1 comments about Professional Practice 101: Business Strategies and Case Studies in Architecture.

1. As you work your way through your architectural career there come the times when you need to be reminded about how you should work and how the profession has changed while your eyes were glued to your monitor.
   
   This book does all of that and more. Almost all of the contributors are a pleasure to read and on task with the area they were asked to write about.
   
   I recommend this bood to anyone at any level of their career.

5 comments about The Natural Plaster Book: Earth, Lime, and Gypsum Plasters for Natural Homes (Natural Building Series).

1. I just finished building my strawbale home -- and am very grateful for this book. I have nothing but great things to say about it. This book picks up where others leave off. An absolute must if you plan on using natural materials on your home. One must understand that working with natural materials is hardly a science-- and a fair amount of experementing must be done to get satisfactory results. But the effort will be worth it! Get this book-- you won't be sorry. FYI-- I used an earthen plaster (clay,manure,sand) on the interior and exterior, and finished the interior with an alis and the exterior with a lime plaster and lime wash-- beautiful results!



2. In reading this book you'll find descriptions of the various types of building materials, not just straw bales, these plasters are used on (it is not really a build yourself a house book) and a pretty good overview of the types of plasters themselves.
   I'm not done reading it but don't find enough information to consider it a complete how to guide, more of a starter book. You get some recipes for pigments/ plasters but not much detail about applying the stuff. I've found nothing about measuring the walls to determine just how much material you'll need and I don't think it really tells thickness, just how many coats to apply (not really detailed about that).
   There's an extensive resource guide at the end of the book, you'll need it if you're actually going to build a house of some sort. If you are collecting a set of books on building and finishing a home this one is all right as a starter book. You'll learn just enough to know whether or not this is something you want to be getting yourself into.



3. Not worth the money as a technical reference or how-to book. Otherwise a pleasant read with some inpired pics and a very general overview of the process. Speaks, for the most part, to strawbale contruction as if strawbales are some naturally occurring thing harvested from the wild when are in fact a product of energy intensive industrial agriculture. Fails to provide important technical details such as estimating for coverage, application on masonry, frame and other 'natural' structures, guidelines for plaster preparation. If you already have building experience and skills there are far better reference books available to actually base work upon.



4. Is 'natural plaster home' a euphemism for 'mud hut'?
   
   The following gives a sense of the mood conveyed by the authors:
   
   "Mud Plasters are fun to work with!
   
   Earthen plasters are easy to work with and fun to mix and apply. 'Once you've put your hands in that mud mix you don't feel like doing any other type of plaster'... For adults, working with earthen plaster seems like kid's play, for children it is play!"
   
   At one point, we are advised that 'natural plasters' are low energy building material. The energy required can be measured in terms of granola bars.
   
   I'm sorry: work is work. But, this curious enthusiasm for returning to nature is just a frill. The book has a lot of useful details on foundations, walls, and finish materials. It never gets past the introductory level, but all the key points are covered. Additionally, there is good coverage of design issues, with particular emphasis on avoiding water damage. Finishing walls is given 3 chapters: natural finishes, lime finishes, and gypsum finishes.
   
   I was a bit disappointed in the lack of interest in power-tools, but getting one's hands muddy seems like too much fun to the authors. Additionally, more details on chemistry would have been helpful. At a certain level, I suspect this book is a good introductory lesson for volunteers assembling at a worksite with at least one master builder on hand. Working with mud may be fun, but it takes a large crew to get the whole house, barn or commune done in a single building season.



5. This book was late in coming, but the wait was well worth it! There's nothing like this book on the market today...not even close!

   I especially like how thorough this book is. I really appreciated the clear and detailed explanations of all aspects of plastering -- from the design of homes (so they will be suitable for natural plasters) to wall preparation to testing, mixing, and applying plasters.

   The authors skillfully walk the reader through all of the steps required to plaster a natural home, anticipating mistakes you might make -- and telling you how to avoid them. Although the book focuses on plastering strawbale buildings, there's lots of good advice for plastering numerous other natural homes.

