As the starting point for any engineering project, mastering conceptual design means you'll understand how to work from a client brief, produce viable structural solutions, and test the feasibility of your ideas. You'll identify and solve major problems before you embark on a detailed design, and learn the skills to work with clients and colleagues from all disciplines.Drawing on the expertise of seven engineering/teaching professionals, and led by the University of Bristol's Dr James Norman, this book sets out to develop students' and graduates' understanding of the process - providing inspiration for the Institution's IPD core objective on conceptual design.Topics covered include: generating and communicating ideas through sketching and writing, preparing the brief, the concept design process itself, consideration of site constraints and ground conditions, developing a structural scheme, understanding robustness and stability, sizing of elements, and what to produce at the end of the process. It also includes worked examples.

As the starting point for any engineering project, mastering conceptual design means you'll understand how to work from a client brief, produce viable structural solutions, and test the feasibility of your ideas. You'll identify and solve major problems before you embark on a detailed design, and learn the skills to work with clients and colleagues from all disciplines.Drawing on the expertise of seven engineering/teaching professionals, and led by the University of Bristol's Dr James Norman, this book sets out to develop students' and graduates' understanding of the process - providing inspiration for the Institution's IPD core objective on conceptual design.Topics covered include: generating and communicating ideas through sketching and writing, preparing the brief, the concept design process itself, consideration of site constraints and ground conditions, developing a structural scheme, understanding robustness and stability, sizing of elements, and what to produce at the end of the process. It also includes worked examples.