No comments about Allen Brown's English Castles.

No comments about The Politics of the Piazza: The History and Meaning of the Italian Square (Design and the Built Environment).

2 comments about Kindergarten Architecture.

1. This book is an absolute delight to read and a must have for all those who are interested in the experience of place in schools. Early childhood learning environments are perhaps the most fascinating learning spaces to study because they are tied so closely to competing philosophical and developmental views on how young children learn and grow. The history, analysis, and photos in this book complement each other wonderfully.
   
   - David Hutchison, author of "A Natural History of Place in Education"



2. This book only shows some rare centers in Europe. Nothing special. Maybe is worth for a collector of architectural books...

   If you are intrested in designing a Child Care Center this book wont bring you new ideas. Will be useless.

   I returned mine.

1 comments about Design and Living: Basics.

1. Birkhauser is producing the finest books on architecture available today. Their inventory, into which I'm immersing myself lately, is a treasure trove for architects, educators and students. This "Basics" series is their latest gift, I mean it, an absolute gift for any serious architecture student. These very inexpensive books are very practical, informative, hands-on, and BASIC. I'd recommend buying the whole series, for under 70 bucks or whatever it's more valuable than graphic standards. I am very thankful for such excellent material.

4 comments about The Complete Guide to Building Your Home for Less (Popular Woodworking).

1. This book is how to build inexpensively and cheaply. He is all about the bottom line, and has no interest in building green, who might live in the house after him (he says as much), health concerns, building a lasting structure, or helping the environment. If you don't care about those things, this is a great book on how to cut most every corner. It is well written and concise. I think in the last two years material costs have probably totally changed his numbers, but a simple percentage add-on will likely cut it. Also, this book seems to mostly apply to suburban and rural building.



2. This book is worth the time and money. The delivery time was great.



3. I will say one thing about Michael Conroy -- he's not a believer in green building unless it's cost-effective, and he's not going to say otherwise. There's no pandering to environmentalists, he is straightforward about who he is and what he's about. If an item or system adds the $$ to his bottom line, he's all for it. That's it, that's the basis of the book. I expected this from the title, but I was still taken aback by the idea that nothing matters except resale value. I guess this is the wrong book for me -- I am looking to remodel for less, but through the use of innovative building materials and smarts gleaned from experts' experiences. Not cost-cutting shortcuts from a braggart interested only in the bottom line at resale time (read his intro).



4. Builder and author Michael Conroy has built many a home for only $43 per square foot: half the national average; and his secrets of construction point the way for similar savings for owner/builders in The Complete Guide To Building Your Home For Less. From choosing economical materials and simplifying floor plans to buying undervalued land and learning how to follow building codes, this book is the item of choice for any who would do some of the work themselves and understand where to trim costs without trimming quality.

5 comments about Global City Blues.

1. Professional architect Daniel Solomon presents Global City Blues, a passionate and sharply worded warning against the harm that modernist architectural ideals can cause at the expense of city places constructed with the goal of creating community and fellowship. Chapters discuss the importance of style, "Why the City is Not a Work of Art", the massive impact of technology upon architecture, and much more. Written especially for current and aspiring city architects and architectural planners, Global City Blues combines theory with practicality in search of the highest goal - creating places that foster lasting bonds between people, rather than simply serving as flashy showcases.



2. Although Solomon is a New Urbanist, his book is far less nuts-and-bolts than other prominent New Urbanist books such as Duany's Suburban Nation. Instead, Solomon has written a group of short, data-light, footnote-free essays on architecture and urban planning.
   
   Some of the essays were quite educational. I especially liked his efforts to explain the mentality of modernist architects and planners. For example, he points out that even though the Craftsman bungalows that dominated early 20th-century America delivered beautiful public spaces, their kitchens were "dark and segregated." By contrast, 1950s architects sought to make houses lighter and airier, but neglected public space.
   
   Their ideological heirs, the 21st-century "starchitects" tend to be from Los Angeles, a place that "teaches an architect to survive in, even to revel in, a world that is disjointed, irredeemably ugly to many outsiders, and far beyond the normal kind of civic grace that cities have aspired to." And because they are used to ugly streets, they are not so interested in creating buildings that engage with the street or neighborhood around them. By contrast, Solomon is from San Francisco, a place that teaches architects that urbanity still works.
   
