5 comments about Architecture and Design Library: French Country (Arch & Design Library).

1. Beautiful French country designs are paired with real-world adaptations of those ideas. Bring the French look to the United States.



2. Although I love my other design books, with lots of descriptions and history, this book has ideas for real world adaptations of french country design (that is, for those of us in the u.s.!)



3. Yes, the pictures are lovely...but as one reviewer noted, one will want to go through the book several times just to see everything one missed. On my second time through, I noticed almost every photo had many books (sometimes shelves full of books)in the background. 99% of those books were titles in English. Yes, yes, I know the French speak English very well..but what are the odds that ALL the books would be in English? Wouldn't they at least own a few titles in their native language? Made me wonder where some of these homes are located and if I was truly looking at an American (or UK) home decorated in French Country style.



4. A fine representation of French country decorating style. This book covers exterior, interior and a bit or garden landscaping. It has many fresh ideas for a real french country feel, but with a touch of elegance. Wonderful "Rooms for Living" with decorating ideas to suit every budget, as it mixes all kinds of things. The traditional effects are softened by simple yet beautiful touches. Once you go through the book for the first time you will want to go through it again to catch all the detail work you missed the first and second and third time.



5. This lovely book is quintessential French country. The authors take the reader on a tour of vistas from the Mediterranean Sea to Provence; country homes range from the rugged to the elegant. The text reveals to the reader the common elements to be found in the variety of homes found in the French countryside. Vibrant colors follow paticular painterly selection if one wants to create the true feel of a French country home. Shutters are French, not American. Lace is typically at the windows, or for a more grand effect billowing panels with French pleats, caught and pulled to the side about 3/4's from the top of the drop. Window boxes brimming with color are essential for this style, and borders of lavender would make you feel that you are really there. Terracotta roof tiles would complete the exterior view. Inside, the walls vary, but they definitely make the statement: I am France. Terracotta tile floors are very common, but hardwood floors are fine, too. Mouldings are landmarks, and they are abundantly visualized in this volume. Provencal prints, bergere chairs, ladder back dinning and/or kitchen chairs, flowers---all are shown in French homes. In the kitchen, pots on display, wall tiles, a baker's rack, a country table, open shelves, walls that are rubbed with earthy hues make the room inviting and warm---a gathering place. Dining is wonderful, inside or out. The French love to eat outside. The bedroom is simple or elegant, but deliberately French. Lace, panels, sometimes two layers, billowing to the floor, European pillows, and definitely a bolster and duvet enrich the feeling of a retreat. At least a touch of toile should be seen. I remember a French friend telling me once, that one of the most important things a true French person does when considering something for their home. She said the French don't decorate like Americans do, try to figure out if an object will work; for the French, if they like something, they find a place for it. They learn very early how to put things together. And you can always see it no matter how much they have to spend. It's just perfect. This beautiful volume is filled with beautiful pictures to create your own French Country style.

5 comments about Design of Wood Structures - ASD.

1. I bought this book for an independent study course in wood design while obtaining a MS in Civil Engineering. The book is well organized, does an excellent job of explaining the hows and whys of wood design and provides excellent design examples. I would highly recommend it. To get the most of this book, you should also have a copy of the IBC, ASCE 7, and the Wood Council codes.



2. A great reference for both wood structural design, and basic structural design in general. Excellent discussion/explanation of Wind/Seismic per IBC/ASCE 7-02. Very clear examples of diaphragm and shear wall behavior. One of the most well written engineering texts available.



3. This book is gives a good grasp of seismic design for wood structures. Many of the examples especially near the end are good practice for the Californa PE Special Seismic Exam design questions. It gives a good grasp of how seismic forces move through a building and how to calculate those forces at various locations.



4. If you buy this book, you should know what you are getting. The examples are good, the problems are solid and challenging, and the building code (the UBC) is integrated seamlessly into the course of the text. For timber design, this book is essential.



5. After studying the book for six months, I think the material in the book is very good. I am disappointed, and surprised, that the binding is coming apart.

1 comments about Mail It (Agile Rabbit Editions S.).

