专案经理。奥本大学的学生作者编辑建筑历史书籍厨房。

S世界上最伟大的结构是建筑奇观，但几乎没有关于建造方式的细节。但是，很快，来自阿拉巴马州奥本大学的雄心勃勃的建筑学生将填补这一空白。

With help from supportive faculty and industry experts, a lot of hard work and a whirlwind summer trip studying ancient and modern buildings, 21 students from Auburn’sMcWhorter School of Building Science将发布有关建筑全球图标的建筑挑战的第一本权威教科书。虽然这本书将帮助教授奥本未来新生课程的建筑历史，但其创作者说，其他学校的同龄人也会发现它很有价值。

仅研究工作就为学生创作者创造自己的建筑事业而言是一种转变的经历。参与者杰夫·詹兹（Jeff Jantz）说：“该项目改变了我作为建筑商的改变，因为我了解到一切皆有可能。”“这使我想重点放在建造持续数百年的优质建筑上，而不是我们可以建造的速度和便宜。”

The project is the brainchild of Linda Ruth, an architect and associate professor in the school, which is within Auburn’s College of Architecture, Design & Construction. Begun in 1947, it is the second- oldest U.S. construction-education program. The book emerged from her frustration in not finding an adequate text for her construction-history class. “I realized it was really a void,” she says, noting a literary focus on architecture styles rather than on builders and their methods.

The book became the group project for the 21 upper-level building-science students who first had to compete for limited spots in Ruth’s “Deconstructing Construction” class, based on high-quality writing, research and other skills.

Students last spring were then each assigned to research landmark structures through the ages that represent unique genres and key strides in construction technology. These would make up separate book chapters and ranged from the ancient Egyptian pyramids and the Parthenon in Greece to Paris’ Eiffel Tower and the modernistic Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Topics included types of construction materials, transportation approaches, impact of soil conditions, labor force and challenges. Students even drew up modern construction-related documents for the ancient landmarks. “Four thousand years ago, there were the same problems, but different solutions,” Ruth says.

Globe Trot. Students studied landmarks in nine countries this summer.

High Point

该项目的最高点是去年夏天由18个学生到欧洲和北非9个国家的两个月旅行study their sites’ construction up closeand to give oral presentations to their co-authors. These were often followed by meetings with local experts.

In Cairo, the group was met by Zahi Hawass, a world-renowned archaeologist and secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. He arranged special permission for the students to explore usually restricted areas of the Great Pyramids, including the workers’ village. “The visit to the site is critical,” says Ruth. “The 3D experience helps the students’ writing and gets them invested.” Also key to the project are two of Ruth’s faculty colleagues in the architecture college—Michael Hein, a professor who helped students analyze structures, and Paul Holley, an associate construction management instructor who aided in the understanding of project management. They also traveled abroad.

到目前为止，这本书的工作标题将与班级名称相同。每章都强调了一个建筑时期，但通过其建设步骤呈现，将重点关注当时的一个众所周知的结构。露丝说：“学生仍然被介绍给建筑风格，但从建造者的角度来看，而不是设计师的视野。”

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学生们说，旅行经验不仅是因为语言和文化交流，而且还在理解与家中那些不同的建筑技术以及过去时代的工艺工人所面临的艰难条件。还要求参与者使用现代方法评估古代地标。负责该书的Great Pyramid分会负责的研究生Michael McDonald估计，今天建立图标的成本将超过1.8万亿美元。

“几千年前，现在已经完成了某种方式，但现在被称为新颖而创新的，”正在研究希腊克里特岛上克诺索斯宫的参与者丹尼尔·伯森（Daniel Burson）说。负责罗马万神殿一章的劳伦·怀班加（Lauren Wybenga）补充说：“我了解到没有被吓倒或封闭于建筑的可能性。”

Ruth says some book chapters will be be ready for online class use at Auburn this semester. Although text and graphics are still being edited and several chapters have yet to be written, publishers are already expressing interest, she says. Bridging the gap between student-written chapters and a finished book is Ross Heck, a graphics expert in Auburn’s industrial design department, who is handling layout and design.

Ruth is thinking about expanding the book to include construction landmarks from Asian cultures and American contributions such as the suspension bridge. “I’m hopeful for the day that we can travel to Iraq to study the Ziggurat of Ur, but that will definitely have to wait for a future edition,” she says.

Last month, Ruth took three students to Europe to research chapters on the Stonehenge monument and the O2 dome in England (formerly called Millennium Dome), and to London’s curved 30 St. Mary Axe skyscraper designed by noted British architect Norman Foster. Sara Richter, a senior construction major, will research and present the latter project for her undergraduate thesis. “This project is really a good thing,” she says. “I mean, we didn’t even have a book to use in our class.”

“让学生看到该行业有历史真是太好了。” — Linda Ruth, Associate Construction Professor

Corey Lemming, who handled the Bilbao museum chapter, says the book ranks high among his Auburn experiences. “The best part was seeing the structures, architecture and history that I have been learning about the last four years,” he says. “When I run into a problem on a construction site, I will remember the buildings I visited this summer.”

Ruth thinks the book project has been a more-than-effective teaching tool. “It’s been wonderful for the students to start to see that their profession actually does have a history,” she says.