1 comments about Airport Design and Operation.

1. I am not pleased with this particular book for the following reasons:
   
   (a) It is expensive and not value for money compared with the other book (Airport Operations) I purchased at the same time for about 60% of the price of this book.
   
   (b) The quality of print is poor and it is just like making a photocopy of the original. The background of the table headings is not homogenous and appeared smudgy.
   
   (c) The content is not as good as the other book that I purchased and it contained less material. I expected it to be more than the other book.
   
   Regards
   
   Yeang Goh

1 comments about Mario Botta: Architectural Poetics (Universe Architecture Series).

1. Architects transcribe their thoughts and emotions through their designs, forms, and spaces. Botta is without a doubt
   a master in his own right.
   But what compelled me to write this review is the "text", the writing. The author of the book is a practicing architect who has worked along side Botta. She seems to really understand what lies at the heart of architecture in General and Botta's design philosophy in particular.
   If you are a student of architecture READ this book.
   If you love to contemplate beautiful creations READ this book. And finally if you are a fan of good writing I urge you to read this book!

1 comments about Pools, Patios, and Fabulous Outdoor Living Spaces.

1. This is a great catalogue of how expert designers have approached pools,patios and other components of a backyard oasis. Perfect for people starting down that road intending to be smart partners in the design process.

2 comments about The Next Architect: A New Twist on the Future of Design.

1. The previous comment is actually more insightful than the book itself. As a student I found it insulting to my intelligence. Also, as the previous review hints, it is a criminal waste of paper. Literally, I have seen longer magazine articles but this somehow manages to cost more than a year's subscription.



2. First of all, with 144 pages (which really equates to 72 pages with text only on one leaf) the $40 dollar price tag is a way too steep. Secondly the 'new' insights and twists into the profession are really not all that new and groundbreaking. Here's a summary of the point's they bring up in the book. You be the judge.
   - Design is a team sport.
   - clients come first
   - the essence of design is in creating value
   - process innovation - bringing all the stakeholders into the project as early as possible. a.k.a. Integrated Practice. (most insightful point, however simplified)
   - faster and faster (chapter name)
   - Dynamic Decision-making (chapter name) Here's an italicized quote the authors pulled out of their text: "The ability to make a decision is the essential act of design" (By the way, the opposing leaf or every other page is dedicated to these 'salient' quotes from the text.)
   - Another quote, different chapter: "The next architect understands that money is a design tool"
   - Leadership (chapter name) Quote: "Without a conductor, no orchestra can function to its full potential - thus it is with team leaders of design."
   - The green machine (chapter name) - sustainability.
   - TCB: taking care of business (chapter name) - explains itself
   
   I guess unless you haven't practice architecture since 1901, a lot of these principles are not all that new. I guess my gripe with the book stems from not really delivering what the title suggests. If, however, you are a student just entering into the profession, the book would be a good source for a list of oversimplified tenants of what an architect does , but not really all that insightful into the ways the future architect will work.
   
   But that's just my opinion.
   
   
   
   -

2 comments about The Illustrated AutoCAD 2005 Quick Reference Guide (Illustrated AutoCAD Quick Reference).

1. This is a very handy and great reference for AutoCAD user. Each command is described in details complete with all its possible options. You can also trace back which command was added in which version of AutoCAD. Some very rare but interesting command like "overkill" can also be discovered in the book. It is also priced reasonably. Serious AutoCAD user should own this book. Why not 5 stars then? Because Autodesk come out with a new version of the software every year nowdays mean you have to buy a new edition of the book every year also.



2. Quick shipping, book in excellent condition. Thanks!

No comments about New Glass Architecture.

3 comments about The Structure of the Ordinary: Form and Control in the Built Environment.

