No comments about Modelling with AutoCAD 2004.

No comments about Principles of Architectural Detailing.

No comments about Victorian Architecture (World of Art).

No comments about Imagining the Future of The Museum of Modern Art: Studies in Modern Art 7.

5 comments about Green Building Products: The GreenSpec Guide to Residential Building Materials.

1. A must have for any green designer, builder or home owner who wants to do the right thing.



2. this is actually a list of places that sell "green" materials- like a specialized phone book. I think most of this information is on line, and that we will need to buy things within our local area- not from the other side of the county. we returned this book.



3. Housing is probably the second largest consumer of non-renewable resources after the automobile. This book is on building in a way that provides everything you need in a house, but doing so with a minimal impact on the earth.
   
   The first step is building a house that is satisfactory but not so big as has become normal in the US, and designing it for energy efficiency. Well insulated houses are easier to keep warm in the winter, cool in the summer.
   
   After the design is completed, then comes the selection of components and materials to be used in the construction of the house. That's where this book comes in. In going through the book you can find ideas that will help you in the design, but more importantly, you will find components that fall into the general rules of 'reuse/recycle.' Here is lumber recovered from older buildings, lumber made from plastic that from recycled packaging. Here are high performance appliances, insulation made from recycled components.
   
   This book takes the form of a listing of suppliers, broken down by category. I find that by looking at these procucts, many of which I didn't even know existed, the design of the house is changed to fit.
   
   These people have done an excellent job of research as to what's avaialble.



4. Alex Wilson and Mark Piepkorn edit Green Building Products: The Greenspec Guide To Residential Building Materials whether you're a builder or a homeowner, learn the truth about what items are truly 'green' and which are false promises. And get the addresses, phones, and web sites to quickly locate products ranging from cork underlayment for floors to special green paints, finishes, and mechanical and lighting systems. An excellent catalog featuring the latest 'green' residential building material choices.



5. This Book is an excellent reference for any architectural and construction library. The Book contains product information in each of the CSI 16 Divisions. The information listed is "Certifiably Green", but limited in number of manufacturers. As you may know the Green Market is rapidly expanding where new products are develop and old products are receiving the LEED Certification. As an initial guide in the new green world of residential materials, it is a must have in your Library and undoubtedly, there will be new editions out.

No comments about Nomadic Architecture: Human Practicality Serves Human Emotion: Exhibition Design by Edgar Reinhard.

1 comments about Bio-Architecture, First Edition.

1. I paid rather a lot for this slim volume, and am very dissatisfied with it. Firstly, the content. The language is pompous and peppered with annoying quotations intended to support the author in making a point. Occasionally, the link between text and quotation is so tenuous that the inclusion of a comment is baffling. There is lots of pompous waffle, self-evident observations, and meaningless statements, not to mention some very involved (and hugely patronising) schematics supposed to elucidate the design process. The poor quality of the translation may not help (see below), but Senosiain is the offender here.
   
   Furthermore, Senosiain makes a number of completely unsubstantiated comments, e.g. p. 73 "The Tower of Babel was built with clay approximately 27,000 years ago." There is no conclusive evidence to support this claim, and one wonders how many other comments show a similar disregard for scientific rigour. He also fails to engage with the (increasingly important) need for ecologically-friendly building to a satisfactory extent.
   
   Many of the images (e.g. Fig 1.52 on page 42) appear to have been scanned and then enlarged with all the loss of resolution one might expect from such a process. This detracts hugely from a book which, like other architectural works, relies heavily on images to make a point.
   
   The translation is atrocious. This may occasionally add to the impression of patronising pomposity (e.g. "savage beasts" used in preference to the more usual "wild animals" on page 76). In other places, no attempt has been made at translation at all. The Dogon people of Mali and Burkina Faso are referred to using the Spanish plural "Dogones" (p. 72), not usual in English. Similarly, the "nuraghe" (usual use in English of the Italian plural of singular "nuraga") structures of Sardinia are referred to using the Hispanicised plural "nuragas" (p. 78).
   
   Even worse, the same section on page 78 refers to the location of the "nuragas" as being in "Cerdeña". It was only a fleeting knowldege of Spanish coupled with an acquaintance with the "nuraghe" as structures which enabled me to work out that "Cerdeña" is the un-translated Spanish word for Sardinia. Why has this word escaped translation?
   
   As a final example of the poor quality of the translation, the work uses the word "Eskimo", long ago discarded in English language material in favour of the ethonym "Inuit" because of the racist connotations of "Eskimo". It means "raw flesh eater", and was applied to the Inuit in a derogatory fashion by neighbouring tribes. This again shows the lack of linguistic sensitivity which pervades the translation. This is totally and utterly unnecessary. The translator seems to have had little grasp of the subject, or even of the process of Spanish-English translation.
   
   In my estimation, the book seriously undermines the reputation of Elsevier for quality publications. It suggests a lack of rigour in the selection and assessment of the translator. Coupled with the image resolution problems referred to above, the whole thing smacks of total disregard for the reader.

No comments about Parallel Algorithms for Vlsi Computer-Aided Design.

No comments about From Bakelite To Composite.

No comments about Accessible Design Review Guide: An ADAAG Guide for Designing and Specifying Spaces, Buildings, and Sites.