3 comments about Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture (Dover Books on Architecture).

1. A fabulously entertaining book, chock full of info found on sites in the 20's before sites were reconstructed. A "keeper" for the Egyptophile who wants some in-depth info...definitely not a book for casual reading.



2. Clarke and Englebach are very well versed in typical accepted means of architecture in Ancient Egypt. Though without color Photos this book has many illustrations which do in some cases help you get a sense of the immensity of some of the projects the ancients undertook. One particularly striking section refers to an unfinished granite obelisk at Aswan. The time involved in such a project is staggaring. They do a good job summing up what the committees on Ancient Egypt have all decided is the norm but advance no further, putting in very few original thoughts. The book is also seventy years old, so many of the unexcavated sites they refer to have now in fact been excavated. The authors go out of their way on several occasions to assure the reader that "pyramid cranks" should be disregarded in all forms. They however fail to explain why. Their persistant knocking of the so called pyramid cranks becomes rather annoying because whenever there is a mystery the authors waste no time in assuring us that these cranks are wrong, even if no one knows who is right, the authors don't even venture theory in many cases. But don't get me wrong, this is a good book and will help anyone get aquainted with how most structures were built and what methods they used for quarrying and so forth. Unfortunately again, whenever there is an unanswered question, Clarke and Englebach seem more ready to spout rhetoric rather than entertain any original thought. I really recommend this book even if I have some complaints because as far as actual documentation of construction, this book does go a long way.



3. This book is rated the classic reference on Ancient Egyptian building techniques. It covers all aspects of construction from mathematical procedures to the ways the Ancient Egyptians drilled granite and other hard stones. Various buildings and pyramids are picked out as examples for diverse techniques as well as for the purpose of providing insight into how they were built. Although getting out of date with more information having been gathered during the past 60-odd years, it is well worth reading and having as a handy reference.

2 comments about The Illustrated Book of Housebuilding and Carpentry.

1. I purchased this book to learn the details of quality home construction. I do not plan on building a home myself, but I am interested in how my home is constructed. This book is extremely well-written, and explains the entire process from digging the hole for the foundation to interior trim. Sticky points are discussed, as are tricks for speed, efficiency, and build quality. Quite simply, this is nothing short of a home construction encyclopedia. Armed with tools, inginuity, and a good strong back, one could use this book as a primary reference for home construction. Highly recommended.



2. I found this title outstanding.

   After reading my fathers copy of Mr Blackburn's "Illustrated Basic Carpentry" (1976), my first search and purchase at Amazon in September 1998 (Amazon only sold books at that time! ) included this book.

   I was completely satisfied, it included actual topics like the basement construction, Electrical Wiring details I didn't expect to find. This was a finding because his first book I read was completely traditional carpentry and now he was treating "modern" subjects.

   Still, tips and stories on American traditional house building are nicely treated with tales like Mason trick to ensure payment after their job was done.

   Beautifully hand illustrated by the author, with clear explanations as in "Illustrated Basic Carpentry", there is also a nice reproduction on carpentry I didn't expect just at the beginning of the carpentry section, a 1548 representation.

   Recently I had the chance to show this particular book to an experienced American architect who conducts restoration mostly on public buildings in USA and his word were the title of this comment: An Art Job.

   After this nice encounter I also bought " Traditional Woodworking Hand tools", Furniture by Design" and Year -round house care" by this same author, Mr Graham Blackburn.

   Actually I'm expecting the delivery of his "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ships, Boats, Vessels and Other Water-Borne Craft" which after reading it, and finding it includes what I expect to, I am sure I will choose to be an excellent gift for my cousin-in-law Harriet, who's actually studying to become a US Naval Officer.

   I hope you enjoy your purchase and Amazon as much as I have!

   Sincerely,

   Eudoro.

3 comments about The Vanishing American Outhouse.

1. I bought this book when it came out as a gift for my father's birthday, he always talked about the outhouse outside his school, from when he was growing up.
   
   The book is humorous, but also a very interesting, and a touching look back at a different time in our history. My father got a kick out of it, but really, everybody that picked it up to thumb through it, couldn't put it down.