   This book attempts to develop a deep understanding of plasters. To do so, the authors begin by describing the components of plasters -- and what each one does. Knowing that subsoils are different at each building site, the authors give general guidelines for making plasters. They tell you how to test your soils and potential plaster mixes. No, you won't find recipes for plasters...that would be fruitless due to the variability of subsoils. But you will find some examples you can start with and good, solid explanations of the steps you have to take to make plasters using the dirt you have at your site!

   I was also very impressed by the extensive coverage of finish plasters and alises as well as the detailed resource guide and the excellent photos and drawings, although some were a bit small. Sometimes the text seemed a bit repetitive, but in retrospect that helped me memorize the details.

1 comments about Architecture in the United States (Oxford History of Art).

1. This book will be a classic. It is not so much a history of American architecture as it is a sociology, and not so much a sociology as it is a subtle and invigorating study of the social relations and social dynamics of American buildings and the people who make and use them. The book's views can be startling---see the comments on Jefferson's Monticello, on Buckminster Fuller, on Richard Meier's Getty Center in Los Angeles. It is beautifully written and the photographs are often dazzling. It even tackles the American suburb and shopping malls. Its views of the development of architecture as a profession and the status of architecture in the history of art are provocative and incisive. Highly recommended.

4 comments about Strawbale Home Plans.

1. I keep this book around on my couch for all my friends to check out and i go back to it, daily, in searching for beautiful ideas for my soon to be breathable abode! The people in the book appear so serene and i know why! what glorious fotos and floorplans this book provided! great work!



2. This product is short on plans but I love it anyway. It provides one diagram, or layout for each ofmany sterling examples of this construction method,
   A good value for that strawbale builder who finds themself somewhere between a dream and the plan coming together...or just wondering where to get started making the dream a reality.



3. i was very impressed, this book is beautiful, the pictures, and floor plans inside give us so many ideas for the home we want to build in the future, i recommed it even if its a coffe table book.



4. I bought this book seeking inspiration, and I was not disappointed. Evident here is the continuing evolvement of strawbale house design and construction. In this book, you can see what can be done with strawbale. Included are comments and suggestions from the owner/builder of each house. For anyone considering building a strawbale structure, these comments would be especially useful. One owner/builder in the desert, for example, says rain gutters should have been installed when the house was first built, not added later on. Photo quality is very nice, and the overall layout and design of the book is quite good. The title of the book is a bit misleading, and I would have liked to see more in the way of actual plans (all you get is a floor plan), but overall this is a nice book, and offers much in the way of ideas.

5 comments about Collage City.

1. I am a second-generation Rowe disciple, I guess. I studied with a Rowe acolyte in graduate school and worked with co-author Fred Koetter in an urban design studio. Without the efforts these teachers have made to bring Rowe's ideas to urban design students, they may well have been neglected, because Collage City is a mess. It is badly marred by dense thickets of poorly-edited, idiosyncratic prose. It was one of the more frustrating books I had to read in school, but I'm glad it was required, because the close readings uncovered real gems of theory. Rowe reintroduced the complexities and possibilities of art into urban design right at the peak of Modernism's influence. Architecture was still in the thrall of La Ville Radieuse and socialist-utopian projects that aimed to simplify and disinfect cities. Jane Jacobs saw the social perils of these projects, Colin Rowe saw the architectural perils. His critique of the Modern project was among the most powerful, and among the least cogent. Still, though it requires some serious digging in prose-mud, the gems are there and worth the search. I recommend this book for graduate-level urban theorists or serious urban design students.
   
   But there are more accessible urban design primers: Aldo Rossi, et al, The Architecture of the City, for example, covers much of the same ground Rowe so spottily tilled [except where Eisenman is involved in the book: he is a worse prose-stylist than Rowe]. For non-specialists I also recommend Witold Rybczynski's City Life as a thoughtful and LUCID introduction to American urbanism, along with a critique of the last few decades of urban "development".



2. Does not contribute much to the discussion, written in a lengthy, self-important, arrogant manner.



3. This book is the most pompous garbage I have ever seen. It is unreadable drivel that has no point and adds nothing to the search for solutions to our urban problems. What were the authors thinking? They deserve the "Emperor has no clothes" award for this trash. Save your money and buy "A Pattern Language," "Edge City," "Changing Places," "Home from Nowhere," or any of many meaningful books that say something relevant.