1. I am not saying dont buy this one.
   But beware that this is a only 128 pg book and all of the foldings and designs are basic.
   I believe a good graphic designer can create the same die-cuts and designs in a very short time. No trade secrets or big creativity involved.

2 comments about Introduction to MathCAD 13 (2nd Edition) (ESource Series).

1. This book couldn't be more useless than it is. It goes through only the most basic functions of Mathcad and if you have used this program for more than a month or 2 there is going to be little here to boost your skill set. It is written more like a text book, with homework problems and everything, than a reference book.
   
   This program is BARELY supported by Mathworks as it is and as such not a whole lot of people use it, though I love it for semiconductor work due to pretty print. There aren't alot of books out there on Mathcad so good luck struggling through the more complex tasks in Mathcad because this book won't help you much.



2. This book does a nice job of filling in where the built-in help of Mathcad falls short, being full of examples and explanations. At $41, it's a bit pricey, though. The evaluation disk is good for 120 days, long enough so the user will know whether or not the program is worth buying at the commercial level.
   
   As for the program, Mathcad does a fine job if units based, what-you-see-is-what-you-get documentation is needed. For instance, it beats the heck out of using Excel, as "pretty print" typeset math is easily inserted, along with superb plotting. Documents made with it are professional looking and all calculations are easily shown with textbook quality fonts.
   
   However, the program is lacking in symbolic commands. The most glaring of these is the lack of a symbolic differential equation solver. The symbolic capability of Mathcad comes from a subset of the Maple kernel. Why the folks at Mathcad decided not to include the dsolve() command from Maple is puzzling. Other good math programs, Derive, Maple, Mathematica, Mupad... have both numeric and symbolic differential equation solvers.

2 comments about Cracking the Codes: An Architect's Guide to Building Regulations.

1. of Prof. Yatt, I feel compelled to add my two cents. Barry is by far one of the most logical and lucid people I have ever met. His book saved me when it came to my second internship. Any time a new task was presented before me, I used this book to get a quick perspective on the issues, in order to get through my tasks efficiently. This put me at the top of the pool of "Intern Architects" by the end of the first month. This is also one of the most inclusive books I have read: everything from model building codes, Homeowner's Associations, Design Review Boards and Design Otimization strategies from a very well-rounded Architect are covered in plain English.

   Ultimately a great purchase for anyone, but in particular for the professional seeking advice and the upper-level Undergraduate and Graduate level Architecture student.




2. This book is extremely informative and very readable. It is an excellent addition to the library of a contractor, architect and/or home owner.

No comments about Architectural Quality Control.

1 comments about Security Planning and Design: A Guide for Architects and Building Design Professionals (Security).

1. This is a comprehensive book, complete with graphics that pretty much starts off as Building Security 101 and gets more intricate throughout the book. This is s good guidebook for any decision makers who need a reference manual.

2 comments about Grow Your Own House: Simone Velez and Bamboo Architecture.

1. A deceiving, gimmicky title that doesn't measure up to the book's contents.
   
   Lots of color pictures of absolutely huge bamboo community structures (NOT houses!) that basically all look the same. There's hardly any variety - just huge bamboo roofs suspended on bamboo stilts designed by the book's author.
   
   I bought the book because it mentions "House" in the title but it hardly has any "houses" in it... maybe photo's of 3 bamboo houses in total.
   
   The book is written in German text with an English translation printed alongside... so half of each text page is taken up with the German text.
   
   The book shows a few pictures of bamboo joints made by filling the ends with concrete and embedded bolts secured to metal joints. It doesn't tell you where to buy those joints because they are custom made.
   
   That was the most useful information found in the book from my perspective.
   
   So... I'm still looking for a book about bamboo houses!



2. There are many fantastic images of bamboo design and architecture, which is being taken to the next level by Velez and others. With population growth and environmental crises what they are, bamboo may emerge as a key building material worldwide. Velez's mushroom dome for the Hannover Expo 2000 was a gorgeous massive structure in bamboo that established bamboo use in large-scale architectural projects.

   However magnificent it is, the pavilion-as-statement suffers from its own pagoda poetry. The main block to widespread adoption of bamboo is its low-tech image, in both the developing and developed worlds. This low-tech, low-status image is why Colombians continue to build inferior concrete buildings, even after such structures are decimated by earthquakes (while leaving the bamboo buildings standing). The pagoda image reinforces associations with the past and low-tech traditional construction.

