5 comments about Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods.

1. Arrived quickly and in great condition. Box could have used some stuffing such as foam or bubble wrap. Otherwise great choice.



2. it has real pictures explaining the details and materials not just 2d line drawings. great book



3. This is the best resource for someone who's starting to study for the ARE tests, and for the profession in general, and for anyone related or making GOOD CONSTRUCTION. It's totally worth the price, because its a hardbook cover and you will use it for the rest of your life.



4. This is an amazing book and a very pleasant to read and look into the diagrams and figures. This is a must for any Architect and designer to understand the issue of constructibility and structural erection.
   
   Also it is an excellent text book, sophisticated yet easy to comprehend.



5. The book could have gone into greater depth about reinforcing steel and formwork for concrete but these are minor drawbacks in an otherwise really helpful book which is a must for the budding architect and construction engineer or indeed for anyone working in the construction industry.This volume covers each aspect of building construction in quite a bit of detail. The illustrations are superb. The best I've seen for a book on this material for this price range.

5 comments about Building Construction Illustrated.

1. Excellent condition for a used item and for the price too. The books from Francis Ching are always very pleasent to read and to have.



2. This book includes details for virtually every imaginable situation in architecture. It is not only useful for creating details for your own project, but will also help you decipher the details in other people's projects. A necessary supplement to any Materials and Methods course.



3. awesome book with everything one could need to get a well rounded idea of how structures are put together. this book was recommended by many of my professors and is especially useful when trying to understand and draw interior and exterior details. it is a must have in any interior designer or architects library!!!



4. From my title, one would assume that I mean that this book has few illustrations. Quite the contrary, it has many illustrations, some of which are important, but the problem is that the book does a fairly poor job of giving enough detail, both in illustration and writing, on any given aspect of building anything.
   
   The whole book reads more like a survey class at college where one learns that all these things exist but couldn't for the life of themselves describe any one thing in any useful detail. For those of you who've been to college I think you know what I mean. I purchased this book in the hope that it would help me better understand the scope of some larger projects I may have coming at mid-summer, but I was astonished to find that most of the information was so elementary that it was worthless.
   
   This book will not tell you how to really truly build a building. If you are clever there is enough information that you could do the job right, but it says nothing about the real-world situation of a project. There is not nearly enough information about how and when an electrician or plumber should come in, or a finish carpenter, and how they would best be helped to improve communication and timing of the project. There are some key things that can be gleaned, but by the title of the book one would not be far off in thinking that it was a book about building. It is not. This book is about the General Ideas behind construction of residential and commercial sites. Think about it. There would need to be double the pages to cover both!
   
   I'm sure for something down the road I will be able to get something useful out of the book, but for now it is mainly on my shelf for show. The price should come down to about $20 as well because there is nothing in here that cannot be found out online or elsewhere. Its just a summary of the ideas of others.
   
   Finally, there was some chatter about the new materials that are used in modern construction; where? Where in this book does it tell us of any specific types of these "new" "green" products or techniques? Name one?
   
   Before buying please realize this book is for future project managers that are half the age of their wiser employee's. This information is for 18 year old college kids.



5. Smooth transaction and great price. The packaging, however, is a little too much. I am not really sure why a used book was shipped in a big box filled with bits and pieces of styro foams. It's a little messy.

5 comments about The Architect's Studio Companion: Rules of Thumb for Preliminary Design.

1. This book contains alot of technical information at an easy to understand level for student architects. The information complements my other textbooks very well.



2. This book was very good on the concepts of Architecture and the stages of creating 3D sketches and images as guides before actual drawing of the building.
   Also it helped with building lables and detail sections, elevations.
   
   Thank You
   Talibah Salih



3. I needed this book for a class of mine. It was delivered early and was in great condition. Thanks!



4. I was somewhat dissappointed with this book. The "rules of thumb" tend to go a little further in direction of "design" than "rules of thumb". I was looking for a simpler approach to many of the items based upon similar materials that the author included in another publication. Instead it seems he had second thoughts about, perhaps, careless use of the information and resorted to charts and tables based upon actual design criteria in some cases. For example, a rule of thumb for designing wood floor joist might be "The depth of the joists in inches can be estimated by taking the span in feet and subtracting 4. A 2x8 floor joist can span 12 feet." Instead there are tables based upon formulas. Rules of thumb are handy to make a quick approximation of the geometry of a building in order to prepare a preliminary drawing for engineers to use to begin design. I would have liked more simplification even if it had to include warnings or possible exceptions to the rule.



