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To Forgive Design : Understanding Failure / Henry Petroski.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2012Description: 1 online resource (432 p.) : 12 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780674065840
  • 9780674065437
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • TA169.5 .P48 2012eb
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ONE. By Way of Concrete Examples -- TWO. Things Happen -- THREE. Designed to Fail -- FOUR. Mechanics of Failure -- FIVE. A Repeating Problem -- SIX. The Old and the New -- SEVEN. Searching for a Cause -- EIGHT. The Obligation of an Engineer -- NINE. Before, during, and after the Fall -- TEN. Legal Matters -- ELEVEN. Back-Seat Designers -- TWELVE. Houston, You Have a Problem -- THIRTEEN. Without a Leg to Stand On -- FOURTEEN. History and Failure -- Notes -- Illustrations -- Index
Summary: When planes crash, bridges collapse, and automobile gas tanks explode, we are quick to blame poor design. But Henry Petroski says we must look beyond design for causes and corrections. Known for his masterly explanations of engineering successes and failures, Petroski here takes his analysis a step further, to consider the larger context in which accidents occur. In To Forgive Design he surveys some of the most infamous failures of our time, from the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse and the toppling of a massive Shanghai apartment building in 2009 to Boston's prolonged Big Dig and the 2010 Gulf oil spill. These avoidable disasters reveal the interdependency of people and machines within systems whose complex behavior was undreamt of by their designers, until it was too late. Petroski shows that even the simplest technology is embedded in cultural and socioeconomic constraints, complications, and contradictions.Failure to imagine the possibility of failure is the most profound mistake engineers can make. Software developers realized this early on and looked outside their young field, to structural engineering, as they sought a historical perspective to help them identify their own potential mistakes. By explaining the interconnectedness of technology and culture and the dangers that can emerge from complexity, Petroski demonstrates that we would all do well to follow their lead.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780674065437

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ONE. By Way of Concrete Examples -- TWO. Things Happen -- THREE. Designed to Fail -- FOUR. Mechanics of Failure -- FIVE. A Repeating Problem -- SIX. The Old and the New -- SEVEN. Searching for a Cause -- EIGHT. The Obligation of an Engineer -- NINE. Before, during, and after the Fall -- TEN. Legal Matters -- ELEVEN. Back-Seat Designers -- TWELVE. Houston, You Have a Problem -- THIRTEEN. Without a Leg to Stand On -- FOURTEEN. History and Failure -- Notes -- Illustrations -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

When planes crash, bridges collapse, and automobile gas tanks explode, we are quick to blame poor design. But Henry Petroski says we must look beyond design for causes and corrections. Known for his masterly explanations of engineering successes and failures, Petroski here takes his analysis a step further, to consider the larger context in which accidents occur. In To Forgive Design he surveys some of the most infamous failures of our time, from the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse and the toppling of a massive Shanghai apartment building in 2009 to Boston's prolonged Big Dig and the 2010 Gulf oil spill. These avoidable disasters reveal the interdependency of people and machines within systems whose complex behavior was undreamt of by their designers, until it was too late. Petroski shows that even the simplest technology is embedded in cultural and socioeconomic constraints, complications, and contradictions.Failure to imagine the possibility of failure is the most profound mistake engineers can make. Software developers realized this early on and looked outside their young field, to structural engineering, as they sought a historical perspective to help them identify their own potential mistakes. By explaining the interconnectedness of technology and culture and the dangers that can emerge from complexity, Petroski demonstrates that we would all do well to follow their lead.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)