5 comments about Rustic Retreats: A Build-It-Yourself Guide.

1. I'm glad there are no photos in this book. Get an imagination! The drawings are fun and lively. They also give important aspects of the project that a photo rarely illustrates. Now I know how (in detail) to construct a tipi, or put together a simple door or roof that really would hold up to nature. The primitive shelters section is great. So are the tree houses. Not that all of these projects are practical homes, but now I have ideas for that "fort" in the back acre my kids are bugging me about. Thanks for a great book to just read, or get us outside with a saw and hammer.



2. These are true rustic retreats for adults. Just know this is not for children's tree houses or play houses. These are very rustic retreats, such as a lean-to to use as a nature retreat, or for the shack-like building the size of a garden shed for sleeping in as a weekend getaway,(sans electricity or toilets).

   The one I loved the most was a rustic arbor for grapevines that was basically 4 poles with a semi-roof--for the vines to grow up and over the top to form a roof. The idea of sitting under it with a table and relaxing outdoors was quite tempting. However, where I would get the rustic tree trunks to make this is beyond me (but it looked wonderful).

   There are no photographs. This is not a glitzy-beautiful tempting type of book. It is about the nuts and bolts of really building one of these structures. I suggest browsing this book first to see if there is a structure you are interested in.

   The plans are quite detailed and seem more than adequate to use as building plans.




3. I don't get why you put a beautiful photo on the cover of your book and all 2nd rate hand drawn pictues inside. It's deceptive! Won't help you with Country Home ideas. Maybe good for a kids Fort or a Bowhunting stand...



4. For anyone with space enough, but without the money to build on it, this book has so many answers. It has line drawings on almost every page and is pure delight to read and dream over.



5. Straightforward instructions and beautiful, informative drawings will help you build dozens of great back-country shelters. Designs include sheds, arbors, lean-tos, huts, cabins, tree houses and even a design for a floating cabin.

5 comments about Modern Architecture Since 1900.

1. Nothing to review as you were unable to provide me with a copy of the product selected. Apparently it was out of stock. But you did provide the name of another book that I might like. Unfortunately it was for a text and that suggestion ws useless.



2. I am an architecture major and an architecture history minor. I love both fields, and I made 100 in the class that used this book. Take this review legitimately.
   
   I can go on to the academic approach to this review and tell you how this book is the best thing ever since the invention of electricity, but I won't.
   
   I am telling you this from a student's point of view, and I had to drag myself through a large majority of this book's chapters.
   
   As fairly wide-reaching as this book is with a wealth of information, this is one of the most boring reads I ever encountered, up there with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Quite frankly, I would rather drop everything right now and fly to London to drink some Earl Grey tea and choke on some exceptionally dry scones while chatting to a man in the Days of Yore curly wig and a white face of arsenic than ever have to read this book again.
   
   The only reason I would ever purchase this book (besides class) is to use it as reference.
   
   It is not a fun leisure read and it is drier than a martini with dust on it.
   
   You've been warned.



3. It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, task to write a review on
   Mr. Curtis's book on Modern architecture. Scope of time/space/subject
   is just so wide and deep to write down on a single page.
   
   However, the reason why this book stands out is that Mr. Curtis's
   writings are based on first hand experience of actual buildings.
   One can easily grasp that because he points out nitty-gritty aspects of
   Unique construction process and its critical position as "A"rchitecture.
   
   What impressed me personally was his stance on the tectonics of structure.
   He gives more credit (or may be it's just my reading of him) on the "visual structure"
   Than "actual structure." Issues of veiling, hence, comes to the foreground.
   Given his on-going interests in Spanish architects and his recent interviews and essays in
   El Croquis, it comes as no surprise.
   
   Mr. Curtis is extremely objective and logical in his analysis and his subject
   matter. However, what makes his book extremely tantalizing to read
   is that he takes a position that architecture could be more than just a composition of
   materials. Architecture should tell more than just its story. The intervention of the materiality and
   anti-gravitational nature of higher order puts architecture on a higher dimension
   
   Moreover, through the struggle between architect and client, and through
   The clash of public wantings and ambition of an architect,
   there is a moment that uplifts normative expression of construction
   into a higher and symbolic level. This sort of revealing of invisible or pervasive metaphors
   are ultimately achievable only through accuracy and precision
   
   This is only one aspect of the book. Grab it, you'll know what I mean.



