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| Document Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Tom F Peters |
| ISBN: | 0262161605 9780262161602 |
| OCLC Number: | 34192335 |
| Description: | xiv, 535 p. : ill., maps ; 27 cm. |
| Contents: | Preface: Building a Tectonic Culture in the Nineteenth Century -- 1. Creating the Modern World through Communication, Commerce, and Progress -- 2. Structural Materials, Methods, and Systems: The Prerequisites of Change -- 3. The Human Element: Manual Work, Mechanization, Progress, and Technological Thought -- 4. Worlds Apart: From the Thames to the Mont Cenis Tunnel -- 5. The Transition and the Catalyst: The Conway and Britannia Bridges and the Suez Canal -- 6. Patterns of Technological Thought: Buildings from the Sayn Foundry to the Galerie des Machines -- 7. The Result in Small and Large: The Langwies Viaduct and the Panama Canal -- Conclusion: The Building Process and Technological Thinking. |
| Responsibility: | Tom F. Peters. |
Abstract:
The Sayn Foundry in Bendorf, a German town on the Rhine near the Dutch border, is a fascinating example of complex technological thinking. Although the structural detailing is typical of its period (1830), Prussian engineer and iron founder Karl Ludwig Althans used and varied the many architectural and engineering models at hand in a sophisticated and complex building with structural elements that can be read as advertisements, machine parts, religious forms, or simply as building elements. The foundry, which is still standing, is just one of the many projects Peters examines in this broad synthesis of nineteenth-century technological thought and methods of design that form the basis of the modern built world. Through such examples, he traces the growth of technological thinking as one of our culture's chief modes of thought and establishes its primacy over other forms such as scientific or humanistic thinking as the major component of building design.
Both celebrated and little-known works of architecture and engineering illustrate the evolution of a modern building process that brought together technical achievements with aesthetic, social, and cultural concerns. These include the first Thames tunnel project, the Mount Cenis railway tunnel under the Alps, the Conway and Britannia bridges in Wales, the Suez Canal, Kew Palm House, the Crystal Palace, the Langwies Viaduct in Switzerland, and the Panama Canal.
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