5. My only problem with this book is I can never find it because all my fellow studio classmates keep borrowing it. This saved hours having to calculate spans and dimensions. Definitely worth the price.

5 comments about At Home: A Short History of Private Life.

1. Anyone who has enjoyed previous Bryson non-fiction books such as his books on language or especially "A Short History of Everything" will love "At Home." It is a tour de force of Bryson at his best as he explores the history and development of the modern comforts of home life, with a focus on the Victorian era of English history.
   
   Bryson uses his own home, a country parsonage in England, as the "hook" upon which to drape his story. He travels from room to room in his home, using the features of each room as a way to explore an amazing variety of subjects ranging from the history of the toilet to the outrageous ways fashion has developed through history. As is Bryson's style, he spends plenty of time telling masterful stories about overlooked personalities and events, as well as quick asides on the history of various words, dishes, and gadgets that we use everyday, all delivered with humor and charm.
   
   "At Home" as as close to a "must read" as anything non-fiction published this year. If you are a remotely thoughtful person who happens to live in any type of home (in other words, if you are reading this!) you will be amazingly stimulated by this book. Buy!



2. It's a history of various items, rooms, concepts, etc that are found in the typical Western (specifically British) home. The book is structured around the framework of a walking tour of the author's house - a Victorian rectory built in 1851. Each room is linked to certain topics: The Hall prompts a discussion of the basic concept of houses. The Kitchen of course brings up the idea of food and cooking and the servants who did this work in most homes during the 19th century. The Fusebox brings up the history of electricity as well as the earlier history of artificial lighting and methods of heating houses. The Garden reminds us of gardening and landscaping. The Bedroom brings up such spicy topics as sex, disease and death. The Bathroom tells us about the evolution of plumbing and of personal hygiene. The Nursery contains information about childhood; how children were treated among different social classes during the Georgian and Victorian eras.
   
   This is a guided tour, but the author rambles - his mind wandering from one anecdote to another as a detail of one story reminds him of something from another. He has a favorite trick which consists of asking a tantalizing question (Why are salt and pepper the only two spices we consider important enough to keep in shakers on the table?) He implies that he knows the answer, but will "get to it later" after he has told us some other stuff first. In some instances it took a long while to get back to the question, but he always did. The technique kept me reading in order to find out what the answer would be, and I never once felt cheated afterward.
   
   The whole book is a relentlessly interesting barrage of astounding facts and amusing anecdotes. Unlike many books of Popular History trivia which I refer to as "bathroom readers" because they are collections of short & discrete articles, the stories in this book flow seamlessly together, like a conversation or a narrative where one idea leads naturally to the next. It is by turns fascinating, astounding, shocking, hilarious, and revolting. The chapters about disease and early medicine made me writhe in discomfort - and the description of the poor districts of pre-sanitation London, ankle-deep in human excrement, were just disgusting. Mr. Bryson is quite masterful at describing conditions just well enough that you can imagine yourself there.
   
   The book ends on an oddly moralizing cautionary note about the future, but overall I'm impressed. Not only did I learn a lot, I was also entertained. It was hard to put down .. considering how much I enjoyed this one, I'm giving it five stars.



3. There are few phrases that bring greater pleasure to this reader than: "Bill Bryson has a new book out." A few years ago he produced the monumental "A Short History of Nearly Everything" which was exactly that. And Funny. And Fascinating. And just a sheer, (and educational), delight. About a year ago he hit home again with "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" a memoir of my life, masquerading as a memoir of his own. Now he has written "At Home" a sort of sequel to ASHONE that, essntially covers the rest of things that the "nearly" everything didn't. It is, quite literally, impossible to describe the delights of this latest, because to do so would be to simply repeat everything in the book, as each page contains at least one such delight!
   I can,however, suggest a sure-fire sales tool to the publisher. Reprint the introduction and send it to ever literate person on the planet. You will then sell a copy of the book to... every literate person on the planet. Because, if you can read it and NOT want to read... and own... the rest of the this "Short History of Private Life", you are beyond the pale.



