Most architects and historians peg the beginnings of modern architecture (now being called mid-century modern) at the founding of the Bauhaus school in Germany. So 1919.

Of course, Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier (two of the greatest modern architecture architects) were practicing before this time so you will find a few different answers.

Increasing the span decreases the loading bearing capability of the beam.

To the degree depends on the nature of the loads, but the beam moment is likely to be affected most.

Steel has a coefficient of about 10.8 and concrete about 12. As mentioned before these are pretty close. But, they are different.

In this case it is most likely that the concrete will be applying force to the steel rather than the other way around (with thermal stresses). When a material is constrained we can take the thermal change convert into amount of linear expansion and plug that into the modulus of elasticity to find out the equalizing force is to the expansion.

Basically, change in temperature creates stress within the system. If it becomes too much you see fracturing.

Generally speaking, any object less than 20 miles in length is more concerned by local conditions rather than earth curvature. And even at that, this is just the point earth curvature could become an issue.

This is a common example that engineers and material chemists love, but this is only part of the story.

Individual wood fibers are roughly as strong as mild steel. The problem is that while steel exists as roughly a whole uniform crystallin composite, wood is an aligned fiber bundle held together by a cellulose matrix called cambra. This cambra is only as strong as, well wood.

Let’s look at this another way. First off, I feel that most people understand that steel is a very strong material as long as you heat it to a point of property change (around 400F for those that care). On the other hand let’s take something very strong like carbon fiber strands. But, they are only a few inches long. And to bind them all together, Jello. You could correctly point to this object stating that it has strength characteristics that among the greatest in material science. But, in practice the fiber lengths are so short that it really comes down to the strength of the Jello, not the carbon fiber.

Wood has a similar comparison. It also explains why it is so easy to chop into pieces. While steel, you still need to chop through those crystal bonds. Good luck with that.

Most driveways are 20′ wide.

The curve may make it wider because of how it is likely to intersect your curb/street.

The slope shouldn’t make difference unless it is fairly steep.

Depending on how complicated your driveway is you may need a contractor or engineer to help you out.

Reinforced concrete and solid grouted reinforced CMU are the most fire-resistant.

Heavy steel with fireproofing is considered equivalent.

Brick masonry.

Light gauge metal framing with fireproofing.

Heavy timber (6×6 and bigger).

Light gauge metal framing without fireproofing.

Wood-framed would be the least fire-resistant.

As a side note, you need to be careful with stone, clay, and other solid materials as they vary a great deal in their fire resistances.

Also, some might note that some of these materials are incombustible, but this list is dealing roughly with fire resistance.

Similar to most hard flat surfaces, many of which actually art large crystals.

The space around the walking surface will really mean more than the walking surface as to the sound comes back to you.

The simple and unsatisfying answer is traffic engineers doing traffic analyses.

A bit more in-depth answer is that roads are broadly divided into highways, arterials, collectors, and streets. Highways connect cities. Arterials are the major routes within cities. Collectors are branch or minor streets but not residential. Streets are your typical residential street. Roads can change categories as they go along.

Most of the road sizes are determined when the city is/was planned with smaller roads branching from larger ones down to residential streets. Engineers determine the traffic loading either by measuring existing traffic amounts or by estimating loading from city use maps (this is large part of what your city planning department does).

Once they have a model of traffic loads on each road they assign a speed limit or adjust the size/loading of the road. This gets reviewed by a number of city departments who ask questions, clarifications and/or for adjustments. Once all departments have been satisfied the city instructs the Public Works department to install the speed limit signs accordingly.

KNX is a smart building system. If your mechanical or electrical engineer isn’t familiar with it or doesn’t feel they are up to it go to the vendor that told you about it in the first place. They will have persons, firms, and contractors that can handle this system.

Be aware that many groups that tell you about systems such as KNX have a financial incentive in specifying these systems. This is why I recommend going through an engineering firm. They will design it based upon the criteria you establish and building codes only. They have no interest in whether you want to buy their products.