Even an ordinary wall can be fascinating. Most of our lives are spent in cities and buildings. We drive over bridges, wait for elevators, breathe in underground garages, screw in a shelf, or look out the window at work — and the structures and constructions that make all this possible are almost unnoticed. Structural engineer and popularizer Roma Agrawal introduces readers to construction technologies and principles, as well as their development from prehistoric clay and wicker huts to futuristic skyscrapers and several-kilometer-long bridges. Her focus is not on architecture, but on answering the question: How does it all work? With the same clarity and friendliness, she explains why a wooden cottage or a huge palace doesn't collapse, how a mountain tunnel is dug, and what needs to be considered when building a bridge. At the same time, she tells the stories of builders and inventors who improved materials and construction principles, for example, for the Pantheon in Rome or the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