4. He can even get Americans to sit down and read the dusty details of British history!
   
   Popular author Bill Bryson sets out to explore the origins of his abode in England: a former rectory built in 1851 by the Reverend Thomas Marsham (1822-1905). But his scrutiny goes far beyond that scope when he decides to dig deeper and learn the cultural histories of every room in the house. He devotes a chapter each to the hall, the kitchen, the scullery and larder, the drawing room, the dining room, the cellar, the passage, the study, the garden, the plum room, the stairs, the bedroom, the bathroom, the dressing room, the nursery, and the attic. Early on he even addresses "the fusebox" and the introduction of electricity into human life and culture. The result is a comprehensive study of how our homes became what they are today: and by extension, how WE became who we are today.
   
   By now, most readers should know that Bryson is an American who lives (or has lived) in England and who therefore has a foot in each camp. You shouldn't be surprised by his strong continuing interest in history and in language. And you shouldn't be too surprised that many of our own living arrangements in America have their roots in Europe and, more specifically, in the British Isles. Therefore, much of the information conveyed here comes from British sources and from incidents that occurred somewhere in the British empire. Oh, there are a few dips into the American historical files as well, with notes about the Boston Tea Party, the Erie Canal, Monticello, Mount Vernon, Thomas Edison's light bulb, Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, and other U.S. events and inventions. And while we can relate to many of these developments in housing as we sit on this side of the Pond, the overall flavor here is an English one. This is as it should be, since the Bryson house sits on British soil. If you don't like your prose peppered with the antics of queens and kings and dukes and ladies, then don't even open this volume.
   
   Anglophiles will absorb these pages. Fence-sitters might be challenged to find the connections between Bryson's seemingly rambling trajectories and the room that he's supposed to be addressing in each chapter. But anyone who chooses to stay the course here will learn quite a few tidbits to drop into casual conversation at dinner parties or at staff meetings. You might begin to walk around your own space and view it with a different or more critical eye. "At Home" is a worthwhile and often fascinating read. It is not a book that can be zipped through quickly. Readers will need time to savor the narrative and to reflect upon the information that Bryson supplies and suggests. And afterward, they'll be sure to hold tightly onto the handrail as they go downstairs and throw their bedsheets into the washer.
   
   The advance reading copy did not include any architectural renderings or photographs. There is the hint that at the very least, the former will be included in the final edition of the book. Illustrations would certainly be helpful in considering this very visual subject matter.
   
   While I enjoyed reading this book, I do take one tiny offense. Early on, Bryson mentions that Robert Marsham, the rector's great-grandfather, was interested in phenology, and that his seasonal observations of Nature are still used as benchmarks for dates of flowers blooming and birds arriving on the scene. While that might well be true in England, over here people are more apt to refer to the journals of one Henry David Thoreau for that kind of information. Sorry, Bill. Sometimes an American Transcendentalist can do the job better.
   
   To those who would prefer to read an American house history, I highly recommend Red House: Being a Mostly Accurate Account of New England's Oldest Continuously Lived-in House by Sarah Messer. That historic dwelling beats Bryson's by two centuries.



5. My father in law returned from a recent vacation and was talking about touring a restored Ukranian settlement in Canada. He marveled about the size/construction of the sod houses and it spurred stories about his own house growing up, which only had four rooms. He mentioned that in the old country houses did not have windows because there was a tax on windows, how only rich people had wooden ceilings and floors and how they bathed in a galvanized metal tub outside, in the summer they let the sun warm the water. He jokingly called it "solar energy".
   
   Last night I picked up Bill Bryson's book which aims to recapture the last 150 years of human domesticity and read the same details about window taxes and plumbing. I had a hard time giving the book to my father in law to finish, I was enjoying it so much but once he started it he did not want to give it back. He's good at returning books, so I let him have it.
   
   Bill Bryson is a favorite author of mine, two of his most popular books are "A Walk in the Woods" and "A Short History of Nearly Everything". My husband knows nearly everything and he said that Bill Bryson was spot on, so I have learned to trust him as a good go to guy for an accessible and humorous non fiction slant on things.
   
