CONTENTS
Chapter 1.Columns. Auguste Perret and the Concrete Column
From concrete : The Vision of a New Architecture by Peter Collins
Mies’ Columns: Barcelona and Beyond 8
Villa Mairea’s Columnar Variations 12
A Forest of Minimal Columns 16
The Sendai Mediatheque and its Tube-Columns 22
Model Studies 26
Chapter 2. Walls 45
Barragán’s Walls and Color 46
Inca Walls at Ollantaytambo 50
Schindler’s Metaphysical Walls 56
Ando’s Ephemeral Concrete Walls 60
The Sculpted Walls of Richard Serra 64
Model Studies 70
Chapter 3. Beams and Slabs 89
Arresting Cantilever Deflections 90
Nordic Pavilion - An Illuminating Beam Matrix 98
The Kimbell’s Beam Variations 102
The Iron and Steel Beam Evolves; Mies Follows Suit 108
Chinese Building Traditions Meet Modernism 114
Nervi’s Isostatically Inspired Ribbed Floors 122
Maillart Minimalism: The Flat Slab Emerges 130
Concrete Takes Flight 136
Floor Plate-Defined Façades 140
Model Studies 144
Chapter 4. Trusses 167
La Tour Eiffel : A Truss, and More 168
Truss Forms and Style Battles 176
Truss Forms and Design Collaborations 182
Neimeyer’s Subtly Deceptive Trusses 188
Metabolism and the Space Frame 194
Tensegrity and the Architecture of Life 198
Model Studies 206
Chapter 5. Frames 227
To Frame - or not to Frame 228
Framing Views, Framing Victory 238
Breuer and Nervi’s Folded Frames 244
Braced Frames and High-Tech Dreams 250
Informal Frames 256
Model Studies 272
Chapter 6. Cables, Nets and Membranes 297
Seemingly Free Form Structures in Montréal and Munich 298
Cybernetic and Lightweight Dreams 304
Stayed Roof Systems and High-Tech Identity 308
Jugaad : Suspending a Communal Canopy 316
Marsyas : Structure and Metaphor 320
Model Studies 326
Chapter 7. Arches, Domes and Shells 343
Informing Arch Form 344
Veiled and Vaulted Space 356
Domes as Optical Instruments 360
The Politics of Candela’s Shells 370
SANAA’s Ceilings and Skies 376
Model Studies 382
Afterword 401
Models are Real 402
A Model Curriculum 404
Endnotes 412
Text Credits 420
Image Credits 422
Index 424