Chapter 2.1 Efficacy Balance & Grace

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.Henry David Thoreau

Figure 2.1.2 Calatrava Sculpture

A preamble on the art of structural design and where it fits in the world…some quotes from the chapter…

 Efficacy may be defined as the power to produce effects: which is not just efficiency but the ability of a given design to perform its intended function.

Balance is the means of achieving equilibrium or stability.

 Grace is the way in which the sculptural form might transcend its mere function and can become an object of real beauty and delight.

‘the designer must justify aesthetically and functionally the size of the components, the materials and how they are connected together; all of which are interdependent’.

‘Rather than turn immediately to a computer, a good conceptual designer is able to make thumbnail sketches and to undertake crude calculations.’