Structural Engineering Art and Approximation

‘It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong.’ John Maynard Keynes

First published 2014. 5th Edition 2019.

This book contains approximate structural calculation methods for engineers and architects. For easy reference and assimilation it is broken down into categories from simple beams to more complex examples. With numerous figures and photographs it closely relates theory to real structures.

This is an ebook which has embedded hyperlinks for easy navigation.

It is primarily for undergraduates through to graduate engineers, architects; and even experienced engineers. It gathers together simplified methods for structural appraisal, with design examples for those who seek a clear guide to conceptual structural design. Design starts at the bottom of a pyramid of choices: selection of materials, method of analysis, structural form and appropriateness. Before designing in detail a designer needs to approximate and sketch.

A designer should to be able to test their ideas with a simple set of tools which involve little more than pen, paper and calculator. There are lots of examples for all of the main categories of structural design; from simple beams and cantilevers to dynamic checks and foundations.

Architects often wonder if there is an easier way to evaluate alternative structural solutions in their designs. It is hoped that this is a useful reference for those architects with basic structural knowledge.

With an enforced rest when a left eye had a cataract removed I conceived the idea of the book; having been fortunate to have worked with some excellent engineers on numerous difficult projects. I worked for several seminal structural engineering companies before going it alone: Ove Arup, Buro Happold, Stephen Morley Associates and Anthony Hunt Associates. In that time he worked with and got to know some of the best contemporary engineers in the UK: Stephen Morley, Chris Wise, Tony Hunt, Peter Rice, Tony Stevens and others.

My experience in all sorts of materials: glass, steel, concrete, timber, SIPs and tension fabric and design methods must come to something! Why not write a book about simplified design methods…expounding the virtues of the great and good in engineering? Not so much a textbook, as a compendium of design examples for the young; highlighting the fact that aesthetics is an important part of structural and civil engineering.

Four years later, having drawing dozens of diagrams, and with a lot learned about just how difficult it is to proofread and modify text, and incorporate images, the book "Structural Engineering Art and Approximation" was at last on the road. There has been some great feedback from engineers who use it to teach structures and from many of the readers who bought the book over the years.

A couple of reviews:

Jeff Balls (Amazon buyer, October 2022)

"A really useful practical book."

"This book for structural engineers is excellent. It collates simple analysis methods to approximate a vast number of design solutions and situations. Really practical and very useful."

Mark Moppett (Structural engineer/company director/teacher)

"I am loving your book ‘Structural Engineering Art and Approximation’.Take a pat on the back! Well done. I spend a fair bit of my time teaching visiting offices of Buro H, Ramboll, Motts, Atkins, Robert Bird etc in UK and overseas. Not only will I post a review I will also recommend it during my tutoring sessions."