2. Privy plans, photos, poetry and folklore are collected in The Vanishing American Outhouse, an intriguing memoir of an early American fixture, the outhouse. Many photos are in full color and accompanying details cover construction, changes in design and features, and still-standing antiques around the country. A unique, fun guide.



3. No, seriously. Very humerous, very cute book. Great for history buffs. Makes at great gift, I enjoyed it immensely.

2 comments about Stores and Retail Spaces 6.

1. Bought this and the Visual Merchandising book from the same publishers. Not much useful information here. These very basic overviews of dated store designs would only be useful to a complete novice.
   
   If you are a retail designer you are better off going to your local mall and using your own powers of observation.



2. This collection features interior store designs, judged for excellence in store planning, visual merchandising, innovation, graphics and lighting design. Full-color photos and detailed captions of these 43 leading-edge establishments capture a large range of retail spaces.
   
   The stores that have been selected for inclusion in this book range from South Korea (a full-line department store), to the Victoria's Secret in Troy, Michigan, a specialty food shop in Australia, a supermarket in Mexico, to a new look at Harrods in London.
   
   As with other arcitecture picture books, this is a book to give you ideas about the design of stores that will attract prospects and turn them into customers. The stores themselves vary from free standing buildings to spaces within malls. While these stores are pretty, the overall function of the store is not forgotten.

4 comments about The New American House 3.

1. As with everything else from this author, it is just a collection of pretty pictures, with absolutely no detail on materials and construction techniques. There is a reason his books are so cheap.



2. Make no mistake, TNAH3 is beautiful. I loved the photos, especially of the interiors of the homes. However the floor plans are very difficult to read:

   - numbers corresponding to a legend, and not words or obvious icons (like say a table and 4 chairs to indicate a dining room) are used for each room

   - it is hard to tell with some of the larger designs what is interior or exterior, what's a wall versus a fence

   - dimensions are not provided for either the rooms or the overall structure




3. "The New American House 3: Innovations in Residential Design and Construction" is truly a monumental resource for those interested in home architecture. Editors James Grayson Trulove and Il Kim have assembled 30 case studies of homes built between 1996 and 2000. The homes range from a 2,200 square foot residence to mansions of 10,000 and 12,800 square feet. The houses come from locations all over the United States: Lovell, Maine; Duluth, Minnesota; Fayettevile, Arkansas; Seattle, Washington; Tucson, Arizona and many other places.

   Each case study includes detailed, eye-friendly floor plans, as well as many full-color photographs (both exterior and interior). Other features found in many of the case studies include cross sections, detailed elevations, axonometric drawings, site plans, and other visual supplements. Also included are descriptions of materials used in construction.

   Although the houses represent a range of design approaches, the overall flavor strikes me as modern. Some of the many highlights include the daring cantilevered elements of the Nomentana Residence; the "Y" House (shaped, unsurprisingly, like the letter "Y"); the Emerson Residence, which beautifully blends traditional-looking shingled gables with some innovative elements; the Townsend Residence, a fantastic, flowing series of interconnected circles and curves; and Ledge House, with its striking blend of rough-looking logs and stone. These are just a few of the amazing sights in this book. I recommend "NAH3" with great enthusiasm.




4. This book contains some really good work. The previous books had a few projects here and there, but this one is pretty consistent on the quality of design. I especially like the number of projects from Arizona. (Dessert architecture out there is up and coming.)

   As said before, I love these books because of the inclusion of key building details and the neccessary drawings to "see" the work past just the flashy photographs. Once again, I recommend the books in this series for someone interested in contemporary residential design, and for the designer who might need some ideas to get "un-stuck." I like to use them as visual aids to clients, also.

5 comments about Habitat for Humanity How to Build a House.

1. Even if you're not building homes for Habitat for Humanity, the processes, hints and reference material from this book will help you build your own, add on or simply unravel the confusion of house building. I DO work for Habitat for Humanity and this book has been by my side for 8 of my 15 builds. It's one of the three references that I recommend to any of my new project leads. It's geared for the inexperienced volunteer not the professional. Don't build a home without it.



2. As a shop teacher I looked forward to receiving this book both from a practical sense, but also from a academic sense.
   