   The book opens with an anecdote about the Great Explosition of 1850 in London, England. After watching Victoria and Albert I became interested in that period of history and read several books about. Bryson's description of the spectacular Crystal Palace and the gardener Joseph Paxton's role in creating it is the best I have read. Bryson is like the teacher you wish you had whose warmth, enthusiasm and curiousity helps you fall in love with history too. This is the most enthusiastic review I have written in a long. This is the kind of book you can pick up for your bookworm or history loving friend around the holidays and they will love it. I plan to buy a copy for my mother. Two thumbs way up!

5 comments about The Home Within Us: Romantic Houses, Evocative Rooms.

1. THE HOME WITHIN US: ROMANTIC HOUSES, EVOCATIVE ROOMS is far more than another fine Rizzoli book on architecture. This is a collection of the art of Bobby McAlpine, a meditation on the impact the space where we live has on our peace of mind and our sense of art and beauty. Written by both McAlpine and Susan Sully, this elegant book, photographed splendidly by Mick Hales, explores homes that bear the imprint of McAlpine. The homes range in architectural types and sizes, but there is a constant present: good taste and quality craftsmanship are married to interior design that shows a profound respect for the building itself and the lines of the design created either by McAlpine or simply enhanced by his impeccable taste.
   
   Homes such as these may not strike the viewer immediately as 'noticeable houses', but that is also part of the designer's drive: let the dwelling speak for itself, opening the structure to interpretation of romantic concepts. He is as likely to appreciate the rooflines and the shingles that cover those roofs as he is to praise the approach of the entry ways of these homes - welcoming parlors that invite the guest to enter and grow to know the secrets of the home. For McAlpine each home he shares has great significance and he sees his mission as one to enhance the lines, the atmosphere, and the comfort of the home as a palace of solace. This is a poetic book, written in a style that in not only interesting but also endearing, a book that invites repeated readings and motivation to re-think our own domiciles. Grady Harp, August 10



2. Great book on possibly the top architect in the Southeast US. I had a lot of the pictures in magazines but also a lot of new ones . Well worth buying.



3. The work is very good. Especially the architecture.
   The interior design is very complete and well done.
   
   But the style is an interpretation of John Saladino's work; and it's basically repeated for each client, thus little of the owners' personality shows. There's a formula, an elegant one, but a formula for the styling.
   
   But it's all of great quality.
   
   The book is worth buying, I wish the inspiraration lasted longer.



4. If you loved John Saladino's book, Villa, you will love, The Home Within Us, by Bobby McAlpine. This most wonderful book is filled with homes that are timeless, worldly, romantic, soothing, and have a sense of history. I love the juxtaposition of rustic wood and stone with velvet and crystal shown throughout the book. The rooms are peaceful. They are not over-decorated, but warm and interesting. Each item, whether chair, urn or sconce, is art. Beautifully done. Recommended



5. Have long been an admirer of Bobby McAlpine and have wished he would publish a book. This is marvelous and has already become one of my favorites. Several but not all of the houses shown were previously published in Southern Accents and elsewhere -- and it is wonderful to have them together here with the author's narrative. One of the things that makes this book especially interesting is the feature on the architect's own house which is shown in three quite different iterations. It is fascinating to see how the same space looks dressed in three quite different schemes.
   
   McAlpine's narrative relates some of his design choices, for example, the preference for a smaller entrance at the side of the house rather than the grand center entrance, the interest in natural stone and limed antiqued wood, and patina of all sorts. McAlpine gave me a real appreciation for the use of dark. Seeing these rooms, I understood that one does not require pastel walls to have an experience of light in a room -- on the contrary, sun flowing into a room with dark walls can render a much richer experience of light. Seeing his rooms in the eighties gave me the courage to paint the light walls of my sunroom dark, dark green, and I have loved it. Of course McAlpine is not unique in using dark, but he has done it so skillfully and compellingly.
   
   If you like patina'ed surfaces, stone and brick, dark, dare I say, somewhat masculine and oversize furnishings, nuanced colors, antiques -- if you like Saladino and Tarlow and VerVoordt -- you will most likely enjoy this book.

