How Was That Built?: The Stories Behind Awesome Structures
£13.25£14.99 (-12%)
‘From the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge to building on the moon, this utterly fascinating and visually stunning book is sure to build sky-scraping curiosity in young engineers’ Kate Pankhurst, author of the Fantastically Great Women series
‘I adored reading How Was That Built? with my son. The fascinating facts and huge detailed pictures led to lots of interesting conversations for both of us. You will never take buildings for granted again!’ David Walliams, comedian and children’s author
As seen on Steph’s Packed Lunch and featured in Cerys Matthew’s BBC Radio 6 Music show and ‘The Dreams We Live Inside’ on BBC Radio 4
Join Roma Agrawal, the award-winning structural engineer who worked on The Shard, for an exciting behind-the-scenes look at some of the world’s most amazing landmarks.
Meet the extraordinary people who challenged our beliefs about what’s possible, pioneering remarkable inventions that helped build the Brooklyn Bridge in the US, the Pantheon in Italy, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the Shard in England and the Sapporo Dome in Japan. Discover the ingenious methods engineers have come up with to enable us to build underground, underwater, on ice and even in space. And learn about the impact different forces and materials can have on a structure by carrying out your own engineering experiments from the ‘Try it at Home’ sections.
Beautiful and detailed illustrations by Katie Hickey, including cross-sections, skylines and close-ups of engineering techniques in action, provide unique and illuminating perspectives of our most awe-inspiring constructions.
Get ready to see the built world around you like never before!
‘Exploring this beautiful book feels like having a conversation with Roma, full of expert insight and fascinating detail. With playful illustrations, stacks of brand-new information and plenty of context – this is children’s non-fiction at its best’ Isabel Thomas, science writer and author of Moth and Fox
‘Skilfully illustrated and filled with remarkable details, this book is a treat for any young engineer. Roma’s breadth of knowledge and genuine passion shines through every page. It’s simply beautiful’ Angela Saini, science journalist and author
‘Open this book at any page and you are immediately sucked into the fascination of how things work – a wonderful achievement and a beautiful one too’ Mark Miodownik, materials engineer, broadcaster and author of Stuff Matters
‘How Was That Built? is a brilliant and essential book . Hopefully schools and libraries will purchase the book in big numbers because it deserves to be widely read and discussed. I also think it will do a lot to encourage young people to consider a career in construction’ Infrastructure-Intelligence.com
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Additional information
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Children's Books (16 Sept. 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Hardcover | 80 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1526603659 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1526603654 |
| Reading age | 8 years and up |
| Dimensions | 31.1 x 1.6 x 24.5 cm |
by Lou
Such an informative and well illustrated book on how things are built. So easy to understand with great examples of different monumental buildings from around the world. My kid learned a lot and so did I!
by Amazon Customer
A fantastic book, incredibly beautifully illustrated, interesting and informative; Aagreat way to learn about architecture, historically and in its most modern form. A great read for both children and adults alike.
by Mr H.
A lovely book for little enquiring minds. Really interesting bedtime reading for both of us. Deals with some fairly complicated feats of engineering in a simple to understand way without over simplifying or being condescending
by Amazon Customer
I bought this book for my nephew’s seventh birthday. There’s something for everyone in the book and it is suitable for lots of different ages. Although he can’t read a lot of the text, 7 year old loved the beautiful illustrations and will read it with his parents (he loves non-fiction). Grandparents also had a good look at the book and enjoyed finding out a few new facts. I like that nephew will use this book for many years, maybe just for fun now but I can see it being brought out for science projects etc. for many years to come. A great purchase.
by Mary
For a 10yr old great knowledge and activities
by David Comeau
Our son is showing interest in being an engineer. (13 year old) This book has a ton of really useful information that is presented in a way for a kid, tween or even teen to digest. He really enjoyed reading through it and it was well worth buying.
Great book!
by Alexandra Gordon
Bought this book for my daughter who is 3. She loves the pictures and talking about the ideas. I think she will grow to get more and more out of the book over time. I have also loved reading it on my own- it is written so clearly and with no assumed knowledge. I now feel much better equipped to talk to my daughter about the buildings around us which is great fun as we explore London together. Thanks Roma!
by Becky C
This is a fascinating book demonstrating how different structures are built.
Children (and adults!) learn how to build strong, how to build tall, how to build flat, how to build long, how to build on water, how to build underground, how to build on ice, how to build in space and so much more.
The book has amazing examples of each type of structure/buildings. It covers soaring skyscrapers like The Shard, enormous bridges such as The Brooklyn Bridge and how the beautiful domed Pantheon was originally built in Italy. It has clear explanations throughout with absolutely stunning illustrations showing different engineering techniques and close ups. My favorite page was the one explaining how the Ithaa Restaurant was built in the Maldives 5 metres below sea level, amazing!
There are ‘try at home’ activities throughout the book encouraging children to try simple engineering projects for themselves.
There is so much information in this book. The perfect book to inspire any young structural engineers out there or just a fascinating book to learn more about the amazing structures and buildings we have in our world.