Whether it be construction of rudimentary shelter to complex networks of transport, communication, electrical superhighways or water grids, human society has, since the dawn of civilisation, honed civil engineering practices in order to support increasingly complex societal infrastructure.  It is why steel structures like towers, bridges, steel pipework  pipework, with chunky solid welds, big knobbly nuts and bolts; large stadiums, buildings or dams constructed with big heavy and bulky formwork and rigging; large steel struts and spans that cross big spaces of air to support and bolster other parts of a structure; or intricate stone or brickwork held together with or without mortar are so fascinating to me.

These engineered structures are designed in response, in many cases to, determining what structural loads are present, and how various forces and stresses which result from that load are expressed and distributed, and then constructing the structure to successfully support and resist those loads.

Taken individually each civil structure serves a specific purpose, but it is when they are taken as an integrated whole, that their purpose, design and function can be viewed to operate at a higher level in support of a larger overall societal infrastructure.