Book excerpt: The pioneering website www.structuralconcepts.org, by Tianjian Ji and Adrian Bell, goes back to basics and explains in detail the basic principles of structural concepts and how they relate to the real world. Following on from and expanding upon the website, comes this book. Essential for the civil engineering student, it examines the concepts in closer detail with formulae and technical terminology, while remaining grounded in the website's practical approach. With hundreds of photographs and diagrams, you are encouraged to visualize each concept in turn and to understand how it applies to every day life.