Although we live and work in buildings every day, many of us never really understand the concepts behind building design. How Buildings Work presents a broad, balanced view of the physical functions that a building performs, the physical principles under which it performs these functions, and an introduction to the complex interrelationships among these functions. For the building professional, the student, or the amateur, its chapters give lucid, non-mathematical explanations of complex phenomena such as the role of the sun in heating buildings, the design of buildings for protection against fire, and the range of structural devices that are used to support buildings.