   He also speculates that the urban renewal-induced destruction of American cities had a psychological cause: young men who served in World War II had "an absolutely unprecedented and life-forming experience of competence" during their military service, and thus were "ready to build the world anew." But Solomon admits that some of the intellectual ammunition behind postwar sprawl was built earlier: for example, R.G. Tugwell, part of Franklin Roosevelt's "brain trust" suggested something very similar in 1935: "[go] outside centers of population, pick up cheap land, build a whole community and entice people to go into it. Then go back into the cities and tear down whole slums and make parks of them."
   
   And Solomon also explains the psychology of New Urbanism, pointing out that New Urbanism, unlike environmentalism, is not motivated primarily by concern over dirty air of global warming, but by the desire to recreate "the quality of experience", to create places where we can connect with the world around us.
   
   An environmentalist's list of necessary attributes of a good place might include hybrid cars or solar power; Solomon's list includes "places to walk", "encounters with others, particularly others who are different", "real air", and "knowledge of what town you're in and where you are in town". Where these elements are missing, people have no reason to go outside, and nothing but a "steady unrelenting diet" of indoor technology (internet, TV, air conditioning, etc.) that makes it difficult for people to distinguish between the virtual world of media experience and the real world of direct experience. (Thus the absurd spectacle of people mourning for dead celebrities such as Princess Diana).
   
   However, some of Solomon's glittering, unsupported generalizations are not so persuasive - for example, his suggestion that Mohammed Atta's hostility towards America was a reaction to "world tourism".



3. I question the premise of the books criticism.
   
   One cannot blame the inadequacies of the modern city on one or two architects (Le Corbusier or Mies van der Rohe). Those revolutionary architects were purely responding the changing environment that surrounded them; namely the industrial revolution.
   
   To continue to construct buildings and plan communities as they were a thousand years ago would be akin to using wax paper for windows and traveling via horse (as Solomon suggests). Fortunately technology does indeed affect us all and Architects have a responsibility to respond to it accordingly.
   
   I do agree that there are numerous problems with today's cities but turning the clock back to more idealistic times is not the answer, as the self proclaimed "New Urbanists" say.



4. Solomon's book was just the tonic I needed to regain my faith in the real value of the design professions. I had begun to despair that I was the only person who found the Prada posing of Rem Koolhaas and his ilk reminded me ever so much of the children's story "The Emperor's New Clothes." Solomon is apparently another like-minded soul, though his book touches on so much more than the soulless modernism that pervades the design professsion (esp. the academy and the press) today. A committed urbanist, Solomon attempts to show that a very few showoff buildings may have their place in a city, but that a city cannot be made of Frank Gehry monuments. And most especially not of imitation Frank Gehry monuments! He writes with wit, passion, and clarity, three qualities that are often in short supply in tomes by architects. Major kudos to the author, and a strong "buy" recommendation to the reader.



5. This author really states with such power and imagery how screwed up the modern world is. He describes the 'odorless gas of Modernist thinking' that has affected the way we design, plan and build that is anti-human and incredibly destructive to civilized living.
   Great stuff. I couldn't put it down.

1 comments about On the Wings of Modernism: The United States Air Force Academy.

1. On The Wings Of Modernism: The United States Air Force Academy is the unique architectural study of the 50-year-old U.S. Air Force Academy, examining both its history and the forces both artistic and practical that permanently shaped this long standing edifice. Black-and-white photographs enhance this tasteful and commemorative discussion that reveals a modernistic institution with deep roots in bureaucratic and political processes.

No comments about The Earth, the Temple, and the Gods: Greek Sacred Architecture, Revised Edition.

No comments about Snooze: Immersing Architecture in Mass Culture.

3 comments about Classic Thai: Design * Interiors * Architecture.

1. This is the perfect book for those who like some substance to their form. The writing is wonderful - I felt like I took a trip through time and through Thailand. The photos are beautiful as well because they aren't just the standard head-on shots, but interesting details and angles.



2. Having bought a large number of architectural books on Thailand, I can validate that this is the best so far. It is a well written book and definitely worth purchasing. I definitely recommend it for whoever has a passion for the decorative arts and for plain class Thai architecture. Definitely a gem.



3. I wish I had owned this book before my month long visit to Thailand three years ago. I received this book as a Christmas gift last year and really appreciated the insight it provides concerning the history, culture, and style of Thailand. Not only is it a gorgeous book with wonderful pictures but it also helped me to better understand Thai culture and style.

   It really helped me to better appreciate my experiences in Thailand.