Associate Member

As Mr. Pimm has not indicated in his discussion just how the bearing capacity of a site may be estimated from measurements of the soil shear strength, it may be of interest to give an example.

THE House of Commons is a building contained within the Palace of Westminster. It is not visible from the outside, either on the land or river side, since other buildings of the Palace intervene. The original Palace was much damaged by fire in 1512, but was completely burnt down in 1834, and re-built in its present form in the years immediately following, in the perpendicular Gothic style, the Architect being Sir Charles Barry. Much of the decorative work was done by Sir Charles Barry's assistant, Pugin, who subsequently rose to great eminence in his profession. Oscar Faber

This month's letters discuss foundations in shrinkable ground and highlight a survey on structural optimisation in practice.