Entre Maecanique et Architecture

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This text deals with the historical development of the scientific theories that, in the 18th century, gave engineers and architects the means of calculating masonry vaulted structures and, in the 19th century, provided exact mathematical methods of dimensioning complex structures. The book’s aim is to counter-balance the picture of architecture provided by art historians who, in general, study the evolution of buildings. The authors look into what is related to the actual art of building, to the means of assuring building stability. While historians of art are principally concerned with the aesthetics of a monument, here the accent is put on the development of the physico-mathematical theories of mechanics to which engineers and constructors have turned, and to the laws of mechanics, of elasticity and of the strength of materials to which they are bound. The study of perspective and projective geometry also enters the work by way of the representations and plans of the buildings to be constructed.