Civil Engineering Association

This book covers the little known structural and architectural concept, design and construction of reciprocal frames, and is the first authoritive book of its kind, with an exhaustive coverage of a multitude of types. A simple description of reciprocal frames is ‘a structure made up of mutually supporting beams in a closed circuit’ – quite a good definition without a diagram or model. I have a six-membered timber model, made by Dr Popovic, which beautifully illustrates the simple principles. History has many examples – Serlio, da Vinci and Villard de Honnecourt – but these early ones were all planar examples. Here a huge variety of
types are analysed and illustrated.
This is a specialist’s book, with perhaps a limited appeal to architects and engineers at the forefront of thinking, but is fascinating as a treatise on an unusual structural system. Its content and scope are incredibly comprehensive, particularly on its extensive coverage of the many buildings in Japan, where the majority of the research was carried out. A ‘mind blowing’ book, which I am sure will lead to more exploration of ‘reciprocal frame structures’ in the future.

Using the PostGen Button, on the Upper Bar, and searching few seconds more, the Thread from Jcbv should see as follow:





# Paperback: 208 pages
# Publisher: Architectural Press; 1 edition (February 7, 2008)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0750682639
# ISBN-13: 978-0750682633

This book covers the little known structural and architectural concept, design and construction of reciprocal frames, and is the first authoritive book of its kind, with an exhaustive coverage of a multitude of types. A simple description of reciprocal frames is ‘a structure made up of mutually supporting beams in a closed circuit’ – quite a good definition without a diagram or model. I have a six-membered timber model, made by Dr Popovic, which beautifully illustrates the simple principles. History has many examples – Serlio, da Vinci and Villard de Honnecourt – but these early ones were all planar examples. Here a huge variety of
types are analysed and illustrated.
This is a specialist’s book, with perhaps a limited appeal to architects and engineers at the forefront of thinking, but is fascinating as a treatise on an unusual structural system. Its content and scope are incredibly comprehensive, particularly on its extensive coverage of the many buildings in Japan, where the majority of the research was carried out. A ‘mind blowing’ book, which I am sure will lead to more exploration of ‘reciprocal frame structures’ in the future.






Moderator Note:
Thank you a lot for your colaboration, Jcbv, but you need to have present, ever, that the quality is ever part of a contribution... I hope you could collaborate more in the future