Engineers

British architect and engineer Wells suggests that the clean mathematical elegance of modern structural engineering, may be more contingent and less inevitable than many in the profession assume. Looking at engineering and structural design in Western culture from prehistory and ancient times to the present, he provides a collection of methods, biographical details, and case studies that can serve as an enabling device in the design process. He asks contemporary practicing and student engineers to consider the conceptual spaces in which their predecessors have been obliged to work. He pays special attention to dead ends, abandoned ideas, and marginalia. Among his chapters are Byzantium and the European Dark Ages 476-1000, Galileo 1564-1642, the American Reconstruction 1860-90, and flight and the World Wars 1900-50. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Matthew Wells, a Chartered Architect and Engineer, has taught at various schools of architecture including Nottingham School of Architecture as a unit tutor. He is an external examiner at Liverpool University School of Architecture and has been a technical tutor at the Bartlett School of Architecture for 10 years. He is best known as the founder and director of Techniker Ltd, Consulting Structural Engineers and has worked with leading architects such as Lifschutz Davidson and Eva Jiricna on footbridges, glass staircases and many contemporary leading edge projects.