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viiiPREFACEon the mechanics of structural analysis and design, and rarely explorethe architectural implications of structure. Architectural design textsare also of limited value for this exercise. They certainly describe andanalyse the elements of architecture, including structure, but apart fromexamining structure’s space-defining and ordering roles, they throw littlelight on other areas where structure contributes architecturally. Also,many of their case studies draw upon pre-twentieth-century masonrybuildings, rather than upon buildings incorporating modern structuralmaterials and systems. Unfortunately, attempts to analyse structures’architectural contributions to selected buildings from more generalarchitectural literature also proved relatively unsuccessful. Due to insufficientwritten and visual material related specifically to building structures,too many questions about their non-structural roles remainedunanswered. Published photographic images usually provide very limitedand selective views of a building and are a poor substitute for visiting it.The alternative approach was to undertake field trips, so during themore intensive periods of research in 1993, 2001 and 2004 I visited,studied and analysed over two hundred and fifty mainly contemporarybuildings. Most were selected before travelling after visually scanningmany architectural books and periodicals published during the previousfive to ten years. The key selection criterion was the degree to whichtheir structures contribute architecturally, rather than any other architecturalor structural design features. Where practicable, the secondand third field trip itineraries included ‘iconic’ buildings as reviewed inThiel-Siling, S. (ed.) (1998) Icons of Architecture: The 20th Century(Prestel). I approached the chosen buildings as open as possible to anyarchitectural enrichment their structures might provide. A checklisthelped focus observations and concentration, particularly when activitiesand displays in and around a building were more engaging than thestructure itself!By the term analysed I do not refer to quantitative analysis, practised dailyby structural engineers, but rather to a qualitative analytical processcomprising observation and focused reflection – the aim being to deepenan understanding and appreciation of structural and architectural interactions.Such an analytical process necessitates subjective readings ofstructure which inevitably emanate from my thirty years’ experience asa structural engineer, the last eighteen of which have been spent teachingStructures in a school of architecture.The scope of the book is limited geographically and by building typology.Not only do my school’s library holdings privilege Western architecture,but the buildings that were selected as worth studying and