I got 3 books on building technology from a friend of my father who is an architect and had these books in his library. As the title suggests, these books published in 1994 . I am student and don't know as much about building technology, but I wonder whether it is worth reading them. Has building technology progressed dramatically since those years, that would make the content of these books outdated?
Here are the books in case you are familiar with any of them:
1.Environment and Services (Mitchells Building Series)
not sure of their content but if they reflect standard and cuttting edge technology of their time they are worth their weight in bronze most likely, if not now, def. in 20 years. you may find yourself eventually working on buildings of that vintage. you may learn about the same material two different things and understand the history for the changes. in one office i know the architect has a book that is 80 years old and there are details in this books and information you will never find on the web.
mightyaa
Nov 21, 16 12:32 pm
I don't know the content, but yes, they are still valid if they are technical in nature. The literal building blocks of construction has been rather static. ASTM standards go back to the early 20th century and haven't changed drastically. Nor have the building codes since the 70's UBC; changes yes, drastic..nope.
It's really only the low energy stuff now that has changed, but it hasn't been drastic.
curtkram
Nov 21, 16 1:34 pm
they didn't have an international energy code in 1994. they didn't put continuous insulation on the exterior of a building. vapor transmission was typically limited to 'wrap it in plastic.'
building codes, building science, and the way we approach building skin have changed quite a bit since then. i would say no, not worth reading if your time could be spent learning more modern methodologies.
mightyaa
Nov 21, 16 6:59 pm
[/begin sarcasm] You’re right. We didn’t know nothing about fancy thermally broken systems, continuous insulation, air barriers, etc. We only knew EIFS, cold walls, fluid applied WRB’s, solar gain and thermal mass. Fancy HVAC systems and lighting control were also only theory way back in ole ’94. LEED buildings were unheard of too, and back then that only meant we used recycled rubber and bottles for foundations. We were using wattle and daub bricks back then and fireplaces to heat… LEED was totally bitchin granola stuff. We walked to work, uphill both ways, in two feet of snow every day, snorted ammonia, and our fingers were black and crusty from our rapidographs and hand renders on onion skin vellum. [/end sarcasm].
You might just crack open a ‘90’s Graphic Standard and a new one too see how much the built environment has “changed”. Maybe if you were talking the ‘70’s… but even then things haven’t changed that much. A brick is still a brick, a stud a stud, cmu, concrete, curtainwall, and so on.
curtkram
Nov 21, 16 8:40 pm
1994 was when LEED started. the first rating system (v1.0) was 1998. some people had heard of LEED in 1994, but not many.
i would be interested in seeing a storefront section now v. what it was in 1994. there have, of course, been significant advances. it looks like tubelite's thermally broken systems were introduced in 2010. history of thermally broken storefront and curtain wall systems is apparently a somewhat difficult google. if you can find some good pictures, post them here.
as an aside, you can get clear glass now that will perform far better than the reflective glass they had at that time. amazing stuff. low-e coatings just started in the '80s right? certainly we had them in 1994, but surely it wasn't as common as it is today?
you can skip to about page 14 of this article, and they go into the history of fluid applied air barriers. you might have had a rubberized asphalt in 1994, but probably not sto-gold or sto-emerald coating.
a brick is still a brick. but now it's a pressure-equalized rainscreen system :)
mightyaa
Nov 22, 16 10:45 am
LEED was the outfall of what I'd call the green building movement of the late 80's early 90's. LEED itself was new, but all it did was formalize what a lot of architects and manufacturer's were doing so you could get a certificate. No one really got the certificate (it was a 6 month process and $12k)... but you went for the standards.
Actually, if you don't know about it, hit up. https://archive.org/web/ It's a historical database of the internet. Just remember that in '94, we were most likely using Sweets on cd, had libraries and manufacturer webpages were more like sales and contact versus technical. Research away...
btw; when I was in school in the 80's, there were LED shading films, systems that would fill a void with styrofoam pellets in windows then suck them out, and so forth (new techs that had issues). Lights were on occupancy sensors, 'super-insulated' was a catch phrase, green roofs, and we also did a lot with passive solar (trombe walls, thermal mass, thermal lag, roof ponds, etc.). Other catch phrases were sick building syndrome, off-gassing, natural materials vs manufactured, etc. Basically, the same stuff, just renamed and rehashed out as somehow newer and better.
Sitting at my desk is the Gypsum Association tech book, Tile Association (TCA), Masonry Institute Tech Book, and Sheet Metal Manual (SMACNA) which are also dated from that time period; Still perfectly valid and barely changed. I've even got some stuff from my Dad's trunk dating to the 50's and 60's that could be perfectly valid details today.
With all of this, you do sort of need to know how to apply more current tech / products, but the basics are still there as well as some cool technical tricks. Example; Do you know how to properly design a parabolic structure or masonry crossvault or the geometric math of ellipses? Put it this way; would you trust a modern masonry book for true brick and stone details, or a book from a time period where it was commonplace on how to detail the patterns, joints, and methods?
Basically, don't throw out the past as irrelevant.
curtkram
Nov 22, 16 5:31 pm
1998
2016
accesskb
Nov 22, 16 10:36 pm
Yes, you will learn a lot from old books in our profession.. Unlike other tech professions, building processes remain the same or don't change drastically due to new technologies coming out. Forces will always be present, and so will dealing with mechanical, environmental systems etc. No real game changers that will make things obsolete like in the tech industry.
