Recommended book for home building technology

by Charles Roring in Manokwari of West Papua - Indonesia

I have been reading books about house design and construction since early this month. I found that the construction practices that the Indonesian home builders have are different from the ones in Europe. Many of the houses in Indonesia have good openings to allow air circulate inside all rooms of the houses. Houses in Indonesia are located in tropical region that is hot and full of moisture. Besides, the houses are exposed to frequent rain during rainy season. Therefore, the design of the houses in this country stipulates that the houses are resistant to wet climate condition with good ventilation to keep the rooms cool during the day.

Actually the theory of home design in Indonesia is much influenced by home building theory in Europe particularly the Netherlands. Unfortunately, I cannot understand Dutch. I prefer to read home building books that are printed in English. At the moment, there are many books about home design and construction available on the internet which anybody can download. One of them which I recommend to you is Fundamental Building Technology. It was written by Taylor and Francis. The followings are Table of Contents of this book:

1. Introduction to building technology

2. Site investigation and the type of ground

3. Excavation

4. Foundations

5. Concrete

6. Single story basements

7. Bricks and blocks

8. External walls

9. Bonding and openings in the walls

10. Timber

11. Ground floors

12. Upper floors

13. Flat roof construction

14. Flat roof coverings

15. Pitched roof construction

16. Pitched roof coverings

17. Timber frame and steel frame house construction

18. Windows and glazing

19. Doors

20. Stairs

21. Plasters and plasterboards

22. Internal walls and partitions

23. Internal finishes

24. External wall finishes

Glossary of terms

Whether you design a house using Revit Architecture or Archicad, you will need to have an comprehensive knowledge of home building technology to create a nice looking yet strong and safe house.