5 comments about Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture.

1. If you love the Renaissance and architecture this is a book for you. Exceptionally well informed, very clear in the architectural information, even of involved matters, and very easy to read. A gem.



2. This book describes how a fifteenth-century goldsmith and clockmaker, Filippo Brunelleschi, came up with a unique design for the dome to crown Florence's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore.
   
   With the excitement of the Renaissance as a backdrop, author King tells the whole story from Florence Brunelleschi's bitter, ongoing rivalry with the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti to the near capture of Florence by the Duke of Milan.
   
   To help you make this journey back to fifteenth century Florence, King includes lots of fascinating detail; the traditions of the brickmaker's art, the daily routine of the artisans laboring hundreds of feet above the ground as the dome grew ever higher, the problems of transportation and the power of the guilds.



3. This book is clearly written and is a enjoyable read. While I was reading it, I was really caught up in the drama and intrigue surrounding the character Filippo. But after finishing the book I had the time to reflect back on it and judge it from the distance. Considering that this project took over a quarter of a century, a few major setbacks should naturally have been expected. Parts of this book reads like a college essay - full of excessive details, footnotes and unnecessary and boring information thrown in to increase the volume of the contents. Although I did find the parts on the building design somewhat interesting, but was kind of distracted by the enormous number of 'scandals' the author referred to. I would say it is more enjoyable as a light read rather than a academic work. Nonetheless I found it enjoyable.



4. Very informative and well-researched but a bit dry. This book would have benefited immensely by having pictures with it!



5. This was given to me as a gift, which at first I thought,interesting but is it for me. WOW was I impressed. After reading the book and returning to Florence the Duomo was so much more alive in character and spirit.

5 comments about The Image of the City.

1. Great book full of information but a little too old as far as planning ideologies but still great book to read.



2. I'm about a quarter of the way through this book now and it's a very interesting read. Though by now it's a bit dated (published in 1960), and it's not as well-known as Jacobs' 'Death and Life,' it's a relatively short and simple read that can add to one's knowledge of the city. From a planner's perspective, this is a good qualitative research work that relates many lessons about aesthetics and efficient layouts of some famous US cities. They are the kinds of lessons that don't perish over time. For anyone who's into city planning, this is a good reference.



3. My teacher suggested that we buy this book while I was in an Urban Planning class and I am very happy I listened to him. He often referred to this book as the "Bible of Urban Planning" and I see why. Kevin Lynch created a precedent over 50 years ago and his ways are still being practiced today. The fact that, as I said, the book was written over 50 years ago and it is still extremely credible speaks volumes for how advanced his thinking was. Cities from Boston to Los Angeles are designed based off of the ideas mentioned in this book. For the final project in this class I was required, with my partners, to redesign an urban area using what my teacher called "Lynch-ese," referring to the architectural language described by Kevin Lynch. I firmly believe that this book is a must read for anyone remotely interested in urban development and design. In my case it helped open up a new window for me and allowed me to learn an aspect of architecture I never really researched before. Since this class and reading this book I've found myself loving being able to study the urban aspects of areas and figuring out how Kevin Lynch's ideas are shown in a particular space. After my positive experience with this book I don't know how anyone can possibly have anything negative about Kevin Lynch's "The Image of the City."



4. After all these years, still a definitive work on conceptualizing the urban fabric. Well before New Urbanism, Lynch had defined nodes, edges, terminated vistas, etc....the essentials of city making. The writing is concise, and the book short and accessible for the layperson. It is an introductory and seminal work, for anyone contemplating a career as an architect, urban designer, or planner.



5. Reading Kevin Lynch is like getting a new pair of glasses. Nothing has actually changed in your surroundings, but you see things differently. Legibility, or readability, is an important part of navigating the city landscape. To study this "we must consider not just the city as a thing in itself, but the city being perceived by its inhabitants" (Lynch 3).
   
   The city is a constantly growing experience. As you move through a city you are experiencing things in an expanding way. "At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a view waiting to be explored. Nothing is experienced by itself, but always in relation to its surroundings, the sequences of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences"(Lynch 1). There is always something more to add to how you experience the city. These memories and experiences of a city become meaningful to the people who live there. To Lynch, visual quality of a city and the mental images associated with it are of upmost importance when studying the urban landscape.
   