   You could practically build or do a remodel of an existing home with this book. Nice step-by-step processes and with good supporting pictures.
   
   There is information for the season contractor, builder as well as superb information for a 1st timer.
   
   With some basic building and tool knowledge a person could build a simple building or at the least be informed as to how to guide others in the process.
   
   Highly recommend



3. Excellent book to help beginners understand to 'How Tos" of house building.



4. This soft-covered manual provides a remarkably concise overview of the elements of home building from A to Z. I have been a weekly construction volunteer with Habitat for 5 1/2 years, so this book is particularly appropriate and useful. Don't expect any coverage of plumbing or electrical work, but the remaining trades are very well done. Foundations, floor systems, walls and roofs are all covered, explained well, and accompanied by good pictures. For non-Habitat purposes, there are ample applications that can benefit from this book. These would include shed construction, decks, door and sindow installations, etc. There are many other books that deal directly with projects such as decks, but this text is definitely helpful as an overview of home construction.



5. I am a complete novice and therefore I have looked at many books. Three things stood out about this book that I did not see anywhere else:
   1. It has a cookbook approach. After looking at other books I was not completely clear when in time to do what task. This book arranges all the tasks in the chronological order. That facilitated for grasping the whole process mentally before beginning to build.
   2. This book is exceptionally lucid, it is written in an unhurried language. The author has a gift for explanation.
   3. Finally, this book is inspirational. It is more than a house building it aims to teach - it teaches building a home as a small step toward betterment of the world.

4 comments about Naturally Modern: Creating Interiors with Wood, Leather, Stone, and Natural Fabrics.

1. This book is helpful if you want to know how to use and care for natural materials in and oustside the home. There were some good photos featuring modern interiors but not very many photos relating to modern retro, as I had hoped for. I would recomend this book to anyone wanting ideas on using different types of natural materials for their home.



2. Naturally Modern: Creating Interiors With Wood, Leather, Stone, And Natural Fabrics is a practical how-to guide for creating handsome, functional home interiors using natural materials including wood, leather, stone, as well as textiles such as cotton, linen, and wool. Design writer Ros Shaw's "reader friendly", informative, and occasionally inspiring text is enhanced with 250 photographs of contemporary American, European, and Asian rooms that offer concepts and appearances that are beyond the vagaries of short-term fads and transient fashions. Highly recommended reading for the novice homeowner as well as the experienced interior designer, Naturally Modern is a welcome and invaluable contribution to any personal, professional, and community library interior design reference book collection.



3. This books explores ways in which we can substitute man-made materials for those that are found in nature, offering the reasons why nature is almost alwasy best. The book is aimed towards a contemporary design oriented audience, but the ideas can be adjusted to fit most decors. Beautifully photographed and well written, this book is a great addition to any design library.



4. A fantastic book. Provides lots of information of the various materials and textures and information on how the materials are processed and how to maintain them. Features unique products and accessories like calfskin chessboard and leather tiles.

1 comments about Corrugated Iron: Building on the Frontier.

1. An anonymous writer in 1833 called the public's attention to an architectural novelty that had appeared on the London docks: "Every observing person, on passing by it, cannot fail being struck... with its elegance and simplicity." What had brought this praise was the world's first building incorporating corrugated iron. One might think that the novelty of corrugated iron had surely led the writer into effusion about a subject otherwise unlikely to bring praise. And one might also think that a history of corrugated iron is one of the more unlikely subjects to be brought out in a colorful coffee-table book. There are many surprises in Corrugated Iron: Building on the Frontier (W. W. Norton & Company) by Adam Mornement and Simon Holloway, architectural historians who are enthusiasts for a material that provides shelter for millions and also is being used in upscale modern buildings with surprisingly beautiful effect. The authors say that corrugated iron has met diverse challenges of affordability, portability, utility, and strength, "but despite its many virtues, corrugated iron's contribution to society has rarely been acknowledged." Corrugated iron is everywhere, and because of this it has become invisible; this book is a handsome corrective to bring it back into view.
   
