Library is an exceedingly rich and valuable source of information. In the course of her in-depth analysis of this scroll dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, Gülru Necipoğlu throws new light on the conceptualization, recording, and transmission of architectural design in the Islamic world between the tenth and sixteenth centuries. Her text has particularly far-reaching implications for recent discussions on vision, subjectivity, and the semiotics of abstract representation. She also compares the Islamic understanding of geometry with that found in medieval Western art, making this book particularly valuable for all historians and critics of architecture. The scroll, with its 114 individual geometric patterns for wall surfaces and vaulting, is reproduced entirely in color in this elegant, large-format volume. An extensive catalogue includes illustrations showing the underlying geometries (in the form of incised “dead” drawings) from which the individual patterns are generated. An essay by Mohammad al-Asad discusses the geometry of the muqarnas and demonstrates by means of CAD drawings how one of the scroll’s patterns could be used co design a three-dimensional vault.

Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand (1760–1834) regarded the Précis of the Lectures on Architecture (1802–5) and its companion volume, the Graphic Portion (1821), as both a basic course for future civil engineers and a treatise. Focusing the practice of architecture on utilitarian and economic values, he assailed the rationale behind classical architectural training: beauty, proportionality, and symbolism. His formal systematization of plans, elevations, and sections transformed architectural design into a selective modular typology in which symmetry and simple geometrical forms prevailed. His emphasis on pragmatic values, to the exclusion of metaphysical concerns, represented architecture as a closed system that subjected its own formal language to logical processes. Now published in English for the first time, the Précis and the Graphic Portion are classics of architectural education.

Engineering surveying involves determining the position of natural and man-made features on or beneath the Earth’s surface and utilizing these features in the planning, design and construction of works. It is a critical part of any engineering project. Without an accurate understanding of the size, shape and nature of the site the project risks expensive and time-consuming errors or even catastrophic failure. This fully updated sixth edition of Engineering Surveying covers all the basic principles and practice of the fundamentals such as vertical control, distance, angles and position right through to the most modern technologies. It includes: * An introduction to geodesy to facilitate greater understanding of satellite systems * A fully updated chapter on GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO for satellite positioning in surveying * All new chapter on the important subject of rigorous estimation of control coordinates * Detailed material on mass data methods of photogrammetry and laser scanning and the role of inertial technology in them With many worked examples and illustrations of tools and techniques, it suits students and professionals alike involved in surveying, civil, structural and mining engineering, and related areas such as geography and mapping.