1 comments about Claude-Nicolas Ledoux: Architecture and Utopia in the Era of the French Revolution.

1. An excellant account of Ledoux's work and life, beautifully designed and well illustrated.
   I can only quote from Elain Harwood's review in the Architects Journal of 17th August 2007:
   "Superficially a coffee-table glossy, this book has real depth. It explores both the physical and intellectual world of Ledoux's times- however, the man himself remains a shadow."
   Louis Hellman Architectural cartoonist

5 comments about Painting Glowing Colors in Watercolor.

1. Beautiful book. Detailed help in learning to underpaint - showing all colours used. Great exercises to copy to learn the technique. Inspiring.



2. An absolutely beautifully illustrated and written book. Did I learn anything? Well, yes, I did learn quite a bit on color and setting up my pallette. But to actually paint...not yet as I am a beginner. I think this is a great book to hold onto when one becomes more advanced especially in learning how to use the fabulous colors Penny uses to get the great effects in her paintings. I highly recommend it.



3. Although this book is a little too far advanced for the beginning watercolorist, it is full of good instruction for the beginner. Penny uses a lot of different colors. I suggest the beginner study Penny's palette and choose only 1-2 colors in each range. Later more colors can be added. Overall the book is good instruction.



4. Although I loved the paintings and the transparency, even I who have been painting watercolors for more than 10 years found the number of paints used are too many and, in trying to do them, found the demonstrations too complicated. I remember an instructor saying that 3 colors to mix was enough. I wouldn't recommend the book to a beginner.



5. I received this book for my birthday. It is one of the best watercolor instruction books I have. She gives very good instructions on how to paint with glowing colors. She has several other instructions and suggestions on composition, drawing etc. This book was carefully thought out and the illustrations are wonderful.

No comments about Urban Place: Reconnecting with the Natural World (Urban and Industrial Environments).

2 comments about Adapting Buildings and Cities for Climate Change: A 21st Century Survival Guide.

1. Every American planning professional or aspiring city planner should include this book in their personal library. Besides the fight against standard American-style sprawl, planners are going to have to take the long view (it's why they're hired!) when designing buildings, cities, energy supplies, and transport systems in a much warmer world. This book is a start. In my opinion, any school that fails to include plannning aspects of climate change in its curriculum is derelict.
   As you can see from my other book reviews I harp on the need to examine nuclear energy as an option for our quickly urbanizing world. Besides good coverage of alternative energy for buildings and cities, the authors mention the aging UK nuke plants, the problem of relying on French nuclear power during the last heat wave, and other issues, including Sweden's policy reversal on shutting down its nuclear program. But this assessment on p 278 stood out for me:
   "However with the approaching oil crisis the UK govt may well have to review this (nuclear) policy. It is difficult to see how we will cope without nuclear power."
   Whether the UK will modernize its nuclear infrastructure is another matter.



2. How will we live when the oil runs out? How will we live when the climate is even hotter, with more floods, high winds, droughts? What kinds of buildings will be livable? How can we change what we build now to better serve humankind? Sue Roaf and co-authors argue that we won't be able to do it in "thin-skinned", windowless twentieth century buildings of glass and steel that keep out neither cold nor heat and require tremendous energy resources just to be usable. This is a great book about the many ways in which we need to and can change our thinking--particularly in architecture, in which a slavish adulation of "maestro-built," difficult-to-use buildings must be abandoned for a commitment to buildings and communities that will protect, preserve and comfort us in the resource-scarce times ahead.

1 comments about From Aztec to High Tech: Architecture and Landscape across the Mexico-United States Border (Creating the North American Landscape).

1. (From Planeta.com Journal) - Subtitled "Architecture and Landscape across the Mexico-United States Border, this book is tour-de-force that gives visual explanations of the great changes at the heart of the US/Mexico Borderlands. The book is expertly illustrated with maps and black-and-white photos, but the majority is space has been crafted by the author. It's a wonderful medley of observations, historical anecdotes and interviews with the architects themselves. Highly recommended.

No comments about Spirit and Place.

1 comments about Great Design Using Non-Traditional Materials.

1. i liked this book on page one and loved this book by the time that i finished reading it... the ideas are innovative and creative..... this is a long overdue addition to the subject...

1 comments about New Forms: Architecture in the 1990s (Taschen's World Architecture).

1. This book illustrated to us that as we are in tne new millenia, functionalism is no longer adequate to fulfill the purpose of architecture. Rather, art plays a pivotal role to complete the whole picture. There are ample of illustrations & pictures to justify such an argument. Many examples are to be seen in the excess of the 80s. Even though extravagant pieces are rarer these days, there are still odd ones that manage to stand out from the crowd, notably, the Guggenheim Museum in Spain, Groninger Museum in the Netherlands, La Flamme in Japan. The author also does much justice to the much overlooked Asian architecture with emphasis on Japan with discussions on Tadao Ando, Isamu Noguchi, Issey Miyake, Arata Isozaki. There are also discussions of certain architects who transcend the boundary from art,interior design, product & textile design into architecture, & vice versa. Some that are worth mentioning are Frank Stella, Philippe Starck (voila~), Alessandro Mendini, etc. What an exemplary book to feast & I have no hesitation recommending this book to architecture lover worldwide~

No comments about Austin Val Verde: Impressions of a Montecito Masterpiece.

No comments about Emerging Technologies and Housing Prototypes.