   Corrugated iron was invented by Henry Robinson Palmer, Architect and Engineer to the London Dock Company, in 1829. He foresaw that the material could be used both as cladding upon an architectural framework and arched to make free-standing spans for roofing. Corrugated iron had advantages that innovative architects could use. The brilliant engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel adopted it early, and designed London's Paddington Station to be roofed in the material, with the corrugations running horizontally. There are no tie rods and no longitudinal beams between the rafters, because the corrugations in the roof provide tensile strength. Corrugated iron was used on lighthouses, whaling stations, and agricultural buildings. Prefabricated houses were designed with corrugated iron roofs and walls, and there are many illustrations here from catalogues from which people ordered such houses. Here also are pictures of the houses themselves, many of which are still being used. Most corrugated iron dwellings, however, were meant to be relatively temporary structures. Gold rushes in America, Australia, and South Africa proved to be workshops for such use, when living in tents was just too temporary a housing solution. There is a whole chapter here on churches made from corrugated iron, showing many of them of rural simplicity, but others with some Gothic splendor. Corrugated metal was not restricted to buildings; it was used to build boats, and the World War I Junker aircraft of Germany had wings of corrugated aluminum.
   
   Corrugated iron will never escape completely its association with poverty. There are plenty of pictures here of shantytowns from all over the world, where corrugated iron is an architectural staple for improvised homes. There are other pictures of Nissan huts (the American version was the Quonset hut) used for wartime dwellings, and Buckminster Fuller used corrugated iron in a low-cost circular house called the Dymaxion Deployment Unit. The many pictures in the book's final chapter, though, show that corrugated metal has a place in the cladding of skyscrapers or in the homes of millionaires. Frank Gehry, for instance, has used it, and many of the modern buildings shown here are housed in huge loops or barrel forms of the material. It is used not only for its capacity to support and protect, but also as a sort of architectural sculpture. Many of the new and innovative buildings made from corrugated metal are from Australia, which has drawn on a tradition of using corrugated iron in the gold fields; there is no chance that these handsome, large houses of whimsical shape are going to be mistaken for shanties or for mobile homes. Corrugated iron is one of the most-used inventions humans have come up with, and paupers and tycoons are all taking advantage of it. Here is an intriguing history, full of colorful pictures, of an important architectural tool.

5 comments about The Art of the Stonemason.

1. This is an excellent book, a stonemason myself, it really does give a true insight of the art or skill involved in stonemasonary. The illustration are excellent, with several cross sections to show the reader how stone walls are built.



2. I became interested in the art of stone masonry a couple of years ago. This book is by far the most excellent one I have seen, and I have researched back as far as the 1870's. Mr. Cramb is definitely an artisan beyond compare.
   
   If for aesthetic value alone, this book would be worth every penny.



3. As I am the son of the author,and also the stonemason who's work is featured in some of the pictures in the book ,I have to give the book the highest rating possible.I know my father spent at least 10 years drafting , planning and trying to find a publisher, and now that the book is out of print it is astounding to see how much its value has increased.I have the original drawings my father made (all framed of course) and also the original draft and photos that are featured in the book. I am very proud to have been a small part in what was a very succesful publication.Maybe one day I'll write a sequel !! might call it "the craft of the stonemason",but thats something I'll have to sit down and think about.



4. The author provides hard and fast do's and don'ts derived from his experience of many years. If you want to learn how to build a traditional mortared stone wall this is the best book around. With or without the color photos, buy it.



5. Another good book on traditional stone masonry. I wish there was some some colour photos in it. It does have some information that is not found in other stone mason books. Add it to your Stone Masonry library.

3 comments about Construction Contracting, 6th Edition.

1. Although not an easy read, this book makes an excellent reference. It covers just about anything you would want to know and in detail. I would recommend it to anyone just starting out in the construction industry.



2. Valueable & Worst for gaining Contractual Knowledge



3. This book is a legendary classic in the field of general construction and is a must for personnel involved in construction management, general contracting and professional consulting. It covers all aspects of construction from company organization, estimating, field procedures, cost control, changes, punchlist, claims, labor relations and safety. The appendix contains reference standard documents and contract boilerplate from the AIA, AGC and others. It would take 20 years of work in the construction field to obtain the knowledge that this book can help to provide. This text is a must for all construction professionals.