In preparing this the Seventh edition, the first revision in more than a dozen years, the editors were challenged in many respects. This is evident in the fact that the volume has been almost entirely rewritten, with new articles by over eighty authors. It is also evident in its new format and contents, expanded to include “Architectural Fundamentals.”
Such dramatic changes respond to the substantial renewal of architectural knowledge and practice in the past decade. New materiasl and construction methods have replaced standard practices of even a dozen years ago. There is since then new information and recommended practices in architecture and new ways of communicating information throughout the architectural and building professions. Some of the topics in the present volume were not even identified much less considered as critical issues when the last edition of this volume was published.
Updated design data and product details are increasingly available in electronic form from manufacturers, assisted by yearly updates in McGraw-Hill’s Sweet’s Catalog File. At the same time, the design fundamentals and selection guidelines by which to locate and evaluate such data become all the more critical. All of the articles in the present edition are written to assist the architect in the general principles of understanding, selecting and evaluating the professional information and knowledge needed for practice. Each article lists key references within each topic.
Thus, at the beginning of its second half-century of publication, the purpose of the Seventh Edition of Time-Saver Standards can be summarized as a “knowledge guide”—a comprehensive overview of the fundamental knowledge and technology required for exemplary architectural practice.
“Knowledge building” itself is an act of creation. How one understands and thinks about architecture and its process of construction is part of the creative design process. Understanding the knowledge base of architecture is a process that itself can “be built” upon a solid framework, constructed of understandable parts and in a manner that reveals insights and connections. The editors and authors of Time-Saver Standards hope to inform, and also to inspire, the reader in pursuit of that endeavor.