Illustrated Building Pocket Book

Book excerpt: Building and architecture has developed a language of its own, with terms and jargon that can confuse an expert let alone an outsider. Misunderstandings over what a word means can be irritating but unimportant, but could in the worst cases be costly or even dangerous. Traditional building dictionaries rely on the reader to already know what the correct word is, and that's not always the case. Roxanna McDonald's technique is radically different, and makes full use of the power of visual communication to convey information. Each stage of the building and design process is illustrated, and each hand-drawn illustration is carefully labelled with the relevant technical terms, to ensure that each term is used correctly and consistently by everyone working on a project. The 'Illustrated Building Pocket Book' is a radical approach to the age-old problem of the ambiguous use of technical language in building and architecture. By using drawings – which leave little room for ambiguity – clarity, safety and certainty can be achieved.