Structural Engineering Basics?

July 20, 2013 6:38 PM

What are the best websites and books for learning the basics of structural engineering?

After becoming increasingly enamored of the works of Terunobu Fujimori I would love to learn more about structural engineering - a lot of his buildings simply don't look possible to me, and I would love to understand how to determine whether a structure like that will stand. What are some of the best websites, books, youtube videos, etc. for learning structural engineering?

For what it's worth, I know the basics of wood and metalworking, and am pretty comfortable with the aesthetics and human factors of architecture, but I have no knowledge of the physics or engineering side. Also, I'm not looking to take a class at a local college or anything like that at this stage.

Thanks!

posted by taltalim to Education (2 answers total)

You might want to start with the late James Gordon, who was one of those British scientists who could really write.
His first two books,
- Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down
- The New Science of Strong Materials or Why You Don't Fall through the Floor
were distilled into
- Science of Structures and Materials by Scientific American.

A few graphs, a few equations, but mostly a lot of text covering a lot of areas of structures and materials.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 6:55 PM on July 20, 2013 [7 favorites]

Also, the late Mario Salvadori wrote
- Why Buildings Stand Up: The Strength of Architecture and
- Why Buildings Fall Down: Why Structures Fail
Both are good, readable introductions to structures.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:27 PM on July 20, 2013 [2 favorites]