No architect's education would be complete without a basic understanding of how structures respond to the action of forces and how these forces affect the performance of various building materials (wood, steel, concrete, etc.). The Parker/Ambrose Series of Simpli-fied Design Guides has been providing students with simple concise solutions to common structural and environmental design prob-lems for more than seven decades. In response to feedback from previous adopters, this 6th edition has been revised to include a greater emphasis on fundamental issues - decreased emphasis on mathematics, and a higher illustration to text ratio.