1 comments about Building Type Basics for Places of Worship (Building Type Basics).

1. A useful primer for anyone involved in the design of places of worship. Covers a wide range of design considerations and uses sophisticated examples.

1 comments about Cloister Cats.

1. Knowing Richard Surman's work from his four previous books, I was looking forward to receiving this latest in the series. I was not disappointed. This picture book (fine photos) with accompanying commentary is an excellent addition to Surman's previous books each showing felines associated with various sacred and secular institutions throughout England.

1 comments about Northwest Victorians (Beautiful America).

1. What a great find. We were visiting a friends B&B and she had this book sitting on the coffee table so I started flipping through the pages looking at all the houses, and then I turned the page and there was our house! The William G White house in Olympia, WA It is now the Swantown Inn Bed & Breakfast. The book is a great resource of local Victorian homes, and has come in handy while we look at paint schemes for when we repaint, knowing that the house was yellow at one point and what it looked like is just a plus!

2 comments about Contemporary Natural.

1. I have alot of books on interior design and style. This is the one I would grab if my house was on fire. If I could crawl in between the pages, I'd take up permanent residence there. This is mostly a picture book. There's little text but tons of awesome photos that speak volumes. I give it my highest recommendation. Spend the money.You won't be disappointed.



2. the natural materials inspired homes of many creative artists around the world - this is a beautifully photographed book of the talents of many people who use natural materials & forms as their medium to express themselves in their own surroundings - absolutely one of my favorite design books !!...

No comments about The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus: Volume 1, A-K (excluding Acre and Jerusalem) (The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem).

4 comments about The Four Books on Architecture.

1. I'would recommend this book to anybody who's searching for something real classical architectural mold or old type building design! #1



2. One of the most celebrated and influential of architectural texts has been republished in a highly readable version by Robert Tavernor and Richard Schofield (the first new English translation since 1738!) with facsimiles of Palladio's woodcuts, correctly placed in the text. It makes a wonderful introduction to the timeless principles of architecture and to Palladio's dazzling oeuvre. How agreeable it would be to browse this classic in the shade of the Villa Rotunda on a hot summer afternoon. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)



3. Palladio was not the first to publish a book illustrating principles of classical architecture but he was the most convincing. Palladio's finely detailed, measured wood cut illustration --reproduced at a slightly smaller scale in this translation--, made the long lost principles of Roman architecture and construction easy to understand.

   In his Four Books of Architecture of 1570, Andrea Palladio balanced illustrations of ancient Roman construction, that he had drawn from observing ruins, with brief, straightforward practical interpretations of historical descriptions of Roman architectural design and construction from Vitruvius's First Century BC Treatise on Roman And Greek architecture, which had been found a century before in a Swiss monastery. To this treatise on Roman architecture, Palladio added examples of his own imaginative designs to demonstrate how ancient principles of engineering, planning, construction and decoration could enhance public and private buildings of his day.

   Palladio's successful Four Books were published and translated many times. They became one of the most cited references for architects in the West, where they dominated architectural studies until academic training for architects became standard in the 19th century. Variations on Palladio's designs are everywhere. Thomas Jefferson's house, Montecello, is one of the best known examples in the U.S.. Jefferson owned a copy of Palladio's 1570 edition of the Four Books.

   Robert Tavernor and Richard Schofield's well written, carefully annotated scholarly, 1997 translation of Palladio's Four Books --the first new English translation since 1738-- from MIT Press is a pleasure to read for what it reveals much about both great principles and fine detail of classical design and construction practices. The text explains how Palladio organized rooms in urban palaces as well as how he arranged living, storage and work areas in his rural villas to take advantage of the climate. Practical details about construction include building foundations, sizing windows, designing classical columns as well as instructions for to selecting and harvesting timber: Cut trees only in the fall after the sap has run out. Cure the lumber, covered with excrement, under a shelter for two years to prevent rot.

   The text also details how to quarry, cut and set stone --always in place--, how to prepare cement, mortar and concrete and how to build masonry formed concrete walls, as the Romans did. The reinforced masonry used today is the same in principle as Roman walls. We have merely modified the pratice in this century with larger hollow bricks, Portland cement and steel reinforcing.

   It's not possible to understand Roman and modern architectural history in the West or building technology with without studying Palladio. Original editions of Palladio's 1570 book are available in a few rare book libraries. Occasionally a copy turns up in rare book auctions. Robert Tavernor's new English translation of the Four Books makes Palladio accessible to modern English readers.




4. This is one of the most important of architectural manuals. Palladio's influence was enormous; one magnificent example of American Palladianism is Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia Library; others can be found in the work of Philip Johnson. The design of The Four Books of Architecture is one of the reasons for this success. Drawings and plans fill the page, comments are sparing, invitations to use the eye and imagination as well as practical instructions. In this respect Palladio's book resembles that of the equally influential, equally visionary Paul Klee in his Pedagogical Sketchbooks. Seeing so much of his influence in public buildings, it is hard not to find the original sourcebook refreshing. I'd suggest looking through it alongside a general survey of the buildings themselves, like translator Robert Tavernor's Palladio and Palladianism (in Thames and Hudson's World of Art series). Tavernor has done his job very well. The english translation is neither anachronistic nor colloquial, but as lucid as the original. The book's designers have really done brilliantly in finding the most suitable typefaces to match Palladio's original woodcuts and in choosing a size and format, down to the weight and colour of the paper, that makes these ideas handsome and vivid now. An exemplary edition. Richard Bernas.

No comments about Shanghai Architecture & Design.

2 comments about California Crazy and Beyond: Roadside Vernacular Architecture.

1. I bought this book when it first came out in 1980 and I recently noticed that a new addition was available. Well worth getting too, more pages, extra subjects (cars for instance) updated bibliography and a sparkling new layout. Author Heimann feels that architectural historian David Gebhard's term 'Programatic' does not quite capture the flavor of these buildings, I propose calling them FUNTECTURE.
   
   A new chapter, not in the original book, is 'Current Condition' which has twenty-two photos, in color, of buildings now standing and they all look very smart and well cared for but wait till you see the photo on page 169, this shows the amazing headquarters of the Longaberger company in Newark, Ohio, famous for making baskets and that is exactly what the building looks like, seven stories high with two carrying handles reaching up to the sky...only in America! You can see and read about this lovely bit of whimsy on their website.
   
   You will really enjoy this book if you are a fan of roadside America, especially if you have lived in California and maybe remember some of the weird buildings that are no longer around.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



2. This book is a must-have for those of us who love the lure of the road and all it has to offer. It's sad that a lot of these wonderful icons of Americana are vanishing, but it's great that people like Jim Heimann are preserving it for future generations to see. I highly recommend this book -- lots of great photos and interesting history in a nicely organized book!

1 comments about Architecture, Actor and Audience (Theatre Concepts).

1. "Architecture, actor & audience" is one of those books that gives you a new understanding of a problem. In this case, the relations between the play on the stage and the audience. Mackintosh, a well respected theatre consultant, analizes what makes a playhouse a good one, why actors and audience prefer one theater to another, what are the keys to intimacy and the magic of feeling a part of the theatrical event. A must for everybody dealing with theatre: actors, directors, designers, and specially architects.

No comments about Town Houses.