No comments about Hair Salons.

No comments about Restaurant Design (Daab Design Book).

3 comments about Architecture Without Rules: The Houses of Marcel Breuer and Herbert Beckhard.

1. I enjoyed this book.
   
   the pictures were clear, and the text was informative and not too full of theory, but had enough detail about the construction of the projects to satisfy my carpenter's curiousity.



2. So many architectural books can get lost in jargon, but this one never does. It's extremely readable, and its insights into the work and careers of Marcel Breuer and Herbert Beckhard are always on point and thought-provoking. The book also happens to be handsomely produced, with lots of back-and-white and color photographs of their finished work. This book is essential, I think, as a reference, and a pleasure to read throughout.



3. An in-depth analysis of collaborated works between Marcel Breur & Herbert Beckhard through their professional lives together. They are conveyed as architects who get along well with one another both professionally & personally. Marcel Breur is depicted as an architect that didn't want to force his idea upon his clients but respecting their wishes despite in some instances, that compromised with his vision of how the final outcome should be like. Ironically, thru interaction with his clients that his greatest works are produced which are discussed in detail in this book. A chapter is dedicated for every & each houses that are worth mentioning. We are told of Japanese influence upon their work, the usage of natural material in their works i.e the international style buildings which are rampant during their time. All the works are displayed in black & white photos but towards the end, colour photos are shown & that's when everything hit you as you're able to see the buildings from the other perspective. Morevoer, building layouts are provided as well. I guess the exclusion of colour in the beginning is enabling us to appreciate the form more rather than been confused with the detraction, ie. colour. To be honest, it works well in this instance. I also enjoy the layout of the book. It is easy to read, and informative. In a way, this is a semi-biography book of those 2 famous architects. Towards the end, it's heart touching to read about Herbert's reflection on the day when Marcel handed him a note, wanted him to announce to the firm that he would be retiring thereafter. It's interesting also to read about Richard Meier's beginning in Marcel's firm as well.

5 comments about At Home in Bali.

1. This book has given me many great ideas as we are redoing our outdoor area in Perth, Western Australia & we love the Balinese gardens & building styles.



2. Australian-born landscape designer and architect Made Wijaya (ne Michael White), resident on Bali since 1973, takes us on a private, guided color photo tour of twenty-four exquisite dream dwellings of the rich and famous. This lush pictorial essay displays the diversity, romance, and mystery of Balinese architecture: gorgeous bamboo and coconut wood barn houses, traditional rice storage bungalows, sumptuous estate grounds, water buffalo hide canopies, extravagant plunge pools, modern beachfront compounds hidden away in pandanus thickets, and royal water palaces. The reader's memory fills in the exotic, background atmosphere of dimly lit, shadowy courtyards; languid open-air pavilions; lava stone shrine silhouettes; the night time tinkle of village gamelan music through the thick foliage--and the sweet Asian smell of heat, flowers, and fire.
   The concept of "home" in Bali is the "buana alit," a "small world," or microcosm of the greater world outside: lavish photo after photo transports us inside houses set like precious jewels in sculpted rice fields, rural villages, and isolated mountain eyries. This is where lucky strangers in paradise (painters, anthropologists, celebrities, rock stars, socialites, film makers, architects) have selectively carved out their own individual piece of an island paradise. Wijaya reminds us that the foreigners who came to Bali and fell in love with it designed these magnificent retreats as an extension of and as "an homage to that love." Photographer Ginanneschi uses a crisp, telling juxtaposition of interspliced color and black and white imagery to depict the contrasting spheres of east and west, and of native-born Balinese and their adopted, reborn-as-Balinese neighbors. The exceptional residences of the expatriates are recorded in brilliant splashy color while the everyday lives of the local people are shot in hazy, almost sepia-tone black and white. These muted snapshots capture the busy communal essence of Balinese life: readers are left to marvel at the sea of faces, families, and communities, and the elaborate pageantry of village markets, rituals, and religious ceremonies. For all their splendor and opulence, the glossy Architectural Digest showplaces appear deserted and surreal--compellingly isolated from the vibrant, teeming life swirling all around them. At Home in Bali has great appeal for devotees of fine homes and gardens and architecture buffs (note the Javanese, South Indian, Chinese, Dutch, and Portuguese styles and influences). Tourists to Bali will treasure this book as a special keepsake of the natural (and manmade) beauty they have savored during their eye-opening sojourn to the center of the archipelago.



