Conceptual design of buildings

As the starting point for any engineering project, mastering conceptual design means you'll understand how to work from a client brief, produce viable structural solutions, and test the feasibility of your ideas. You'll identify and solve major problems before you embark on a detailed design, and learn the skills to work with clients and colleagues from all disciplines.

Drawing on the expertise of seven engineering/teaching professionals, and led by the University of Bristol's Dr James Norman, this book sets out to develop students' and graduates' understanding of the process - providing inspiration for the Institution's IPD core objective on conceptual design.

Topics covered include: generating and communicating ideas through sketching and writing, preparing the brief, the concept design process itself, consideration of site constraints and ground conditions, developing a structural scheme, understanding robustness and stability, sizing of elements, and what to produce at the end of the process. It also includes worked examples.