Preface to the 2004 edition

Now in its ninth offering, the course includes web materials generated when many of the students were in middle school. Novel in 1996, digital imaging and the web are now normal, and that is good. The course now enters a new phase with the introduction of the Arcade computer program. I started using Arcade in rather primitive demonstrations in 2001. This year, thanks to the support of NSF and a research leave from the School of Architecture, the course will be using Arcade from the first lecture. We'll be learning old ideas in completely new ways, along with some new things that were impossible to discuss or illustrate before. From my experience using new technologies, I know there will be times when I use the new toy a little too much. I apologize in advance for those, and trust the students to let me know when it isn't working, and when it is.

Kirk Martini
January 13, 2004

Preface to the 1998 edition

In it's third offering, the course has benefitted a great deal from the advice and criticism of the more than 160 students who have taken it so far. Those students who follow owe them a debt of gratitude for helping me to improve the things that work, and weed out the things that don't.

I'd also like to give Chris Luebkeman credit for the idea of using digital video to illustrate the behavior of structural models: one of Chris's many innovative and useful ideas in his pioneering applications of the web in teaching architectural structures.

Kirk Martini
January 2, 1998

Preface to the 1996 edition

Speaking frankly and speaking the truth are two different things entirely. Honesty is to truth as prow is to stern. Honesty appears first and truth appears last. The interval between varies in direct proportion to the size of the ship. With anything of size, truth takes a long time coming.

--the man in the black suit
from A Wild Sheep Chase, by Haruki Murakami
translated by Alfred Birnbaum

This course is based on two fundamental ideas: principle and precedent. These are key to all design disciplines, and are particularly powerful in structural design because the principles are so clear and the precedents so numerous. Principle and precedent correspond to the logical modes of deduction and induction respectively, and these complementary modes of learning and problem solving form the pedagogic basis for the course.

The computer plays a central but not exclusive role. Precedent is embodied in the digital images of structural examples from around the world, approximately four hundred images plus extracted details and annotations. Principle is embodied in structural analysis and modelling, one of the first applications of computer-aided design. The course seeks to use digital images and computer analysis together to synthesize an inductive approach based on precedent with a deductive approach based on principle. The initial results are promising, but the truth may take a long time coming.

Many people have contributed to this project. I am deeply grateful for the support of the Lilly Endowment Teaching Fellowship Program and the University of Virginia's Teaching + Technology Initiative under the guidance of Barbara Nolan, Jude Reagan, and Polley McClure. The other fellows in those programs have been a major source of inspiration and ideas; it has been nothing but fun. Special thanks to Christie Stephenson, and Duncan Kincaid for their ideas about digital imaging. I owe a big debt to Bill Godden of U.C. Berkeley, who gave me permission to digitize and use images from his magnificent slide collection; his insight, organization, and photographic skill provide a model to anyone interested in using photographs in technical teaching. Marva Barnett and Randy Pausch gave me invaluable advice during my Lilly Fellowship, about a lot more than teaching. And a final thanks to Ken Schwartz who provided constant advice, mentorship and support in my pursuit of both the Lilly and TTI Fellowships.

Kirk Martini
Charlottesville, Virginia
May 21, 1996