Modern Construction Envelopes

Modern Construction Envelopes, Andrew Watts, Springer 2010 (pp. 522, € 83.15)

Andrew Watts, "façade specialist" and owner of the London studio newtecnic, combines two previous volumes, Modern Construction Facades and Modern Construction Roofs, into one massive tome that completely exhausts the topic of roofs and wall construction. In over 500 pages of uncoated stock, the numerous illustrations are organized into material themes: walls and roofs in metal, glass, concrete, masonry, plastic, wood and fabric, along with comparisons, methodologies and technological innovations, especially in the chapter on plastics. The volume also provides the latest techniques regarding traditional wood construction systems.

From beginning to end—the façade clad in sheet metal to the barrel vault (finished in a single membrane fabric) in the last section—the case studies are meticulously documented with restrained and effective drawings. 3D renderings, axonometric views, plans and sections are all accompanied by the necessary information to facilitate the understanding of structures which, in many cases, are far from simple. The realism and completeness of every construction detail provide precise information to help the designer through the construction documents phase of the design project.

Targeted mainly at students, this bible of construction shows first that it is impossible to reduce architecture to a universe of tiny conceptual signifiers, showing instead how to frame problems in technical terms instead. Supported by his arguments, Watts is opposed to any superficial aestheticism of architecture and so reminds us that every wall, every joint, every pane of glass must be designed, or chosen, based on their physical characteristics and technical and sensory power. In addition, it is clear that the real substance of design, on the scale of detail, is the connection between the constituent elements.

The book's massive scale subdivides, differentiates and decomposes architectural elements into individual parts which, in and of themselves, are devoid of specific connotations. A wood wall is an assembly of twenty-two elements; a roof eighteen, a glass roof twelve. Watts proceeds to clarify the construction aspect leaving architectural form as a side effect, a strategy that introduces an idea of architecture that we are not accustomed to. Contemporary practice is so drugged by formal research, conceptual refinements and minimalist balancing acts that tend to nullify the enormous complexity and technicality of building. Watts is an analyst who works on architecture like a pathologist leaning over a lifeless body, but in his drawings flash signs of a lively architecture firmly rooted in tectonics and performance.