   A city can be considered a very important and powerful symbol of a society. In The Image of the City Lynch explores the cities of Boston, Jersey City and Los Angeles revealing the knowledge of the inhabitants and how they view their city. When asked to describe a city, any person would say that a city is a collection of "streets, buildings, sidewalks, bridges," but Lynch prefers to describe the city as a interrelated connection of paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. Paths are the channels through which the observer moves and that constitute the predominant element in their image, whereas edges are linear elements that are not paths- they are lateral references, sometimes boundaries. Districts, nodes and landmarks are also prominent parts of a city. Districts are sections of the city that a person "enters" and that have identifying characteristics. Nodes are points within the city that can be used as destinations or points of interest, such as transit stations. Landmarks serve the same purpose as nodes; however, they are physical objects, where nodes can be plazas, intersections or park spaces.
   
   "A distinctive and legible environment not only offers security but also heightens the potential depth and intensity of human experience"(Lynch 5). An environmental image links person to place and gives a sense or emotional security. An environmental image is made up of three components- identity, structure and meaning. First, you must identify the object, then determine the spatial or pattern relation, and assign an emotional value about it.
   
   The importance that you place on a landscape or place is called an environmental image. Lynch ascertains that there are two aspects of an environmental image, what is distinct within the environment, and what the observer thinks and what meaning they associate with their surroundings. "People observe the city while moving through it, and along these paths the other environmental elements are arranged and related" (Lynch 47). Lynch discovered through surveys and interviews from these cities that people tend to adapt to their surroundings, and formulate patterns and identity from what they see and experience every day. People place a significant amount of importance on their personal environmental images, and this can influence their reactions to changes.
   
   
   As planners "we are continuously engaged in the attempt to organize our surroundings, to structure and identify them" (Lynch 90). In designing cities it is always important to acknowledge the importance of legibility and an environmental image. "When reshaping cities it should be possible to give them a form which facilitates these organizing efforts rather than frustrates them" (Lynch 90).

5 comments about A History of Interior Design.

1. A Text book on Interior design History deliverd at my door in an excellent condition for a second hand textbook. I got it at a very great deal. I am highly recommend this site for a second hand textbook. You can save a big buck!.
   
   Samantha W. Seeboonruang



2. The third updated edition of A HISTORY OF INTERIOR DESIGN comes packed with the latest examples throughout and offers a synthesis of some 6,000 years of domestic and public interiors. Topics range from furniture and decoration to cave dwellings and temples, cathedrals and palaces, and provide a blend of architectural survey and political and social analysis to consider the extent of how interior style evolves. An accompanying CD-ROM with over 100 illustrations provides a timeline of this history. Perfect for college-level collections strong in interior design history.



3. WOW! beautifully organized and articulated. thoughtful and well-rounded discussion of the variation and evolution of interior design. it was purchased to use as a course resource (on 20th century American consumer culture), but am now tempted to buy my OWN copy.



4. It's a very interesting book, it offers a vew over design from ancient times to ower days. We can follow the developement of design over time. The book is recomended especialy for professional designers.



5. I really do enjoy the book except that on some important topics in the class I am taking with this book there is little information. Nonetheless on the topics it greatly expands upon the book shows impressive and accurate knowledge. The pictures also aid in examples and are for the msot part the best picture examples that any book could offer.

5 comments about Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces.

1. This book should appeal to a wide audience as almost everyone has a small space - no matter how large the house. There are many clever and creative solutions included in the book. I also like the size - compact and easy to hold.



2. I honestly could not love this book more. My husband and I just bought our first home, and spent hours checking out the design/decorating section at the bookstore. I was apprehensive about getting this book because our house is enormous (we need ideas on what to do with all the space), and we aren't apartment renters any longer. Low and behold, we kept going back to this one; "Remember the kitchen/bathroom/kid's room in that AT book?"
   
   This book is not for people who need a bucketload of cash to spend, and it is not for the super vanilla, traditional folks. The ideas are fresh and new, and aren't so over the top. If you are a little quirky and open to ingenious uses of space, you might just love this book as much as I do. I reccomend this book if you love the Domino Book of Design.