1. Habraken is essential for understanding and practising contemporary architectural design. He started out his career pointing out the limitations of the then (and often still) prevailing design approach towards housing and large buildings, and proposing methods for systems design meant to allow several levels of control, and changing configurations over time (this was extremely influential, and all relevant contemporary building and systems design is heir to his work directly or indirectly). He then went on to explore and explain the underlying order for architectural/urban configurations, and in this book he explains the orders of 'Form' (which could also be called construction), 'Territory' (boundaries, control) and 'Understanding' (shared patterns, systems and types) that make built environments be what they are, illustrating everything with perfectly selected examples. If you know the examples, the beauty is in the way he makes the underlying orders coherent and understandable. And you will not know a few of the examples, so the book is also beautiful as a pointer for further studies.
   
   3 other smaller books by him that develop details, or follow implications:
   - Supports, An Alternative to Mass Housing';
   - Variations, The Systematic Design of Supports;
   - <---- this is where 'The Structure of the Ordinary' falls chronologically;
   - Palladio's Children
   all by Habraken, all essential.



2. I found this book to be both insightful and ultimately very influential as to my own thoughts on sustainable design, urban planning, and the contemporary values and accustomed comfort levels which we, the western societies of the world, have come to take for granted when we think about our built environment. I feel that this book should be read by both students and practitioners alike. It's lessons are far reaching and all too relavent.



3. Though well produced and well illustrated I found this book to be disapointing. I thought it woud be more overtly rigourous in its analysis. Instead it offers only personnal insights into the structure of ordinary enironments. The back cover says that the book is the result of years of 'design research', yet I could find little evidence of this research in the book. Some people may find these insights illumating, unfortunately I did not, and without formal research to back them up I found the book disappointing.

No comments about Revit Architecture 2008 Basics: From the Ground Up.

4 comments about The Oregon Experiment (Center for Environmental Structure Series).

1. The good news is that this book is a short summary of what most people
   will find important when they apply patterns either in the field of architecture
   or in their own field of design. It provides insight into Alexander's theory
   of economics--a stance which caused him to be unfavorably labeled as a
   socialist when these ideas were taking form.
   
   Patterns, in this book, are almost a footnote to the broader ideas of
   design, of economics, and of socially coordinated construction that
   form the core of Alexander's exposition here. The economics form a
   compelling argument for a process of piecemeal growth. Alexander gives
   practical advice on how to administer the social process, including the
   creation of a community pattern board that oversees the introduction of
   new patterns into the community language, and the retirement of old
   ones. By putting the pattern mantra aside, this book helps the reader
   get beyond the point where they are looking for patterns in their own right
   to provide the answer to every design question, and pushes the reader
   to think at the level of the foundations.
   
   The bad news is that the book takes the reader into a couple of miscues.
   Alexander would later bitterly recant the role this book accords to the
   architect. Architects should be master builders rather than the font of
   design ideas. The architecture role emerged in the Oregon Experiment
   to lend the project an air of conventionality and credibility, a compromise
   that kept the project from achieving its goals.
   
   Current tidbits of retrospective literature try to make sense of the experiment;
   some claim it succeeded (in spite of those aspects Alexander felt were
   wrong-headed) and some claim it failed. Grabow's biography of
   Alexander (Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in
   Architecture) features some choice words about the miscues in this
   experiment. Taken with the retrospective Grabow brings us, this book
   provides a perspective on patterns that is completely absent from the
   other books in this series. Some of these, such as the foundations in
   economics, are there for the picking. To reap some of the other insights
   requires study that goes beyond casual reading, but such study is
   appropriate to the depth of insight it will afford, and you owe it to
   yourself to explore it. These insights are crucial for making patterns
   work in a practical way in a social setting.
   
   If you want to learn about patterns, and you want to start with an
   Alexandrian book, I think this is the one you start with. Get the big
   picture first, in the context of the underlying principles, and come
   back for the pattern details later in A Pattern Language, and for the
   artist's artistic exposition of his art in The Timeless Way of Building.



2. The Oregon Experiment comes from a time when Eugene, Oregon was a capital for social and community experiments in the US. It's a practical, brilliant, gentle, idealistic proposal, without peer in modern literature. There are a few papers on the experiment after twenty years, available on the web -- the experiment basically had the life bureaucratized out of it. But this book remains as a shining, solid proposal, which any participatory experiment should look over very closely.



