Skip to main content

Why Buildings Fall Down

authors: Matthys Levy, Mario Salvadori (1992)
date read: 25 January 2020
rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Sequel to “Why Buildings Stand Up”. It’s an easy read, covering a variety of building styles, and explaining incidents in which the buildings failed. As before, clear writing and great illustrations.

I enjoyed it, but not as much as the original. I skimmed more this time – where the first gave a high-level overview of architectural principles, this one went into more details and specifics. For example, when explaining how a tower block collapsed, it might explain the exact configuration of joints that failed. The general overview is more interesting to me.

I’m glad I read them both, but I’d only recommend the first one unless you want more of the details.

Review of the prequel: https://books.alexwlchan.net/reviews/25

(see all reviews)