3. I agree with Mr. Chiu in one of the previous reviews. I was expecting great photography in this type of book, but instead the book is filled with small, grainy, blury pictures. A much better 'Coffee Table' book is 'Tropical Asian Style', in my opinion.



4. I would like to comment on a previous review, on this fine book, as a photographer i am happy to see Isabella Giananneschi work as different from the usual "sharp" "crispy" and predictable images, hers is very expressive and for someone who lives for 6 months in a year in Bali, she was able to capture the mood of the place beautifully. I also believed that she should be credited for bringing her work to a higher level of sophistication.this book is a must buy and 5 stars to the photographer and the author for thier efforts!



5. First my complaints.

   For what I consider to be a coffee table book, the quality of the photographs (on average 1-2 per page), was incredibly poor. They were simply very blurry and not sharp at all.

   The book also doesn't quite know whether it wants to be a book on architecture, interior design or Bali society gossip column. I especially hated the constant name dropping on "so and so" used to be the life of the Bali party scene and how extravagant the parties were (well, I guess that has gone away definitely since the Bali bombings). I don't mind a short blurbs on the owners, but enough is enough.

   Now to the good points.

   The author is a well known and accomplished landscape architect in Bali, so he obviosly knows what he is talking about and what the owner was trying to accomplish in creating these wonderful houses.

   But I think you can get the same thing from other recent books by the same author, which has much sharper and clearer photos.

No comments about Smart Guide: Garages & Carports (Smart Guide).

2 comments about Buildings of Delaware (Buildings of the United States).

1. This book is really well done, it covers all sorts of houses and buildings all over the state of Delaware



2. After a several year hiatus, and a shift from Oxford University Press to the University of Virginia Press, Buildings of the United States returns with this fine entry.
   
   The books in this series are expensive, and let me tell you why. First, they're written by top experts in this particular field, for the use of architectural historians for reference and research. The amount of work that goes into writing and publishing one of these books is enormous, so the prices reflect that fact. Let me be the first to tell you, however, that any of the books in the series, and this one in particular, are endlessly fascinating for serious amateurs as well. That's why I've shelled out the money for more than a few of them. Architecture guides just don't get any better. This series sets the standard.
   
   Little Delaware is like a diamond (to quote Lofland), and art historian W. Barksdale Maynard has compiled a superb collection of important historic and modern sites for this book. Wilmington, Newark, New Castle and Dover all get the extended treatment you would expect, but the author also brings us comprehensive coverage of smaller towns and the rural landscape. There are 450 well-chosen entries here, all supported by interesting brief essays. There are about 250 small monochrome photographs that are adequate but not distinguished, mostly borrowed from other sources. The photography is pragmatic rather than artistic. The author introduces each district and town with a brief descriptive abstract, which includes reference to some of the important structures to which he does not dedicate a specific entry. This is a nice device for expanding the comprehensiveness of the survey. Trust me, you're favorites are here! For those of you who like age, Delaware contains some of the most ancient examples of European-American architecture in the original 13 states. Newark has probably endured the most destruction of its original colonial fabric of all Delaware towns, but there are many more examples across the state. And while Newark has suffered through haphazard development, it contains one of the loveliest public spaces in the country at the University of Delaware.
   
   Keep in mind that this is a selective survey. Wilmington alone has a building stock to support a survey of over 1,000 buildings, so respect and appreciate the author's keen eye for what he believes we will enjoy. He's done a lovely job of selecting important and interesting sites for all tastes.
   
   A true rarity for a book like this, the introductory essay is excellent, and a feature in itself. Don't just flip past it to get to the catalog. Maynard gives us an historical overview, a discussion of the geography and landscape, a description of the built environment, and an overview of important architects working in Delaware.
   
   All this good stuff is framed by sidebars spaced throughout the text on important topics such as the du Pont family and the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
   
   Well constructed in cloth and nice thick-stock paper by UVA Press, this book is proof that the Society of Architectural Historians remains dedicated to this important series.

1 comments about Castles of the Samurai: Power and Beauty.