4. Excellente Review of the History of Modern Architecture. Brief analisys on every condition that certainly had an influence in modernity.



5. This is the kind of book I found stimulating before I went to architecture school. Curtis seems to argue that composition, tectonics, personal triumph, modernist orthodoxy and mythos are the big ingredients of 20th Century architecture. As if you can't make junky architecture from that recipe, and the damage from those ideas isn't all around us. Any "Uncomplicated" reading (to me) is non-compelling, but I guess that's what surveys are. I'll be damned if I can tell you what Curtis' overall thrust or polemic is, beyond "Modern Architecture is neat." Social responsibility and political meaning are pretty much missing here. No matter how much I read it, nothing sticks. The design is nice, which is what I suspect people are reviewing here.

5 comments about Ceramic Houses and Earth Architecture: How to Build Your Own.

1. It's important to understand that what is truly new and fresh can't be responsibly reduced to a cookbook. Building a house is a major undertaking, and different parts of the earth have different climates, different needs, and different earth underfoot to build from.
   
   Khalili inspires his readers to think more openly, he urges experimentation while sharing what is known. His buildings are gorgeous, with an openness and simplicity that inspires us to question the standard boxes most of us live in.
   
   Also inspirational is his obvious deep humanity; his love for both building AND people has enabled him to leave the usual paths and use the best qualities of the old, while infusing it with modern understanding to create wonderful new, achievable designs. I am awed. I've read this book twice, I'm building the models he recommends so I can more fully understand the structures of arch and domes, and hope to take his workshop next summer.
   
   This is life affirming as well as life-changing.



2. This is a great book. I haven't read it page for page yet, but in it goes with my favourites. It concentrates on Khalili's monolithic fired ceramic houses and has a lot of detail. It leaves no stones unturned if you want a building of this type.
   
   Sadly, the book was published before Khalili invented Superadobe or Earth Bag building. For a good book on Earthbag, I recommend "Earthbag Building: The Tools, Tricks and Techniques"
   by Kaki Hunter. Another book - which is more general is "Alternative Construction; Contemporary Natural Building Methods" by Lynne Elisabeth and Cassandra Adams.



3. awesome resource and "how-to" book for those interested in this earth friendly type of architecture



4. The author is obviously a person of great vision and enormous generosity of spirit. The book is very good, and I hope that a rating of three stars isn't some insult where no insult is deserved. I was very disappointed because I expected a serious discussion of superadobe techniques, which I regard as possibly more practical than the ceramic constructions. The book has only seven pages treating superadobe. Those are pasted as an afterthought, right at the end. They don't constitute a detailed and serious discussion. As much information can be found on the calearth.org web site. So, I felt that the advertisements of the book were a little misleading.

   The book itself is an education on classical earth construction and the improvement produced by firing it. As a person unfamiliar with architecture and construction, I had hoped to find something like a cookbook. Just tell me how to build a nice house easily, and I'd be happy to do it. Part of the education is to realize that things aren't quite so simple. Many issues arise, and, at the time of its writing, not all of them are well understood or totally settled. In particular, the details of firing a house into its ceramic status is not only explained in a partial way, but clearly more work is required to get a full understanding. The author could successfully fire houses himself, but the process was not reduced, at this writing, to entirely simple formulas for the use of lay persons. In that sense, each person working from the book would need to take on some considerable personal responsibility. It might not all work correctly. Consequently, I don't consider this book to be an especially good guide for a novice or amateur builder. That doesn't mean it isn't worth reading. However, I wouldn't read it, put up my own dome adobe house, and then sit down for tea underneath my own dome. The thing would probably fall in.




5. If ever a book was inspired by compassion for earthquake victims, this is it. Aware of the bitter experience of Middle East peoples with seismic disasters, architect Nader Khalili pulls together what works in those same cultures to show how we can build affordable housing that will survive major earthquakes.

   Key principles: Use the earth (clay) underfoot as your building material. Spare the forests and watersheds.

   Use simple human-scale building elements, like bricks or sandbags that ordinary people can stack by hand.

   Use the arch, dome, and vault. These architectural forms work where post and beam timbers are not available. They are seismically stable. They are not subject to the gravitational loads that make flat roofs cave in over time. They make climatically comfortable spaces with sun and shade surfaces that circulate hot and cool air appropriately.