4. Colin Rowe proposes a form of inclusive urbanism that meshes the modern city with the traditional city.



5. Rowe and Koetter's brilliant excursus of urban design theory via the texts and contexts of intellectual history.

1 comments about The Crit: An Architecture Student's Handbook, 2nd Edition (Seriously Useful Guides).

1. I am a first year Design student and this book was a department read this semester. I have loved every page! It gives a great look at both sides, instructor and student, of the critique process. A great read if you are considering or are in a architecture or design field!!

4 comments about Keys to Painting - Fur & Feathers (Keys to Painting).

1. If you are looking for a good book based on a wide variety of techniques, this book is a handbook. If you are looking for a book that showcases wonderful artwork by competent artists, this is a good book. If you are a painter who wants to learn how to paint feathers or fur, this is not a good book.
   
   The preliminary chapters of this book are all about drawing. Having studied, art, yes, we need to learn to draw before we can learn to paint. But the title of this book is _Keys to PAINTING Fur and Feathers_.
   
   There follows different ideas on how to capture light on white fur, how to paint patterns, and other useful techniques, but I do feel they could have been explained better.
   
   And then we get back to the issue of painting. Pen and ink drawing is drawing, not painting. Colored pencil is drawing, not painting. Pastels are, well, pastels, not painting.
   
   For the artist that likes to experiment in different mediums, this is an excellent resource book. For those that are into acrylics and watercolors, you'll find some nice things in here. But I think the title is very misleading, because much of the book does not focus on actual 'painting'.



2. This book is excellent for anyone who paints wildlife. It gives detailed illustrations of how to paint every type of fur and feathers in all mediums, can really recommend this book to any wildlife artist.



3. This book is full of beautiful and inspiring pictures painted in many mediums including oils, acrylics and watercolours. although this book is a beautiful book i only gave it 4 stars because it doesnt really spend alot of time focusing on how to actually achieve the effects that the various pictures in the book portray.



4. Quick summary of the book topics: Chapter 1) how to draw some animals in pencil and charcoal Chapter 2) painting fur textures Chapter 3) painting feather textures Chapter 4) detail area focusing on such things as how a bird flies, how they grip a branch, tail fur and feathers, eyes, etc. Chapter 5) Painting Demonstrations

   Although this book is advertised as "In All Mediums" and specifically mentions pastel in the jacket text by the editors, this is very misleading. If you are an acrylic, watercolor or colored pencil painter, this book is right up your alley. If you are a pastelist, think twice before you buy.

   The book contains a some wonderful paintings, usually unrelated to the text, and several of them are in pastel. However, the *only* place they even talk or even *use* pastel is in the "Painting Demonstrations" chapter. The demonstration is called "How to Paint a Raccon in Pastel". The raccoon is 3/4 posed and half in his den -- you can only see the raccoon's head and part of his side!

   Overall, it's a great book for acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil, and it can be used by painters in other mediums. However, if you are a pastelist and looking for a book that would either cover pastel thoroughly, or at least fairly (when compared to the time spent on the other mediums), forget it. Don't expect to find any pastel-oriented help here -- there isn't any worth speaking of.

2 comments about Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?: Experiencing Aural Architecture.

1. A very engaging, wide-ranging look at the aural environment from many perspectives: cultural, historical, architectural, physical, sociological, political and more. The authors explore many of the deep and often times not-so-obvious connections and influences in an unusual, informative and refreshingly multi-disciplinary approach. Even though covered topics are broad in scope and complexity, the book is written in an easy and engaging conversational style that is neither academically stodgy nor technically overwhelming. But neither does it attempt to simplify the subject into shallow triviality.
   
   Unlike many modern-day science popularizations, this book is not a simple distillation of some lofty academic field. Rather it is at once the introductory text, the major body of research and a pointer to even wider exploration of the a heretofore under-explored and under-appreciated topic. There's plenty of new and useful material here for the professional practitioner in a number of disciplines. At the same time, the entire book is accessible to the casual reader, the neophyte. No chapter or paragraph need be avoided by any reader: all are carried along with the narrative: none are left behind.
   
