Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
The wonders of engineering revealed—by the inspirational female engineer behind the Shard, Western Europe's tallest building.
While our cities are full of incredible engineering feats, most of us live with little idea of what goes into creating the built environment, let alone how a new building goes up, what it is constructed upon, or how it remains standing.
In Built, star structural engineer Roma Agrawal explains how construction has evolved from the mud huts of our ancestors to skyscrapers of steel that reach into the sky. She unearths how humans have tunneled through solid mountains; how we've walked across the widest of rivers, and tamed nature's precious water resources. She tells vivid tales of the visionaries who created the groundbreaking materials used to build the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower; and explains how careful engineering can minimize tragedies like the collapse of the Quebec Bridge. Interweaving science, history, illustrations, and personal stories, Built offers a fascinating window into a subject that makes up the foundation of our everyday lives.
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Roma Agrawal. (2018). Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Roma Agrawal. 2018. Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Roma Agrawal, Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
MLA Citation (style guide)Roma Agrawal. Built: The Hidden Stories Behind Our Structures. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018.
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- bioText: Roma Agrawal is a structural engineer who builds big. From footbridges and sculptures, to train stations and skyscrapers – including The Shard – she has left an indelible mark on London's landscape.
She is a tireless promoter of engineering and technical careers to young people, particularly under-represented groups such as women. She has advised policymakers and governments on science education, and has given talks to thousands around the world at universities, schools and organisations including two for TEDx.
Roma has been awarded international awards for her technical prowess and success in promoting the profession, including the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering's Rooke Award.
Roma has published articles on engineering, education and leadership, as well as being a television presenter. Roma is soon to appear on LEGO Masters on Channel 4, putting her engineering knowledge to use in judging structures built solely from LEGO.
BUILT is her first book.
romatheengineer.com / @RomaTheEngineer - name: Roma Agrawal
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- Winner of the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books
The wonders of engineering revealed—by the inspirational female engineer behind the Shard, Western Europe's tallest building.
While our cities are full of incredible engineering feats, most of us live with little idea of what goes into creating the built environment, let alone how a new building goes up, what it is constructed upon, or how it remains standing.
In Built, star structural engineer Roma Agrawal explains how construction has evolved from the mud huts of our ancestors to skyscrapers of steel that reach into the sky. She unearths how humans have tunneled through solid mountains; how we've walked across the widest of rivers, and tamed nature's precious water resources. She tells vivid tales of the visionaries who created the groundbreaking materials used to build the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower; and explains how careful engineering can minimize tragedies like the collapse of the Quebec Bridge. Interweaving science, history, illustrations, and personal stories, Built offers a fascinating window into a subject that makes up the foundation of our everyday lives. - reviews
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- source: New York Times Book Review
- content: Agrawal is a rarity: a female structural engineer in an adamantly male profession. A self-proclaimed 'geek,' she shares her discoveries far above and below ground... She will inspire young women who are considering a career in engineering.
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- source: Wall Street Journal
- content: Roma Agrawal's Built . . . aims to show us how things work in a world of structures we largely take for granted . . . her book infects us with the passion she feels for what she does . . . [and] conveys insight into the built environment in an unusually accessible style-the kind of insight that will help lay readers look differently at the world around them.
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- source: Science Magazine
- content: "A full-throated celebration of structural engineering . . . [Built] is globally inclusive, provides personal insight into the life and achievements of a broadly accomplished female structural engineer, and teaches key engineering concepts in an approachable and engaging way."
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- source: Manhattan Book Review
- content: Makes engineering concepts easy to understand . . . [Agrawal] asks to reader to dream with her, look at the world before a problem is solved, then rejoice in the solution and all that it has meant to us as heirs of earlier genius. In short, she does the almost impossible; she makes engineering fun.
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- source: Midwest Book Review
- content: Interweaving science, history, illustrations, and personal stories, Built offers a simply fascinating and impressively informative history of architecture, a subject that makes up the foundation of our everyday lives.
- premium: False
- source: Kirkus Reviews
- content: Roma makes the complex principles of structural engineering accessible to everyone with clear explanations and engaging illustrations. It has made me suddenly look at every building I pass by in a new way!
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- source: Publishers Weekly
- content: So many marvels of architecture involve feats of engineering that all too often go unsung. Roma Agrawal sets out to change that with Built, a passionate, often personal love letter to the science of structure that merges history, science, and storytelling. Whether exploring the ruins of Pompeii and the elegance of Bruneschelli's famous dome, plumbing the depths of sewers and tunnels, or gleaning insight into materials from baking a pineapple upside down cake, she takes the reader on a fantastic journey that will change the way you look at all the structures you take for granted.
