Civil Engineering Association

contents:

1 Introduction
2 Architectural Components
3 Materials
4 Elements
5 Special Concerns
6 Systems
7 Case Studies
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Preface
This book treats a subject that is of interest to a wide range of people with various relationships to the designing and constructing of buildings. There is at any given time a great mass of information on these topics which may be accessed for applica­tion to the many tasks of designers, builders, suppliers, and others. The enormity of this information resource is at once reassuring to those who regularly encounter needs for it, and overwhelming to just about everyone who needs to figure out how to use it.
This book relates the topic of building construction to the basic problems of building design. The basic assumption here is that the need to design precedes the need to build, and that real concern for how to build comes from a desire to build something. This is the normal process of development for designers and others who start from the point of desiring a building and then proceed to determine what it should be. Intense concern for specific consideration of building materials, systems, and details of construction thus emerges at a later stage of design, typically after the general form, size, and essential nature of the building are already proposed.
Amajor problem with using the great mass of available information about building construction is that it is largely not oriented to the purposes of education or design; thus it is not user-friendly to the student or apprentice in architecture, or to any others who do not already have a broad grasp of what buildings and building con­ struction are all about. Rich as they may be as information sources, Sweets Catalog Files, the CSI Spec-Data System, and Architectural Graphic Standards are not friendly to inexperienced users.
You have to already know the trade lingo, what you are looking for, and pretty much why you are looking for it to make effective use of these resources.
'
The latest, most extensive, most detailed information about building construction is largely produced by persons engaged in the manufacturing, supplying, specifying, purchasing, regulating, financing, or insuring of building materials and products, and in their applications to making buildings. The information presented is often slanted toward the specific concerns of those who produce it. Thus it is to be expected that materials forthcoming from manufacturers and suppliers are shaped to the purpose of promoting sales of their products, that insurers and financiers have strong eco­ nomic concerns, and that specification writers and enforcers of building codes are somewhat paranoid about specific language and terminology that is legally binding.
This book attempts to be user-friendly to the person who is basically more inter­ested in buildings in general and somewhat less in the specific concerns for their construction. The basic purposes here are to develop a general view of buildings and the problems of their design as they relate to the eventual need to construct them.
Highly specific, detailed information, such as how to attach gypsum drywall to wood stUds, can be pursued through appropriate sources, once the real need for the information is established. The need for having drywall, for attaching it to the studs, for having wood studs-and indeed, for having the wall in the first place-need to precede the search for the specific information.
Buildings are complex and the topic of their construction is correspondingly extensive. In order to cut down the size of this presentation, the topic here is limited to concerns for the development of the building interior, consisting primarily of floors, ceilings, interior partitions, and stairs. That is what most of us know from the direct experience of the buildings we use, since what we mostly use is the building's enclosed spaces. It is also what building designers develop most specifically in relation to the needs of the building users. Nevertheless, it leaves a lot of the building not treated. This book
is, in fact, the second volume of a series. The first volume treated the subject of the building's basic shell that forms the enclosure, consisting primarily of roofs, exterior walls, windows and doors. I expect to pursue the topic in subsequent volumes to consider building sites and building service systems.
My views of the need for this book and my ideas for its contents have emerged from many years of experience as a building designer and a teacher. I am grateful to all my former students, co-workers, and others whose feedback of frustrations have shaped those views and ideas. I am also grateful to the many people at Van Nostrand Reinhold who have helped to bring my rough materials into being as an actual book; particularly my editors Everett Smethurst and Wendy Lochner as well as Cindy Zigmund and Alberta Gordon.
I am also grateful to various organizations who have permitted the use of materials from their publications, as noted throughout the book.
Finally, I am grateful to the members of my family who steadfastly support and tolerate me in my home office working situation. For this book, I am particularly grateful for the assistance of my wife, Peggy, and my son, Jeffrey.
James Ambrose

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