1 comments about Shaping Interior Space.

1. This book provides a good conceptual approach to designing the layout and organization of commercial spaces. There are many diagrams and sketches illustrating the concepts of space, volume, flow, order, repetition, etc. The only thing is the photographs, while numerous, are just black and white. Helps keep the cost down though. Any student or new professional in interior design should get this book,

4 comments about Measure and Construction of the Japanese House.

1. Simply, with no doubt one of the best books on the subject. I've been studying Japanese architecture for some time and I always get back to it as a reference. Very technical and well illustrated. I'm looking for the complete volume by Heino Engel.



2. When I ordered this book, I was expecting to see a lot of pictures to help me design my house. But to my dismay, most of the colorless pages just feature blueprints that only an architect would understand. I kept the book for future reference.



3. Anyone who wishes to build a Japanese tea room either in the garden or attached to their house could do well to start with this book. You can also use this book to design accents for a single room, or to craft an entire house. It was written by a German architect who lived in Japan several decades ago and carefully measured surving older buildings as well as studying architecture there. While there are more detailed books in Japanese, this may well still be the best available book in English.



4. If you are an architect interested in japanese constructional systems, this is THE BOOK for you. If you aren't but find japanese culture a fountain of inspiration for living, you must read this extraordinary piece of art. Perhaps it don't shine like a jewel, but once you open it, you'll find the work of a man who decided to share his mastery. In this book, diagrams, materials, craftmanship, even detailed descriptions of the human space requirements are fully explained with precision and simplicity. Every page, and every example in them, is a world that must be carefully examined. And when doing so, you'll find that what the author is showing us, is more than a book about japanese houses: is the heart of the japanese carpenters and architects living in its pages.

1 comments about Smith, Currie & Hancock's Common Sense Construction Law: A Practical Guide for the Construction Professional.

1. the book is as expected
   but delivery took a real long time
   compared to the other products i brought from amazon,guess these are the perks of FREE SHIPPING .....

5 comments about First Steps Sketching and Drawing (First Step Series).

1. This is an excellent book for absolute beginners who are not sure if they can draw a ballon on a string but want to. It is a very easy read that encourages you to pick up paper and pencil and start drawing now. The instructions are simple to follow and include technique for drawing that I have found missing in other titles. I just wish it were longer/covered more techniques AND included "other stuff" like how to keep your sketches from smearing in your sketch book, care of pencils, composition, etc. I suppose if it covered everything it wouldn't just be a "First Steps" book.



2. Good instructions for detail on lots of different subjects, nature, animals, structures, people. Very well done



3. No real advice is offered on drawing. Everything is too basic. If you're about to take or have already taken a beginners' course, this book is a waste of your precious money. You know already what she attempts to show in this volume.
   Instructions are too vague, nothing you can really follow though in the hope of becoming better at drawing. Her loose style and broken up, incomplete explanantions are enough to make you want to quit. She never goes in depth, never reaches full thourough mastery of any subject within the realm of drawing. Light and shadows probably don't matter much for her, she gives no detail to enable one to move beyond shape or form.
   In summery, this book teaches nothing, demonstrates nothing, just rambles vaguely here and there, never going into any part of drawing in depth.
   I'd rather recommand: The art of pencil drawing by Ernest W. Watson, a book which gives great advice with beautiful demonstration drawings, simple yet clear, concise & to the point.



4. This book is not really a drawing instruction, but it has a lot of practical tips. It's easy to follow, pictoral and it contains no wordy explanation which will confuse the readers even before they begin to draw!)

   The writer gave examples of 'loose drawing' in various themes, a good start for drawing from life.




5. This book appealed to me in its straight forward manner of presenting drawing to a beginner. Johnson has a chatty way of explaining her techniques that makes the excercises fun to do. She has included a broad spectrum of subject matter including animals, buildings, people, etc. I found the book easy to follow and very helpful and would recommend it for any artist's library.

No comments about I.M. Pei: Complete Works.

5 comments about The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day.

1. My professor introduced this book to us when I took a History of Landscape Architecture course in University of Southern California in Los Angeles. It was only available in hard cover at that time and was very expensive ($98.00). I did not buy the hard cover version and waited many years later and bought the soft cover version at a great price. It has many powerful images to illustrate the gardens and architecture in many different cultures. It'll show you how brilliant human beings can be.
   
   What is a "Landscape of Man"?
   
   "To qualify as a `landscape of man,' an environment must be deliberately shaped at a specific time." "Art is a continuous process..." Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and his wife Susan wrote, "All design therefore derives from impressions of the past, conscious or subconscious, and in the modern collective landscape, from historic gardens and parks and silhouettes which were created for totally different social reasons..."
   