   To move bamboo forward as a workaday modern building material, it needs to be used in a more ordinary International Style residential or office high-rise that successfully embodies the myth of hi-tech modernity. Wrapped in a glass and metal skin, this bamboo wolf-in-sheep's clothing would bare its fangs when asking Buckminster Fuller's (and Velez's) key question: "Gentlemen, what do your buildings weigh?." Unfortunately, "modernism" is a filthy word for Velez. Mexico's Luis Barragan created a new architecture by successfully fusing colloquial Mexican style with International Style - it will be interesting to see if Velez or one of his students can do something similar for high-tech bamboo construction.

   The book is surprisingly thin on detailed treatment of Velez's own work. Would like to have seen more on the Luis Salazar residence, because its smaller scale and middle-class prestige make it more relevant to implementing the bamboo manifesto than the showy ZERI pavilion.

   Whole double-page spreads are dedicated to suggestive connections between the bamboo forms and the work of other architects. But the book is relatively thin on diagrams on the types of bamboo joints, integration of bamboo with CAD, data on load bearing (compared with reinforced concrete for example) and other information outlining more precisely how to bring bamboo into the arsenal of modern construction.

   That said, it is the best recent book to state the bamboo mainfesto of strength, versatility and modular nature of bamboo. If you have any interest in environmentally sound design, this is THE coffeetable book to have, but

   ...why wasn't it printed on bamboo paper?

5 comments about AutoCAD 2002: No Experience Required.

1. I have been using this book as the text for Introduction to AutoCAD at American Samoa Community College for the past five years. Each new edition incorporates the best of the preceding edition. It is self paced with excellent tips and clear instruction. It is one of the only intro texts to use an architectual example for the vehicle to teach increasingly complex commands and tasks. AutoCAD can be confusing to the beginner but with this text, anyone can learn AutoCAD with or without a formal class.



2. This AutoCAD manual is clearly written and easy to follow. The book is organized around a drawing or set of drawings of a house. The reader learns by following the steps. My one criticism is that it isn't always possible to determine the general procedure from the specific drafting exercise that it leads you through.



3. This book is great for beginners ! I have bought other books such as the Mastering Autocad from George Omura ,but the thing I really enjoyed about this book was that it was explained in very simple terms , as not to intimidate a beginner !The only reason I got this one was to catch up on this version of Autocad 2002, previously coming from Autocad 14 . It's excellent for novices !



4. I told a potential employer that I'm good with AutoCAD. I had never touched AutoCAD and after playing around with it for a bit, it was obvious that I wasn't going to figure it out by browsing the menus. But I have a lot of computer experience and I learn fast. This book started at the absolute basics--drawing a random line--and progressed using the example of a little cabin, until by the end of the book I was rotating it in three dimentions and rendering it with shadows and a background image. One feature of the book I liked is that the author shows several different ways to do the same thing. It took me about five days to get through the whole thing, and when Monday rolled around and I went to interview, I knew more about AutoCAD than the guy who was hiring, which (though he didn't know much) is all that mattered. I since have acquired another book that I'll use to become an expert, but now I at least know how the program works and can do basic necessary procedures. I don't know what else is out there but this book was exactly what I was looking for and I'm glad I bought it.



5. This is a great!!! book for beginners with autocad. It is very well edited; meaning it doesn't take you down endless rabbit holes of frustration. It is an excellent book to learn autocad as it relates to architecture. Highly recommended.

1 comments about Design for Assisted Living: Guidelines for Housing the Physically and Mentally Frail.

1. This is an amazing book because it includes design considerations that are European and American. Northern Europe has a definite view of the aging population that is very different than that of Americans. Much more focused on wellness, physical activity, landscape as part of healing, maximizing the aging process. This book also includes American facilities that are more focused on creating a HOME for elders. Wonderful photos too. Comment made that senior residences are designed for the daughters (those who make the decision) rather than for the residents. This gives you ideas on how to change that issue... for the positive. Very good resource book.