   Fire the clay structure to make it a strong unitary enclosure, like an inverted teacup. It will slide safely over seismically moving earth.

   Ceramic Houses - and Khalili's work generally - offers a timely recipe for new development and rebuilding in seismically active areas like the Middle East, and, take note, California. It's no accident that Khalili's prototype structures have been built and approved by local authorities in Hesperia, CA.

   Nader Khalili brings together the clay and earth underfoot, the architectural vocabulary of arch, dome, and vault, and simple building technques that ordinary people can use to build seismically safe, comfortable, inexpensive, and beautiful houses.

4 comments about Great Streets.

1. i love the drawing styles and methods presented in this book. i recommend it for anybody who loves buildings and great streets of our world.



2. This wonderful book consideres the civic street from many perspecitives and describes it with poetic attention. The author has spent days on these great streets and brings careful measurement and observation to his carefully crafted text. If everyone planning streets and highways in America read this book and visited one of two of these great streets, it would enable a huge improvement.

   This book studies the street not from the simple American perspecitve of high velocity traffic sewar, but from the realities of a place to hang out. eat lunch, shop, socialize, people watch, court, celebrate and be. The read how these places work in this book is to realize how much our desperate focus on the automobile costs us.

   Buy this book and photocopy some of its illustrations for your next public hearing on town planning.




3. This is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the study of urbanism.



4. ...this is a reference book in the sense that it mentions so many important and peculiar streets in the world, many of which, I'm sure, you've heard about or possibly even visited. Mr. Jacobs' accounts of his own travels and his feelings while strolling down those streets could even put this book in the travel journal caegory, complete with beautiful sketches by the author himself. Not only the sketches, but the technical and historical information, (like street dimensions, the schematic comparison of several different city plans worlwide and the decline of once great streets) establish this book as a constant source of information for Architects and Urban Planners, as well as students.

   I could clearly recognize the Traveler, the Urban Scholar and the Artist in Mr. Jacobs as I took a stroll down these great streets through the drawings and heartfelt passages of his book.

No comments about Private Views: Inside the World's Greatest Homes (Architectural Digest).

5 comments about The Straw Bale House (A Real Goods Independent Living Book).

1. For someone who knew nothing about straw bale construction this book was not only informative, but also inspiring. The Straw Bale House contains a lot of good information about the specifics of straw bale construction. I found that because it covered information about straw bale construction from start to finish it couldn't go into as much detail about any one aspect as much as I would have liked. However, my feeling is that this book was designed to get you interested and then send you out to gather the more specific information for yourself. It has proven effective at inspiring me.



2. This is a must have. If you are totally new (as I was) then this book will give you a good solid understanding of the pros and cons of strawbale construction. It is obvious that the authors know what they are talking about.

   If you are vaguely interested in SB and haven't got this one you're really missing out.

   Thanks Steen Steen and Bainbridge for this wonderful contribution.




3. The Steens have written two books on this subject, this one from 1994, is the most informative as far as actual construction information goes. I would say that if you think you might want to actually build a straw home get this book and their second book,The Beauty of Straw Bale Homes(from 2000). After reading these books you'll need more information both about straw bale work and other construction and carpentry books, Amazon has a selection of those.



4. This book would seem to be an indispensible starting point for anyone looking into the straw bale home concept. If the thought of a poorly-insulated, energy-guzzling, expensive, bland, mass-produced, contractor-built home doesn't quite appeal to you, this book is essential, for it shows that inexpensive doesn't have to mean low quality nor unattractive. In fact, bales and other "natural", low-cost building materials can yield attractively individual results in part because they are easy and fun to work with, enfranchising the future owner to be his or her own designer and builder. The inspiring photos included in the book help make the case for the aesthetic advantages. Of course, the most important function is to show how to build the straw bale home. In this respect, the book succeeds admirably, giving diagrams to illustrate the major techniques being used and showing how simple straw bale building is. Incidentally, this would make an attractive book for your coffee table even if you are just mildly interested in the subject. One warning though: even including the index and other back-of-the-book sections, there are only 297 pages, not 336!



5. I must admit being fairly sceptical about straw bale construction until I read this book...

   The style is very assessible and the content is thorough, interesting and informative. Just about every angle is covered in depth without being overly technical.

   Includes useful covereage of many associated areas, such as rammed earth, adobe and passive solar issues.