3. The Oregon Experiment is one of a series of influential volumes on architecture and social design published by Christopher Alexander and his colleagues in the 1970s. While the most well-known volume in the series, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, and Construction, develops general principles for the design of social spaces at all scales, The Oregon Experiment applies those principles to a specific case: the campus of the University of Oregon.

   If you are looking for an example of a specific campus plan, however, you will not find it here. Central to Alexander's approach is the notion that communities should not create fixed master plans, but rather should develop a common pattern language, and then apply it organically, in a piecemeal fashion, as needs arise. The book talks as much about this process of planning as it does about individual construction projects. Whenever a need arises (expansion of a building, addition of a door, creation of a green) people consult their pattern language and build something to suit the space and satisfy the need. Because everyone follows the agreed-upon language, the new parts harmonize with those that already exist (or replace earlier, poorly-designed structures).

   If you have enjoyed studying Alexander's patterns in A Pattern Language, you will find here a collection of new ones that are specific to a university setting, including "University Population," "University Shape and Diameter," "Departments of 400," "Local Administration," "Classroom Distribution," and about a dozen more. Although he clearly draws on ideas from British universities in many cases, he unaccountably does not include one of the fundamental features of the British model, namely the residential college of 500 (or so) within the larger institution. (Although he does include aspects of this pattern under the heading "Small Student Unions.") As always, Alexander's pattern descriptions are clear, blunt, and thought-provoking.

   The question that most readers will want to have answered is, "Does all this really work?" When the volume was written, of course, the process was just getting under way, and so we cannot know from this book alone whether everything described was successful or has been sustained over the long term. From what I've seen of campus master planning in public universities, it often turns out in the end to have less to do with creating good educational environments than it does with kowtowing to the local chamber of commerce and lining the pockets of already-rich trustees. But just because something is difficult doesn't mean it shouldn't be made the goal. If Alexander or someone at the University of Oregon were to produce a sequel, "The Oregon Experiment 25 Years On," I'm sure it would meet with a warm reception.




4. As a software designer and as somebody who lives and works in buildings in cities, I find the ideas in some of Alexander's other books on architecture and design - The Timeless Way of Building and A Pattern Language - very interesting and appealing. They are a brave attempt to point to a more human, community-oriented way of doing things.

   I had high hopes that The Oregon Experiment would describe a concrete example of whether these ideas worked when they were put into practice. It does nothing of the kind. It describes an interesting thought experiment in participatory design and tries to present this as a vindication of the Pattern Language concepts. But nowhere does it even mention whether the design it describes was ever actually implemented, much less whether it worked from the inhabitants' point of view.

   It is very easy for a design team to get carried away with what a great design they have on paper. I've done it loads of times. That enthusiasm tells us nothing about whether a design is actually going to be a success.

   I know Alexander later moved from academia and started trying to put his ideas into practice on actual building projects. A book on his real experiences and how well the original ideas stood up to the cold light of reality would be fascinating and important. The Oregon Experiment isn't that book.

2 comments about Construction Print Reading.

1. This was a lot cheaper than buying it from the local store. It seems brand new, with no writings and includes all of the construction drawings that were supposed to come with it. I'm happy...



2. This book a good introduction for blueprint reading, there are 2D and 3D drawings that help readers to visualize the information on the drawings. At the end of each chapter are review questions and definitions of key words, which are useful especially for students.

   It comes with large construction drawings on three projects that were actually built. Although they should have printed them on separate pieces of paper instead of having them on both sides of the sheet, this makes it hard to compare and study those construction drawings.

   Also, the paper used for publication I find is a bit thin, you have to read the textbook on a flat surface, otherwise it will curl up. The same goes with the construction drawings, after a couple of times of folding and un-folding, the papers tend to tear easily.

   I would recommend this book for anyone interested in the building industry.