Barrys introduction to construction of buildings Fourth edition
by Stephen Emmitt

Barrys introduction to construction of buildings: Robin Barry’s Construction of Buildings first appeared in print in 1958 and eventually grew into five volumes.

When I took on the task of revising and updating the Barry books, a decision was taken to condense the work into two volumes to make it more accessible to readers.

This was a big task, and it required the input of a former colleague, Christopher Gorse, and the help of many individuals and companies, for which I remain extremely grateful.

Working on the books continues to be a process of addition and subtraction to keep the content topical and informative to a wide readership.

Now, as a solo‐authored work, it has been possible to further simplify and clarify the content while making the latest round of revisions.

This has resulted in repositioning of material and new features, such as ‘How to navigate this book’ and the ‘At a glance’ fact sheets.

The repositioning of material, from one volume to another, and within volumes, has helped to ensure a more logical flow of information that better reflects the process of construction.

The main changes to each volume are as follows.

This volume of Barrys introduction to construction of buildings has retained the same chapter structure, with changes made within chapters to improve readability.

The introductory chapter has been rewritten to better explain the process of construction and to place greater emphasis on its environmental impact.

The material on timber‐framed construction has been moved to the Advanced volume, which has allowed for simplification, rewriting and renaming of Chapter 5 to better reflect the content on loadbearing wall construction.