Discussion on Hagia Sophia: Justinian's Church of Divine Wisdom, Later the Mosque of Ayasofya, in Is

Quirky structures Mr R. S. Taylor, on 18 June, posed the case of a wall ‘fastened intimately to the full height of a stanchion, though not in a way that would offer structural assistance’. Oddly, however great the eccentric dead load action of the wall, no bending moment would be induced in the stanchion. Professor H, G. Allen of Southampton University comments as follows: I was interested to see the eccentrically-loaded column in The Structural Engineer for 18 June. I came across this problem when I was doing calculations at Halcrow for the Turbine Hall of the Buenos Aires power station, in about 1958. Verulam

Tony Cusens will succeed David Lazenby as President of the Institution 1991-92 at an Ordinary Meeting at Institution headquarters on 3 October 1991. The handover ceremony begins at 6pm when Professor Cusens will give his Presidential Address, ‘Concrete steps to construction’s future’, the full text of which will be published in The Structural Engineer in November.

This month's letters cover legislation for design checks, embodied carbon of modular construction approaches, and assessment of masonry buildings for earthquake resilience in New Zealand.