Matthew Wells – författare

This innovative new book presents the vast historical sweep of engineering innovation and technological change to describe and illustrate engineering design and what conditions, events, cultural climates and personalities have brought it to its present state.Matthew Wells covers topics based on an examination of paradigm shifts, the contribution of individuals, important structures and influential disasters to show approaches to the modern concept of structure. By demonstrating the historical context of engineering, Wells has created a guide to design like no other, inspirational for both students and practitioners working in the fields of architecture and engineering.

This innovative new book presents the vast historical sweep of engineering innovation and technological change to describe and illustrate engineering design and what conditions, events, cultural climates and personalities have brought it to its present state.Matthew Wells covers topics based on an examination of paradigm shifts, the contribution of individuals, important structures and influential disasters to show approaches to the modern concept of structure. By demonstrating the historical context of engineering, Wells has created a guide to design like no other, inspirational for both students and practitioners working in the fields of architecture and engineering.

George Hudson was the greatest British railway entrepreneur of the 19th century. In 1848, he controlled over 1,000 miles of railway and, when it came to railway promotion, it seemed he could do no wrong. However, in early 1849 it came to light that some of his business methods had been less than ethical and he was forced to relinquish the chairmanship of each of his companies. His fall from grace was spectacular and his detractors, of whom there were many, were quick to denounce him as a fraudster, a charlatan and a crook. Even today, when the name George Hudson is mentioned, these same insults are often levelled at him.This new biography takes a fresh look at Hudson’s extraordinary life, from his humble beginnings as a farmer’s boy, to becoming Lord Mayor of York before catching the railway bug. He was MP for Sunderland between 1845 and 1859\. After his fall from grace, Hudson endured a 20-year court battle with the York and North Midland Railway (subsequently the North Eastern Railway) for outstanding debts.Hudson made many mistakes in creating his railway empire, but did he deserve all the vitriol that still accompanies his reputation? In seeking to answer this question, Matthew Wells looks at the evidence, including what was said about Hudson during his lifetime and what Hudson himself had to say about the actions he took.

When architects visit a building, and want to record or identify what they see, they take out a bundle of folded sheets in search of a blank piece of paper. These sheets may be ground plans, diagrams, sketches and ordnance maps. In one way or another, all are survey drawings, operating as both documentation and analysis, enabling an architect to examine certain conditions of the built environment, whether geometric, relational, material or technical.This book explores the history of the survey and its multiple forms in order to understand how the methods of recording what already exists can also be used to imagine what might be. Lavishly illustrated, with works from the collection of Drawing Matter and beyond, it addresses the multiple forms of the survey through focused studies – on John Soane (1753–1837), Charles Robert Cockerell (1788–1863), and Detmar Blow (1867–1939); French architects Louis-Hippolyte Lebas (1782–1867), Henri Labrouste (1801–1875), and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879); and Swiss-based Peter Märkli (born 1953) – and an extensive section of plates with commentaries by contemporary architects. In doing so, it maintains that while all surveys begin with the site, the outcomes are as idiosyncratic as their authors – and their methods have much to offer as tools in design practice.The book is the first in the Architecture Iconographies series, published in collaboration with Drawing Matter, an organisation based in Wincanton, Somerset, that explores the role of drawing in architectural thought and practice. They consider the image-making of architecture through its typologies and unique approaches to drawing. Exploring their resonance in the history of the profession, as well as their relationship to the architects themselves, the series aims to open up further possibilities for their use in both practice and teaching.