   An inspirational read for whether you are a dreamer or seriously intent on buiding your own house!

5 comments about Versailles.

1. This book was absolutely gorgeous - arrived quickly and the price was right! Good job Amazon - as usual!!



2. Truth be told, and I am a hard-core Versailles-o-phile, this book left much to be desired in the history department. What, no reproductions of the Enfants de France? And where's Marie Therese? The binding was superior to what I'd been lead to believe by other reviews. Overall, an adequate addition to a casual collection of the Chateau de Versailles.



3. What an amazing book, it is nothing short of spectacular. The pictures are vivid and the book quality is of the highest caliber. The other reviewer was correct in noting that the reader has to been careful with this book, the pages are so heavy that it will pull from the binding if you are not careful when positioning the book. I have always had a facination with Versailles and this book really captures the chateaux, it makes you feel like you are stolling the gardens and taking in the sumptuous wonders of the palace. Unlike other books on Versailles this one is complete, it covers everything and in striking detail. I urge anyone with any interest in Versailles to buy this book, even used at 200 U.S., it is a bargain. I assure you you will not be disappointed in this book.



4. Five stars PLUS! I have a new edition and it is very well bound - no need to worry about it falling apart! If you've ever been to Versailles this book will mist you up! If you're planning a return trip this book will be your bible... It is amazing how inexpensive this book is when you consider the spectacular colour photos.



5. This is THE BEST book there is on Versailles (which is probably why its normally a hundred bucks!) There is only one problem I have ever had with the book and that is the poor physical quality. I had to order it twice because my first copy fell completely apart within a few weeks. Needless to say I was not happy at all when that happened. Every copy that I have seen (in libraries, other bookstores) has the same problem. Normally, I would not have tried again after that, but I HAD to have this book. My second one has also begun to separate from the binding, so I rarely read it... but when I do, I use **EXTREME** care. I think the main reason for this is the size and weight of the book, so if you decide to purchase it, keep that in mind. I recommend turning the pages *slowly* and not leaving it completely flat and/or open for any long period of time. Also, store it horizontally, NOT vertically... the pages are so heavy, they will end up tearing themselves out!

5 comments about The Complete Book of Home Inspection.

1. This book was actually written by the man who founded the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI). Great information.



2. This home inspection book is an excellent collection of knowledge from a very accomplished licensed professional engineer who is also a home inspector. The book covers a wide variety of topics in a very thorough manner and allows the reader to not feel overwhelmed if they have to inspect a home. A good approach for using this book is to go through the home to see if you like the home. As you go through, note what type of systems are in place (oil furnace, gas hot water heater, etc.). Then read the book to provide some background to better prepare yourself to understand what you see when you inspect the home.
   The guy did an excellent job of communicating his years of knowledge into a useful book. If you're going to do your own home inspection, this book should be read. I'm also an engineer and home inspector. It took me years to learn what is compiled in this book.



3. this book covers all the topics on home inspection, and its material is ok. except that there is no color pictures, all the photographs are black and white, some of them could be barely seen. that put me off a bit.



4. If you are looking for a book that will teach you a lot about real estate and home inspections then this is not the book for you. The chapter information and text content of this book was very basic and did not teach me anything I didn't already learn from other books that were much better. Inspecting homes is something I have done for many years and I would not recommend this book to any customers or contractors. If you know absolutely nothing about real estate then you might learn a few things but not too much.



5. We have a home inspection business and I read many books on real estate topics. This book was OK but certainly not worth recommending to our inspection clients. Some of the topics discussed are irrelevant to home inspections - such as mold! There were many topics lacking in the amount of information the author provided. Maybe if you don't know anything about houses or construction you might learn a little bit from this book. If you have a novice level of knowledge about house inspections then you should buy a different book since this book won't teach you anything new.

2 comments about Print Reading for Construction: Residential and Commercial : Write-In Text With 116 Large Prints.

1. This book shows all aspects of print reading. It can help take away the brain freeze many people get when they look at a set of prints for the first time. However, there is no better practice than to consistently read prints in the field, since many prints still are not written in the same formats and structure.



2. I have been teaching print reading for over 4 years, & this is my required text. Print Reading for Construction is written in a very plain English style and works very well in diverse classroom settings. In addition, this text provides a great deal of sample building plans for sharpening your skills.

No comments about Retaining Walls: A Building Guide and Design Gallery.