3. The great thing about this book is that it really is a good place to start when thinking of all the things you can do to redecorate your place. When ordering this book, I looked forward to its release seeing how I read Apartment Therapy daily on my blog reader. When I received the book, I was glad that it had all sorts of great ideas put into one place. If you're thinking about doing some decorating or reorganizing of your space, this is a great book. It has a lot of variety.
   
   Unfortunately, the bad news is that it isn't all that specific. It could use a great more detail with its ideas and could show some more steps for each idea.



4. Decorating books could be divided between the ones that instruct, and the ones that display. Terence Conran began a different way of discussing how people live in spaces, and AT has been different in that it shows how people live in apartments -- which aren't just small spaces. They are, by definition, smaller parts of a whole space -- a building, a street, a neighborhood, a city. AT led the way for thinking about functional living in apartments - and the entire line of 'landing strip' furniture now available would seem to be their doing.
   
   This book, Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces, unfortunately, doesn't do that -- it shows little snippets and still lifes organized by room (bed, bath, living, etc.) without showing floorplans, and entire spaces. (With the possible exception of the G-R storage space outside the door to their apartment which mentions how they keep the space neat in deference to their neighbors.)Its more decorating porn than erotica: it shows you what someone else does, with no way to draw on those ideas -- rather than excite your own senses about what's possible for you and your space.
   
   
   For example, the old Gillingham-Ryan pad (as shown in "Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions") was an object lesson in so many ways: rethink materials for their function, not purpose; expand one area (kitchen) and minimize another (lr) - but together, the sum is greater than the parts. In the bedroom, you need a place to sleep, and a place to store things -- but you don't necessarily need space to walk around.
   
   
   It's unfortunate -- for all that AT has to say about living in (relatively) small spaces that this book misses the point. Much of what it DOES offer is said elsewhere, and often: get rid of clutter (your stuff)/hide wires/ light colors expand and dark colors. Really: do we need a book to tell us that mirrors can enlarge space?
   
   It's too bad, because, for me, the previous book is a bible: it shows complete apartments, describes who lives there, shows floor plans, etc. The Small Cool contest as shown on AT's website did that, as well. But this book is like too many others: great photos filling lots of pages, and little more.



5. Really enjoyed this book from the first read! As an advocate for small spaces, I sometimes get stymied about how to best utilize what space I have. This book is full of clever ideas, nicely detailed, and a narrative that takes you through the process. Great resource for those of us in small space by choice or fate.

5 comments about The Green Studio Handbook: Environmental Strategies for Schematic Design.

1. I love this book. It doesn't go into too much detail about each design solution that it offers, but it gives you enough to pick the right strategies for your project and gives you a direction for further research. Each design solution presented even includes resources you can go to for this further research. I've used it at the beginning of almost every term project since I got it.



2. This is such a great resource. Clearly written and wonderful visuals for understanding all the intricacies of sustainable strategies.
   I highly recommend this book to anyone learning about passive solar; passive heating and cooling; sustainable building methods; geothermal; photovoltaics; and there are so many other great techniques in this book.
   This is the text book for my Green Design class.



3. The book does a decent job of listing many of the green approaches to building. However, I found it lacking more of the details that would have made it more useful from my perspective. I am not an architect. Maybe those details are less necessary for someone with that background. As a future owner of what I hope to be a green home, this is a decent book. However, "Your Green Home" by Alex Wilson is probably a better introduction to the field.



4. I love this book, it is very detailed and easy to read. It is organized very well and is really helpful. It covers a lot of the basics of sustainable design. I do wish that it went more in-depth with a few things, but it is more of an overview type book.



5. This is a great book for anyone interested in designing sustainable buildings. There are 7 sections - envelope, lighting, heating, cooling, energy production, water and waste and case studies- with different strategies in each. The sections are very clear and explain what each strategy is, how it's achieved, the problems and design considerations for each. Also there are lots of diagrams, charts and real-world examples. I would highly recommend this book it is very easy to read and it makes what may seem like complicated sustainable systems, easy to implement into your own designs.