   Personally, I have read book in out-of-order pieces as my busy schedule allows, without the feeling that I really should have read it in a more disciplined fashion. Rather than having to read other sections out of sheer necessity, I've gone back to fill in the holes more out of curiosity and interest.
   
   If you want to understand the intimate connection between humans and the aural space they live in, there is no better place to find it than this book. If you're looking for a new model of understanding of a complex topic through an truly broad, interdisciplinary approach, this book is the best model I know of.
   
   It's difficult to recommend it to highly.



2. Very interesting and new thinking about that sound around. Recommend for sound engineers, acoustic design architects, musicians and people who love music and/or are interested in the aural spaces abounding. Do you like John Cage, Terry Riley, ee cummings? Can you sing the sound of one _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _?

3 comments about Pamphlet Architecture 15: War and Architecture (Pamphlet Architecture).

1. The work of Lebbeus Woods has always fascinated me. From the initial shear beauty of his art of alternate built landscapes both familiar and alien to his in-depth commentary.
   
   This small book pulls some big punches, revealing the examined paper architectural propositions expressing the underlying spirit and intent of the buildings within their context, altered, re-revealed to that society's 'catastrophe.'
   
   Well worth a buy for students to Architects to all those wishing escapism back to simple truths, and to delight in the satisfaction gleaned. Only wish the inside images were colour!



2. Woods is as much philosopher and urban planner as architect in the traditional sense. His buildings rip open the landscape of the ordered grid, and also open new possibilities about what it means to inhabit a space. The functions of some of his ideas for buildings are obscure even to him. He is constantly trying to deconstruct the politics of architecture and it's place in history. He actively embodies Heidegger's idea that "dwelling means to recieve the sky", except in his dwellings it also means to recieve the ground, and to actively take part in constructing your world.



3. In this work I have seen the necessity for Woods' architecture to exist; where before I had only seen compelling drawings. Lebbeus Woods has dedicated this manifesto to the city of Sarajevo, and to all cities which bear the signs of armed conflict on their walls. He states that the emergence of a new architecture is especially crucial in Sarajevo where the architecture was the target of the attackers (from within) who meant to destroy the culture there in all of its manifestations. The architecture of that culture, the places of worship and of social congregation, became the primary target for the ethnic genocide. As much as the bodies of the people, the architecture was destroyed for its significance as the public body. Therefore it is the architecture which must give a physical presence to these atrocities. Woods makes it clear that it is the responsibility of the architecture to preserve the memory of the destruction- not in a sentimental or memorial manner- but in the same manner as the life of cities has been preserved through use and adaptation throughout history. The war is part of the reality of the place and therefore should not be erased. This work also resists the glorification of war of the Italian Futurists, and the `tabula rasa' erasure of existing conditions of the Modernists. This is a work which acknowledges growth and destruction in the same breath. It is existential in its acceptance of reality and its means of building with it.... not nihilistic. It is existential in that it knows no reality other than what is there, but is not fully convinced by its authority. It revels in the multitudinous nature of the contemporary world, of the present. Unlike the Modernists, Woods does not intend to reinvent the city but to allow the city to be more itself. This work, his infamous drawings, is an attempt to recognize the reality of a place through actualization of events.... By building in and upon the ruins he remakes them into the living substance of the city, leaving no trace unexposed.

2 comments about Houses of the Hamptons 1880-1930 (The Architecture of Leisure).

1. The authors have clearly worked hard to document thirty important houses, located mostly in Southampton and East Hampton. The history is superbly researched, and there are many archival images that will thrill even the most knowledgeable Hamptons aficionado. If you are interested in the Hamptons in particular or resort architecture on general, you must own this book.



2. This is yet another well researched, beautiful book put out by Acanthus Press. Ms. Surchin does the Hamptons proud, with her insightful text and wonderful period images, I had no idea that there where so many period houses in the Hamptons, of course I knew all about the North Shore of Long Island, the famous Gold Coast, but i had thought all the huge houses in the Hamptons where fairly new, needless to say this book was a very pleasant surprise. If you have any interest in the Hamptons or just have an appreciation of beautiful books then I highly recommend this book; well done, indeed.