   "The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day" includes 28 sections and they are separated into two parts, Part One is "From Prehistory to the end of the Seventeenth Century." It covers landscape from pre-history to 1700 AD and includes 17 sections covering Origins, the Central Civilization (Western Asia to the Muslim Conquest, Islam in Western Asia, the Western Expansion of Islam: Spain, the Eastern Expansion of Islam: Mughul India), the Eastern Civilization (Ancient India, China, Japan, Pre-Columbian America) and the Western Civilization (Egypt, Greece, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages in Europe, Italy: the Renaissance, France: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands: Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries). The text for each section follows a standard format of Environment, Social History, Philosophy, Expression, Architecture and Landscape. Case studies have striking black-and-white photos, paintings and plans and a brief description.
   
   Part Two of the book is "The Evolution of Modern Landscape." It covers landscape from 1700 AD to present and includes 11 sections covering the Eighteenth Century (Western Classicism, the Chinese School, the English School), the Nineteenth Century (the European Mainland, the British Isles, the United States of America), and the Twentieth Century (Europe, The Americas, the Western Hemisphere: the New World, the Eastern Hemisphere: the Old World), and Worlds Trends in Landscape Design. The text follows a standard format of Environment, History, Social, Economics, Philosophy and Expression for each Century and then a standard format of the Home, Landscape, Comments and case studies for each section.
   
   "The Landscape of Man: Shaping the Environment from Prehistory to the Present Day" has 408 pages, 746 illustrations and 6 maps. It is a great book for architects, landscape architects and urban planners!
   
   Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated," LEED AP, AIA



2. The book is great, easy to understand and great images.



3. Beautiful gardens and parks don't simply settle themselves on sites. They are planned, developed and planted by caring human beings. Those of us who are amateur gardeners and landscapers are influenced by the great public gardens and parks of the world. And the public gardens and parks didn't just appear out of thin air. All of what we find beautiful was influenced by something older or from somewhere else. And this wonderful book takes us back in time and on the highways and byways to times and places where man first came upon natural scenes and imagined the possibility of recreating at least the impression of what his eye beheld.
   
   This beautiful volume with its fine black and white photographs and drawings makes everything seem simple. It takes us down two main roads, the formal and informal. What could be more basic? Yet over half a century or more of shaping the land around half a dozen houses and reading dozens of books, some very useful and beautiful, I do not recall seeing an explanation of how these two main roads came to be trod. But in The Landscape of Man, it is all here from the beginning, from the time when farmers gathered on the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates gazed upon the fields spreading before them and other such early independent beginnings.
   
   We are the descendants of those who sought beauty and consolation in gardens large and small in the great civilizations of the past. Each of these, over great time frames, came to influence and cross pollinate with one another. And the Jellicoes trace all of these rivulets and streams from their headwaters down to the well established gardens of the world to which we are heirs. The writing is simple and direct, the photos illuminate their points, and their site drawings are clear and useful.
   
   This is a book for gardeners to enjoy over the winter so that they may dream about how they might shape their little spaces and understand a little more of the shoulders on which we all stand as we place our first trees and shrubs in the bare ground before us. It is a great book, and I recommend it not just for professionals but for those whose gardens lie far in the future. It is the best book I have ever come across in explaining the history and possibilities of landscaping.
   
   I have owned my copy for years. Hundreds of sentences are highlighted and notes fill the margins. I should have reviewed this fine work many years ago.



4. This book as a classic. It is not only for those who want to study our changing perceptions of our landscape and our moves to define it over the past few millennia, but also to architects who build 'buildings'. This tome takes us through man's history, and outlines our aesthetic evolution with our landscape as a changing canvas that represent our different social conditions. A must-have if you are a student, an architect, or just a person who wants to see how we became what we are!



5. The original edition, hardcover with beautiful dust jacket, was printed in 1975 in England. It is one of my favorite all-time photo books, since in includes shots of Borobudur, the Ziggurat, the Red Fort in Delhi, Angkor Wat, Ctesiphon in Iraq - lots of photos hard to find even on the net. History all the way to the opera house in Sydney. A most fascinating book. Large: 9 1/4 x 11 3/4, 383 pages, a sound minimal text with each plate numbered and easily referenced - to me this is one of the great books. Everyone who has travelled, or who wants to travel, will enjoy this tremendously. (Many of the areas shown are difficult and often dangerous to visit, now.) Try it. You'll like it.

1 comments about Professional Practice: A Guide to Turning Designs into Buildings.

1. It tells you step by step what to do and who to talk to and the different engineers you'll need along with percentages on prices. Hands down a great guide to getting real project built.

5 comments about Archigram.

