Annual Dinner

The modern trend of structural development is to reduce weight, and simultaneously to increase structural efficiency. A powerful means for realising these aims is to be found in the use of sections of thin walled proportions. Such sections, on account of their lightness, together with outlines chosen for maximum stiffness, give a high load-carrying capacity to structural weight ratio. W. Shearer Smith

This month's letters include the answer to a two-year-old mystery wall query and the Venezuela earthquake and the role of no-fines concrete.

The building control regime in Scotland provides a level of rigour that Victoria Tinney finds reassuring; two years since establishing her own practice in Glasgow, she talks to Helena Russell about the Scottish building warrant system and the power of sketching.