- Hardcover: 190 pages
- Publisher: MIT Press (30 July 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0262161745
- ISBN-13: 978-0262161749
- Product Dimensions: 27.7 x 19.9 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,906,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
"Here is a case study to read and treasure."-- W. J. Harvey, "The Structural Engineer"
Review
"...copiously illustrated with architectural sketches, photographs, and the relevant engineering calculations." Bert Civil Engineering "Here is a case study to read and treasure." W. J. Harvey The Structural Engineer "This is a fascinating and thorough account of one of the world's greatest engineering feats." Science News
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an unusual but very worthwhile book. There are architectural books that focus on a single "work" or building, but the only similar books in structural engineering are ones that focus on distant rather than recent history (Brooklyn or London Bridge, for example), and that pretty much ignore the technicalities that are inevitably central to bridge construction.
This book focusses entirely on the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, a highly unusual (and highly uneconomic) cable-stayed bridge where the pylon is inclined away from the main span, and not restrained by any back-stays. Unlike a conventional cable-stayed bridge, it therefore relies entirely on bending of the pylon to resist live loads (dead loads are balanced by the pylon's self-weight) and it must be constructed piecemeal, with the pylon and deck advancing simultaneously, or with massive temporary support. This leads to the serious lack of economy.
The designer, Santiago Calatrava, has rarely been bothered by the conventional wisdom of bridge engineers, which holds that economy leads to elegance which defines beauty. Instead, his bridges owe more to sculpture and therefore have been prominent in a period where the iconic role of bridges has been prized ahead of their pure functionality.
Pollalis' book is fairly dry and factual. He takes the design development, architectural, engineering design and construction planning issues in turn, documenting in detail the process by which this unique bridge became reality. As an engineer, I found the many pages devoted to the structural analysis to be particularly interesting, as it's highly unusual to find such a detailed case study. However, I felt the book was considerably lacking on the social process of design, the politics and personalities. Also, a wider perspective on the architecture would have been welcome, as there is much to debate in the way that bridges like this highlight differences between architectural and engineering philosophies.
The book is well-illustrated, both with photos and engineering diagrams, but also several excellent line drawings made during the construction period.
As a case study, it's an excellent book, so despite the missed opportunities, still very much a favourite.
This book focusses entirely on the Alamillo Bridge in Seville, a highly unusual (and highly uneconomic) cable-stayed bridge where the pylon is inclined away from the main span, and not restrained by any back-stays. Unlike a conventional cable-stayed bridge, it therefore relies entirely on bending of the pylon to resist live loads (dead loads are balanced by the pylon's self-weight) and it must be constructed piecemeal, with the pylon and deck advancing simultaneously, or with massive temporary support. This leads to the serious lack of economy.
The designer, Santiago Calatrava, has rarely been bothered by the conventional wisdom of bridge engineers, which holds that economy leads to elegance which defines beauty. Instead, his bridges owe more to sculpture and therefore have been prominent in a period where the iconic role of bridges has been prized ahead of their pure functionality.
Pollalis' book is fairly dry and factual. He takes the design development, architectural, engineering design and construction planning issues in turn, documenting in detail the process by which this unique bridge became reality. As an engineer, I found the many pages devoted to the structural analysis to be particularly interesting, as it's highly unusual to find such a detailed case study. However, I felt the book was considerably lacking on the social process of design, the politics and personalities. Also, a wider perspective on the architecture would have been welcome, as there is much to debate in the way that bridges like this highlight differences between architectural and engineering philosophies.
The book is well-illustrated, both with photos and engineering diagrams, but also several excellent line drawings made during the construction period.
As a case study, it's an excellent book, so despite the missed opportunities, still very much a favourite.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A complete description of the bridge construction
9 April 2001
Format:Hardcover
This is an useful and complete book describing the construction of Alamilo Bridge in Seville, Spain, for the Universal Exposition in 1992. With step-by-step descriptions from the project to the finished bridge, full of pictures, graphics, calculations, structural and design analysis, costs, detailed drawings showing the assembly details drawn by Alberto Diaz-Hermidas; a complete publication including description of the local government tramitation. This book written by Spiro Pollalis is a must for students and graduated architects and engineers with interest in construction of unconventional bridges like Santiago Calatrava's works, now finishing an expansion project for Milwaukee Art Museum (inauguration probably by Oct. 2001)
For civil engineers only
27 Aug 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's strictly a technical manual. There are other, better books available to admirers of Santiago Calatrava and his creative and dynamnic bridge designs.
excellent book about excellent bridge
15 Jan 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
..Congratulations to authors..topic,presentation, graphics, photos..all together are excellent...This is a book which gives an in-depth presentation of design/construction process of Alamillo Bridge.Detailed structural drawings, structural analysis-design and its construction ..everything is in this book..in detail.....Very useful for structural engineers and everyone interested in bridge design.
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