No comments about Framing Places: Mediating Power in Built Form (Architext Series).

No comments about Transportable Environments: Theory, Context, Design & Technology.

2 comments about Ando, Architect.

1. The book is divided into two parts. The first details the author's 20-year relationship with Ando providing insights into the architect's views on life and creative process. The second half takes a detached look at Ando's 20 works from the Shitamachi Karaza mobile theater to the Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum. All buildings are decently illustrated in black-and-white with approx. 120 photos, plans, and renderings. Ando's initial intentions, meditations at the time of creation, and personal philosophy are closely examined.
   CONTENTS:
   POUNDING THE SANDBAG 7
   I. Twenty-Year Acquaintance Revisited 13
   *AFFINITY FOR CRAFTSMANSHIP: TO TREVISO, ITALY 14
   No Ordinary Client 16
   Villa of Dreams 19
   History and Contemporaneity Enhanced 23
   *AN ENTHUSIASM FOR CREATION: TO HIMEJI 27
   The Architect au Naturel 33
   Man of Principle 36
   *TRANSMIGRATION OF FORMS: TO ROKKO, BY WAY OF JODOJI, AND TO AWAJI 40
   Recollections of Rokko 44
   The Lotus Temple on Awaji 55
   *BLACK PHANTOM THEATER: TO IKEBUKURO, SHINJUKU, AND ASAKUSA 63
   The Alchemy of Artists 67
   Harvest of Discord 73
   *THE GREAT EARTHQUAKE: FROM TEMPOZAN TO KOBE 75
   Destruction of Memory's Landscape 81
   A City Regreened 89
   II. Ando in Current Perspective: Twenty Works 93
   *CONTEXT 94
   Raika Group Headquarters Building 96
   Children's Museum, Hyogo 104
   Garden of Fine Arts 110
   Osaka Prefectural Chikatsu-Asuka Historical Museum 113
   Rokko Housing 122
   *SPACE 127
   Church of the Light 129
   Times 135
   Izutsu House 142
   Koshino House 145
   Row House Sumiyoshi 153
   *HISTORY 157
   Benetton's Fabnca 159
   Oyamazaki Museum 162
   The Honpukuji WaterTemple 167
   Shitamachi Karaza 174
   Inamori Hall, Kagoshima University 178
   *CITY 182
   SuntoryMuseum 184
   Step 189
   Rose Garden 197
   Rin's Gallery 201
   Collezione 205
   EPILOGUE: RETURN TO ROW HOUSE SUMIYOSHI 213
   SOLO 220
   A NOTE ON THE PHOTOGRAPHS 224



2. It is interesing to have one book about Ando, made by Japanese writer... Knowing that Ando can't speak english, it is difficult for foreigner to really get in contact and understand him. It is a real book to understand Andofrom then to know. Speaking about eartquake in Kobe or project from the Row house in Sumiyoshi to the future famous museum of Fort Worth, Matsuba help us to follow the full evolution of Ando in his architecture.

No comments about Art of Architecture Exhibitions / Presenting Architecture, The.

No comments about Lewis Mumford and American Modernism: Eutopian Theories for Architecture and Urban Planning.

No comments about Interpretation in Architecture: Design as a Way of Thinking.

No comments about Architecture in the Netherlands: Yearbook 2006/07 (Architecture in the Netherlands Yearbook).

5 comments about Places of the Soul: Architecture and Environmental Design As a Healing Art.

1. Are you looking for a book that recognizes the need for designing buildings to meet lofty sustainability goals, but that also places human needs on an equal or superior plane? Do you look at new mechanistic buildings of steel, titanium and low-e glass and wonder how it's possible to feel inspired, or even comfortable, when you're in them? If you answer yes to these questions, then perhaps you would benefit from reading the second edition of Christopher Day's book, Places of the Soul, Architecture and Environmental Design as a Healing Art (Grammarians might suggest "as Healing Arts").

   Day wrote the book in 1988, long before the birth of LEEDS, to address his perception of a growing lack of concern about human needs for variety in the form of spaces, the connection of spaces to nature and natural processes, and craft in the production of habitation. From his concerns one would assume that he was a student of the work of Christopher Alexander, particularly "A Timeless Way of Building". However, he moves beyond Alexander in citing the results of empirical studies that support his theses.

   In the chapter Architecture: Does It Matter? Day discusses how good design adds value, increases productivity, reduces health care costs, and accelerates healing. He cites the work of Dr. Roger Ulrich that demonstrated faster healing of patients in ICU's with views of nature. Important to architects struggling with limited budgets is the cited research that demonstrates how a 6.5% increase in productivity can justify a building four times as expensive!

   This book takes a broad-brush look at regionalism, vernacular architecture, the art of architecture, human and planetary health, quality versus quantity, making spaces livable, and even design as a listening process. Responding to criticism from clients that listening is a problem with some architects, the National Architectural Accrediting Board has made a recent change in its student performance criteria that emphasizes listening as a required skill.

   From listening, Day moves to making buildings with soul, building as a health-giving process, silence and peace in architecture, and the creation of appropriate spaces for children. He concludes with an important chapter on the urban environment, the conflict between sustainable values and urban pressures, the needs of urban life, cities as places for people and for life, and whether eco-cities might be utopian or practicable.

   Places of the Soul is an excellent primer for students of architecture seeking a balance between design for sustainability and for human needs, between a mass-produced machine aesthetic and one that includes hand-craftsmanship, and between sterile mind-numbing sameness and invigorating variety. It is illustrated with photographs and drawings of buildings and places in Great Britain that, while relevant, could be supplemented with more recent global examples. This book raises challenging questions about the buildings and places we will design and build, and the affect they will have on us as people and as a society.




2. My God, I was forced to read this book for a construction management class at a four-year university in the United States and struggled through every minute. I don't know what was more frustrating, having to read this dull-minded and repetative junk or reading four words at a time because for whatever reason the prestigious author, Christopher Day, was forced to go against conventional thinking and put two columns on each page. This was hands down the worst book I have ever read throughout my life. The guy is hypocritical of everyone who lives in an ordinary house and works in an ordinary job in an ordinary office building. Sorry Mr. Day, but most of us don't have the time and monetary security to write a 200-page book regarding soulful places. We just trudge off to work everyday in our non-biologically inducing office buildings. A bunch of junk!



3. A bit wordy and repetitive, but some of his ideas are first rate. The pictures are really nice too.



4. This is a seminal piece of work, that I would recomend for anyone involved with homes and living spaces, (I think that means everyone!) There is much wisdom in this book, and it is as much a book about how we live as it is a life philosopy book.
   Best book I have read about our 'third Skin'



5. PLACES OF THE SOUL is a very satisfying, powerful look at how the architectural environment makes an impact health, thought, and especially spirit. Mr. Day's writing is beautiful, drawing the reader through ideas of space, light, structure, environment, location and intention. Reading it was both inspiring and informative. An elegant book about an important subject.

No comments about Planning Middle Eastern Cities: An Urban Kaleidoscope.

No comments about The World's Greatest Architecture: Past and Present.