1. Having bought this book based on the cover and title (with no review or other information posted) I was expecting a coffee table type book with lots of pretty photos and light on the text. It turned out that this book is not your average "jo" (the Japanese suffix used after a castle's name to denote "castle"-Himeji-Jo, Nijo-jo, etc). Happily, while it does have lots of "pretty photos" it also has a solid 42 pages of well written and informative text. The photos are well done, all 50+ full color pages of them. They document all the aspects of the Japanese castle-gates, towers, roofing, gables, outbuildings, doors, stone dropping windows, shooting holes, nail head covers, and of course those impressive sloping stone walls, moats, and keeps with photos of each aspect being grouped for comparison. There are even well done shots of the interiors of various castles, which are somewhat of a rarity. The shots are taken at a nice variety of castles as well, eschewing the easy method of running primarily nothing but shots of the easily accessible castles like Himeji, Osaka, and Matsumoto.
   The text is also well done, with informative, well done diagrams, charts, tables, and terminology. While most English language Japanese castle books focus on the military history of the structures, here they are given their signifigance as works of art and architecture as well. Detailed construction methods are given and illustrated. There are brief sections of the history of the castles and their destruction during the Meiji Restoration and World War II. I found the chart listing Castles, Daimyos, Domains, and Income in the Edo Period particularly valuable along with a table classifying existing castles as to date built, remains, type of keep, original buildings, walls, or keeps, and reconstructions using original materials or concrete. The only place the book comes up short is in the discussion of early castles or yamashiro (mountain castles), but of course there aren't any of these left to photograph. Overall a great job and a welcome addition to the sparse English references on Japanese Castles.

5 comments about Construction Waterproofing Handbook.

1. I bought this thinking since it was a 2008 edition it would be up-to-date on the latest materials and techniques. Not. This is essentially the year 2000 edition and does not address the composite bentonite-hdpe systems that are common today. I was also looking for some technical details on how a bentonite system should work but only a few overview-type comments were in the text.
   
   Most of the drawings are clear and useful, but the black and white photos are small and sometimes hard to discern what is being depicted.
   
   All in all, this book is a useful resource but not worth the high price being charged.
   
   EDIT: On Page 2.58, author states: "Clay swells 10-15 percent of its dry volume under maximum wetting." This is incorrect, should be 10-15 TIMES, not percent. At 10-15 percent, bentonite would not work.



2. This book does not contain much information on wood-framed buildings. It focuses primarily on concrete and masonry structures, with some information on EIFS systems. As an architect, I bought the book as a resource for drawing construction details. I found that the index was hard to use (sparse) and it was difficult to find specific information on certain building transitions (window flashings, for example). I'm sure the book would be helpful to someone looking for information on large-scale commercial waterproofing solutions, or in-depth discussions regarding sealants. I needed a book that was a bit broader in scope.



3. This book could make a waterproofing expert out of anyone! It offers complete and detailed information on every imaginable topic about waterproofing, restoration and even testing for leaks. The best part about the book's structure is that it provides answers and information for the simplest to the most difficult of waterproofing situations. The author has made great use of details from manufacturer's detail drawings and job site photographs to explain how to properly install and inspect waterproofing systems. I got to this page through his web site that even lets you ask questions if the book hasn't answered them - what a GREAT IDEA!



4. While too many other books present only a portion of information on the topic, in this book it is obvious that the author has extensive experience in the field and leaves no topic regarding waterproofing untouched. What makes this book a great resource is ability of the author to associate the text with sufficient detail drawings or photographs for each of the waterproofing areas presented. Waterproofing is not a topic that can be described in words only and this book is the only one that makes sure a reader at any level of knowledge in the waterproofing field can understand the necessary concepts involved. This book has been a great resource for the maintenance work of building management whenever we have a waterproofing related issue arrise. I imagine that if architects or engineers would make better use of such a book in the design phases of a project, buiding owners wouldn't have so many related problems while operating the facility. The chapters on leak repair have saved us many headaches and dollars!



5. This is the first book that offers a complete guide to any waterproofing related subject. Even better it offers a great chapter on finding and resolving leaks when they occcur. THIS CHAPTER IS WORTH THE PRICE OF THE BOOK ITSELF! Anybody in the design, engineering or construciton fields needs this book on their bookshelf. Finally somebody has got this subject right!

4 comments about The Ecological Design Handbook.

1. Excellent collection of essays from different authors/sources covering the ecological design in many aspects. Each chapter is concise and to the point. Both general and practical information is provided. Chapters on the future of eco-design are included. It is also a pleasure to read.



2. This is a good book but readers would be better off getting Permaculture a Designers Manual, by Bill Mollison first, and then use this book as an additional reference for more ideas. as the editorial reveiw says it is an A-Z reference. Permaculture a Designers Manual is a how-to reference which I beleive makes any book more valuable than an A-Z reference and this is the only reason why I am giving this book 3 stars.



3. contents too good to be described



4. contents too good to be described

No comments about Spectacular Homes of Florida (Spectacular Homes).