I got 3 books on building technology from a friend of my father who is an architect and had these books in his library. As the title suggests, these books published in 1994 . I am student and don't know as much about building technology, but I wonder whether it is worth reading them. Has building technology progressed dramatically since those years, that would make the content of these books outdated?
Here are the books in case you are familiar with any of them:
1.Environment and Services (Mitchells Building Series)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Environment-Services-Mitchells-Building-Burberry/dp/0582245214/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479671594&sr=8-1&keywords=mitchell+environment+services
2.External Components: v. 1 (Mitchells Building Series)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/External-Components-v-Mitchells-Building/dp/0582212553/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479671629&sr=8-1&keywords=mitchell+external+components
3.Internal Components (Mitchells Building Series)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Internal-Components-Mitchells-Building-Blanc/dp/058221257X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479671656&sr=8-1&keywords=mitchell+internal+components
not sure of their content but if they reflect standard and cuttting edge technology of their time they are worth their weight in bronze most likely, if not now, def. in 20 years. you may find yourself eventually working on buildings of that vintage. you may learn about the same material two different things and understand the history for the changes. in one office i know the architect has a book that is 80 years old and there are details in this books and information you will never find on the web.
I don't know the content, but yes, they are still valid if they are technical in nature. The literal building blocks of construction has been rather static. ASTM standards go back to the early 20th century and haven't changed drastically. Nor have the building codes since the 70's UBC; changes yes, drastic..nope.
It's really only the low energy stuff now that has changed, but it hasn't been drastic.
they didn't have an international energy code in 1994. they didn't put continuous insulation on the exterior of a building. vapor transmission was typically limited to 'wrap it in plastic.'
building codes, building science, and the way we approach building skin have changed quite a bit since then. i would say no, not worth reading if your time could be spent learning more modern methodologies.
[/begin sarcasm] You’re right. We didn’t know nothing about fancy thermally broken systems, continuous insulation, air barriers, etc. We only knew EIFS, cold walls, fluid applied WRB’s, solar gain and thermal mass. Fancy HVAC systems and lighting control were also only theory way back in ole ’94. LEED buildings were unheard of too, and back then that only meant we used recycled rubber and bottles for foundations. We were using wattle and daub bricks back then and fireplaces to heat… LEED was totally bitchin granola stuff. We walked to work, uphill both ways, in two feet of snow every day, snorted ammonia, and our fingers were black and crusty from our rapidographs and hand renders on onion skin vellum. [/end sarcasm].
You might just crack open a ‘90’s Graphic Standard and a new one too see how much the built environment has “changed”. Maybe if you were talking the ‘70’s… but even then things haven’t changed that much. A brick is still a brick, a stud a stud, cmu, concrete, curtainwall, and so on.
1994 was when LEED started. the first rating system (v1.0) was 1998. some people had heard of LEED in 1994, but not many.
i would be interested in seeing a storefront section now v. what it was in 1994. there have, of course, been significant advances. it looks like tubelite's thermally broken systems were introduced in 2010. history of thermally broken storefront and curtain wall systems is apparently a somewhat difficult google. if you can find some good pictures, post them here.
as an aside, you can get clear glass now that will perform far better than the reflective glass they had at that time. amazing stuff. low-e coatings just started in the '80s right? certainly we had them in 1994, but surely it wasn't as common as it is today?
you can skip to about page 14 of this article, and they go into the history of fluid applied air barriers. you might have had a rubberized asphalt in 1994, but probably not sto-gold or sto-emerald coating.
a brick is still a brick. but now it's a pressure-equalized rainscreen system :)
LEED was the outfall of what I'd call the green building movement of the late 80's early 90's. LEED itself was new, but all it did was formalize what a lot of architects and manufacturer's were doing so you could get a certificate. No one really got the certificate (it was a 6 month process and $12k)... but you went for the standards.
Actually, if you don't know about it, hit up. https://archive.org/web/ It's a historical database of the internet. Just remember that in '94, we were most likely using Sweets on cd, had libraries and manufacturer webpages were more like sales and contact versus technical. Research away...
btw; when I was in school in the 80's, there were LED shading films, systems that would fill a void with styrofoam pellets in windows then suck them out, and so forth (new techs that had issues). Lights were on occupancy sensors, 'super-insulated' was a catch phrase, green roofs, and we also did a lot with passive solar (trombe walls, thermal mass, thermal lag, roof ponds, etc.). Other catch phrases were sick building syndrome, off-gassing, natural materials vs manufactured, etc. Basically, the same stuff, just renamed and rehashed out as somehow newer and better.
Sitting at my desk is the Gypsum Association tech book, Tile Association (TCA), Masonry Institute Tech Book, and Sheet Metal Manual (SMACNA) which are also dated from that time period; Still perfectly valid and barely changed. I've even got some stuff from my Dad's trunk dating to the 50's and 60's that could be perfectly valid details today.
With all of this, you do sort of need to know how to apply more current tech / products, but the basics are still there as well as some cool technical tricks. Example; Do you know how to properly design a parabolic structure or masonry crossvault or the geometric math of ellipses? Put it this way; would you trust a modern masonry book for true brick and stone details, or a book from a time period where it was commonplace on how to detail the patterns, joints, and methods?
Basically, don't throw out the past as irrelevant.
1998
2016
Yes, you will learn a lot from old books in our profession.. Unlike other tech professions, building processes remain the same or don't change drastically due to new technologies coming out. Forces will always be present, and so will dealing with mechanical, environmental systems etc. No real game changers that will make things obsolete like in the tech industry.