Deb Chachra.
How Infrastructure Works: transforming our shared systems for a changing world.
Penguin. 2023
In the modern world, we can fly, see in the dark, communicate instantly,
and summon water or electricity at will.
Infrastructure enables lives of astounding ease and productivity
that would have been unimaginable just a century ago.
But these vast and complex systems are now beginning to fail us.
Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them – but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs.
From Snowdonia’s Electric Mountain to Telangana solar plant in India, Chachra shows how we can rebuild our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them – and fix them, together – before it’s too late.