Shortcuts: Structure and Fabric
Austin Williams
March 2009
Code: 67742
ISBN: 9781859463215
240 pp
Paperback
£25.00
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Shortcuts provide an eclectic mix of at-a-glance guides to the minefield of regulations, new materials, and
technologies that confront building designers today. Comprising hand-drawn sketches, technical drawings, and punchy
articles, each Shortcut takes you right to the heart of a key topic in architecture and construction, presenting a wealth
of invaluable information in an accessible and lively way.
Shortcuts: Book 1 focusses on issues to do with the structure and fabric of buildings. Grouped into four main subject areas,
structure, fabric and finishes, fixures and fittings, and drainage, the Shortcuts range from rainscreen cladding to fire protection,
from lofts to lifts, and from LEDs to SUDS.
Each Shortcut is a quick, reliable, and incisive clarification of the welter of diverse (and sometimes conflicting) technical
guidance that tends to bombard and bamboozle designers.
About the author
An architect and project manager by profession, Austin Williams is also a regular columnist with the Daily
Telegraph, director of the Future Cities Project, and was technical editor at the Architects' Journal, architecture critic with
BBC London's Robert Elms' Show, and part-time tutor at the Royal College of Art Vehicle Design Department.
He is the author of "The Enemies of Progress" (Societas) and "The Macro World of Microcars" (Black Dog) and is currently editing
"The Future of Community" (Pluto). He is also the founder of ManTowNHuman: Manifesto Towards a New Humanism. He has written for a
range of books and publications, including: The Times Literary Supplement, Times Higher Educational Supplement, Trespass, Top Gear,
New Humanist, Blueprint, Construction News, Architects' Journal, Building Design, spiked-online, The London Property Review; and MJ.
What people are saying about Shortcuts
"Shortcuts is very much like its author: swiftly getting to the core of the matter in a precise and concise style. Importantly it also sees through much of the bureaucracy." Simon Allford
"The two Shortcuts books are really great publications. They are essential reading for our students at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, providing a wealth of detail and information in a clear aIain Borden, head, Bartlett School of Architecture says: "The two Shortcuts books are really great publications. They are essential reading for our students at the UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, providing a wealth of detail and information in a clear and accessible format. Highly recommended." Iain Borden, Head, Bartlett School of Architecture
"Austin put together the Shortcuts series which demonstrated his deep understanding of the technology of architecture and his ability to communicate this knowledge in an easily digestible format. Not to mention his previously hidden talent - the man can draw!" Ruth Slavid, ex-deputy editor, The Architects' Journal
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