1. that's a pitty not have portuguese language but it is an interesting book.Not only for architects, but to anyone who loves construcion



2. I recently asked Dennis Crompton, about the historical significance of archigram's advocacy of social change and technology/advantgarde design in Modern Architecture. The elitist corporate architecture of the final and high practioner of the late Modern Architecture Style, Sir Norman Foster's definitive work, is a direct evolution of the 'Modern Movement' and 'archigram' dialog and vocabulary.
   BTW thanks, for trying to make a difference.



3. The merit of the book is to provide an affordable compilation of Archigram's images and original text, mostly published on Architectural Design almost forty years ago. While it is disappointing not to have color pictures, the graphics are still compelling and provocative (all done without Photoshop!). It is a very good basic reference book if you are interested in Archigram.



4. Content-wise the book is great, but all the images are black and white, which in terms of the work of archigram, is a disappointment. I will certainly end up buying a second book to fill in the blanks that this one leaves.



5. A staggering achievement. After viewing the exhibition at the San Francisco MoMA, I became very interested in this subject. I've found it to be an amazing introduction into the world of Art/Architecture for those whose interest lies within the graphic arts. Thoroughly enjoyable, highly enlightening. Highest Recommendation

5 comments about New Directions in Tropical Asian Architecture.

1. This book was given to me as a birthday gift from my mother-in-law. I absolutely love this book. There are many beautiful photos. There are places and subjects that I never knew had so much beauty. Because I am already a huge fan of art and architecture, it was fun to learn about the many influences to Filipino style. I liked it so much that I had to buy a copy for my father (Born in Las Pinas - Metro Manila, Philippines)



2. I'm an Architectural Designer that lives/works in Jamaica and Bermuda and I'm also a fan of modern/contemporary architecture. I own a number of books on the subject, but few tend to address basic climatic issues that we in the Tropics face (and rightly so, since they are about projects north of the tropics). I've just received the book from my freight forwarder and had a chance to browse thru it. It really looks interesting and certainly provides inspiration for projects that can be successfully executed in our hot, humid climate.
   The inclusion of architectural drawings (Plans, Sections, Elevations) is also welcome - too many books on Architecture neglect this very important point. I think this may be the telling factor for deciding whether this is to be another one of my coffee-table books, or a serious informative reference for ideas and inspiration. For now, I'm leaning to the latter.



3. This book is a great book for young Filipino Americans who need some inspiration. As a Filipino American growing up in USA, I never really felt any connection with the Philippines. I was brought up by knowing only the stereotypes that sometimes make a Filipino American want to shy with embarrassment. Stereotypes are everywhere within any culture. By reading this book and flipping through the pages, I saw that Philippines is a beautiful place. Everyone needs take a look at this book. It's a great eye opener for Filipino Americans who have problems accepting their own skin.



4. I bought this book for myself. It's a true treasure trove of visual treats. Have you wanted to know how the homes of the rich and/or famous in the Philippines look? The variety of materials available for buidling and furnishing homes in the Philippines is astounding--rich woods, a wide spectrum of fabric, ethnic carvings and woven work. Linger over the detailed photographs in this book! Now I know what to get for my sisters and in-laws for Christmas!



5. Finally, a book on Traditional and Contemporary Philippine Interior Design by a reputable author/photographer. It will give the reader a good sense of Native Interiors to Traditional influences of Spanish-Colonial Interior Design and Architecture. Very superb photographs. Beautiful renderrings in the Furniture Dictionary.

5 comments about 10 X 10 _ 2 100 Architects 10 Critics.

1. The publishers did a fine job on the quality of this book. Although 10x10 was not at all what I was looking for others may find it useful. I found that it had extremely contemporary design throughout, current and old. Its focus was more on the very soul and defenition of contemporary that is shown in form. I am not a designer or architecht, but am sure that type of person would get more from the book than I did. Basically I was looking for a collection of ideas that could some how be implemented into other forms, but I was not successful. All I could see was page after page of a revolving theme that I now know does not appeal to me in its purest form..



2. Im an architecture student at the University of Florida and this book, including 10x10 are a must have. Simple as that. Full of pictures and small captions describing projects. Great for a student in design courses.



3. As a web designer, going through this book of beauifully designed homes and buildings give me layout and design ideas. Full color with large pictures and descriptions, I would reccomend this book for starting architects.



4. I am currently a design student - and this is an indispensible resource for recent and fairly obscure architecture. Has full rich photos and a wealth of information inside. Great selection of buildings as well. The photos can be used for ideas on detailing to spacial organization. I highly recommend this to anyone who needs to get a fresh breath of air and clean out the cobwebs. Everytime I close it I am ready to design.



5. I was thrilled when I received this book. Being an architect myself, I appreciated the excellent photos and disussion of the featured persons in my profession. A wonderful book that will be a worthwhile read for anyone with an admiration or even mild curiosity in the subject. Highly recommend.