With the fifth reading, Ching explains how certain materials are made, along with how they are used in construction. He first goes in depth with concrete, where he says that concrete is made using a mixture of water, cement, and aggregates (which is small minerals, such as sand or gravel). Depending on what you use, it will change the strength, weight, and resistance to fire when the concrete hardens. You may also add an admixture, which changes some properties on the concrete when it hardens. Steel Reinforcement is used on concrete, because concrete doesn’t handle tension as well as its compression. It is also used to tie vertical and horizontal elements together, strengthen the edges for openings and more. Bricks come in two forms, a building brick, or a face brick. A building brick is used for general building, and a face brick is mad up of clay, making it face a wall and usually used for a color or surface texture. There are different type of face bricks, and using these types changes its size, color, and distortion. Bricks are made of clay molded into a rectangular prism, and hardened by drying in the sun or heating it up. Concrete Masonry is concrete blocks made into various shapes to give it a specific purpose. A couple of examples would be a jamb block, which has a design to fit a jamb of a door within it, a lintel block which have a U shaped block where reinforced steel could fit into it, and many more. Stone comes from three origins: as an igneous metamorphosis, or sedimentary rock. To use a stone as a construction material it must have strength, hardness, durability, work ability, density, appearance. Wood is light, durable and easy to work with.  There are two types of wood, soft and hard wood. Softwood comes from different trees than hardwood, and depending on how the tree grew, it affects the strength, expansion/contraction and how good it is as an  insulator.