Mario Como – författare

This successful book, which is now appearing in its second edition, presents a comprehensive new Statics of Masonry Constructions. Masonry constructions are the great majority of the buildings in Europe’s historic centres and the most important monuments in its architectural heritage. Given the age of these constructions, the demand for safety assessments and restoration projects is pressing and constant. The book you hold in hands contributes to fill this demand. The second edition integrates the original text of the first edition with new developments, widening and revisions, due to recent research studies achievements.

The result is a book that gives a complete picture of the behaviour of the Masonry Constructions. First of all, it gives the fundamentals of its Statics, based on the no-tension assumption, and then it develops the Limit Analysis for the Masonry Constructions. In this framework, through an interdisciplinary approach combining Engineering and Architecture, the book also investigates the static behaviour of many historic monuments, such as the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the domes of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and St Peter’s in Rome, as well as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Gothic Cathedrals. Finally, the book gives an in-depth study of  masonry buildings under seismic actions.

Masonry constructions are the great majority of the buildings in Europe’s historic centres and the most important monuments of its architectural heritage. Given the age of these constructions, the demand for safety assessments and restoration projects is pressing and constant; still within the broad studies in the subject it is not yet recognised, in particular within the seismic area, a unitary approach to deal with Masonry structures. This successful book contributes to clarify the issues with a rigorous approach offering a comprehensive new Statics of Masonry Constructions.

This third edition has been driven by some recent developments of the research in the field, and it gives the fundamentals of Statics with an original and rigorous mathematical formulation, further in-depth inquired in this new version. With many refinements and improvements, the book investigates the static behaviour of many historic monuments, such as the Gothic Cathedrals, the Mycenaean Tholoi, thePantheon, the Colosseum, the domes of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and St Peter’s in Rome, as well as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The last chapter – the 11th - regarding the behaviour of masonry buildings under seismic actions, has been modified and integrated in order to take into account the numerous recent achievements of the research in the dynamic and seismic analysis. The focal point is that there’s no dissipation of energy during the deformation of masonry structures, even if accompanied by cracks. If properly reinforced, masonry constructions have the sole resource to escape the seismic action developing the rocking without failure, under alternate seismic action. In this context, the rocking of pier walls, the main resistant components of the masonry structure, has been here thoroughly examined. Furthermore, the out of plane and the in-plane seismic strengths of masonry walls with openings has been investigated within the framework of LimitAnalysis.

Through an interdisciplinary approach, involving Mathematics, Engineering and Architecture, this book highlights the tight connection existing between the Statics of Masonry constructions and the principles that ruled the history of constructions, since the beginnings as far as the Seventeenth century. 

Masonry constructions are the great majority of the buildings in Europe’s historical centres and the most important monuments in its architectural heritage and the demand for their  safety assessments and restoration projects is pressing and constant. Nevertheless, there is a lack of a widely accepted approach to studying the statics of masonry structures. This book aims to help fill these gaps by presenting a new comprehensive, unified theory of statics of masonry constructions.

 The book,  result of thirty years of research and professional experience, through an interdisciplinary approach combining engineering, architecture,  advances from the simple to the complex and  analyses  statics of a large variety of masonry constructions, as arches, domes, cross and cloister vaults, piers, towers, cathedrals and buildings under seismic actions.