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- source: New York Times Book Review
- content: Roma Agrawal's Built is a book about real engineering written by a real engineer who can really write.
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February 1, 2018
With a lifelong passion for skyscrapers, bridges, and sculptures, structural engineer and first-time author Agrawal here explains engineering concepts in easy-to-understand ways, such as how cathedral ceilings maintain their dome and how stone arches retain their shape. Each of the book's 14 chapters covers a different aspect of structural engineering; black-and-white photographs as well as line drawings of structures allow for a better understanding of engineering concepts. Most importantly, Agrawal describes the work of designing specific kinds of structures, especially the challenge of maintaining efficiency and a budget that is sometimes at odds with sound design. Her breezy, conversational writing style adds a personal touch to what could otherwise be a dry subject. VERDICT A unique addition to public library collections on technology and engineering.--John Napp, Univ. of Toledo
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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December 18, 2017
Structural engineer Agrawal introduces engineering to the masses in this enthusiastic, easy-to-read primer to her field of work. Organizing her book around the fundamental concepts and building blocks of engineering, Agrawal traces the evolution of construction from simple mud huts to contemporary skyscrapers and demonstrates how basic materials (e.g., clay, metal, rock) are enhanced by modern-day advances in scientific modeling to yield complex new designs. The chapter on force, for instance, looks at the ways structures are built to hold the weight of their occupants and withstand the force of external factors such as wind and earthquakes, and includes examples such as the Taipei 101 skyscraper in Taiwan, which contains a 660-ton pendulum designed to absorb the energy of an earthquake. Throughout the book Agrawal balances stories of historical figures such as Emily Warren Roebling, a field engineer who oversaw the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge in the 1880s, with insights into the developments of today’s architectural wonders. Though the writing is often overly awestruck (as when Agrawal proclaims that buildings “provide the canvas of our existence”), the book successfully communicates the author’s love of engineering and the extraordinary impact of her profession on the everyday lives of people. Illus.
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December 15, 2017
Looking at the history of structures through "the eyes of an engineer."For those who wonder why tall skyscrapers don't tip over and long suspension bridges don't collapse, structural engineer Agrawal has some answers. Written in a personable, friendly style featuring the author's own hand-drawn illustrations, the book acts as a guide to "our ever-changing, engineered universe...full of stories and secrets." Agrawal cut her engineering teeth on a footbridge for Northumbria University, assiduously checking and rechecking the forces her bridge would need to withstand; "as engineers," she writes, "we can't afford to make mistakes." In the chapter on "Force," she looks at the effect of gravity on various structures. In 1907, the Quebec Bridge, which spanned the St. Lawrence River, collapsed, killing 75 workers; the engineer underestimated the bridge's weight. Addressing the effects wind or earthquakes can have on buildings, Agrawal explores the Taipei tower in Taiwan, which has a 660-ton steel pendulum near its top, the "heaviest in any skyscraper in the world," which absorbs the tower's movement. In "Fire," she notes that the twin towers' engineers had planned for the effect of a Boeing 707 crashing into the building. Three decades later, when two much larger planes struck them, fires from their fuel loads collapsed the buildings' steel columns. "Clay," "Metal," and "Rock" examine building materials. The author notes how she loves to "stroke" concrete and feel its texture. When Henry Bessemer revolutionized the steel-making industry in the mid-19th century, 200,000 tons per year were produced. By 1898, it was 12 million tons. Without Elisha Otis' elevator, writes Agrawal, buildings would not have been able to go higher and higher: "the equivalent of the entire world's population is moved in an elevator every 72 hours."A delightful introduction to the science of engineering and those key in its development, from Brunelleschi and his Duomo in Florence to Emily Roebling's Brooklyn Bridge to Fazlur Khan's monumental Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest building.COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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- Winner of the AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books
The wonders of engineering revealed—by the inspirational female engineer behind the Shard, Western Europe's tallest building.
While our cities are full of incredible engineering feats, most of us live with little idea of what goes into creating the built environment, let alone how a new building goes up, what it is constructed upon, or how it remains standing.
In Built, star structural engineer Roma Agrawal explains how construction has evolved from the mud huts of our ancestors to skyscrapers of steel that reach into the sky. She unearths how humans have tunneled through solid mountains; how we've walked across the widest of rivers, and tamed nature's precious water resources. She tells vivid tales of the visionaries who created the groundbreaking materials used to build the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower; and explains how careful engineering can minimize... - sortTitle
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