5 comments about Built By Hand.

1. I've been looking for a book on private structures, not public buildings or houses by famous architects but living places of everyday people. I couldn't imagine anything this amazing. Dwelling from all over the world. Places you would never see unless you traveled to the far reaches of our earth. I am thrilled to have found this book.



2. superlative book; pictures are top; as I've not enough money to travel in so many places and anyway I'dont want anymore take planes and contribute to pollution that will may kill us; I'm happy to travel with this book and the wonderfullest Dwellings from Paul Oivier. together with too HomeWork from Loyd Kahn, You get the best to study dwellings all over the world and maybe going back to more simplicity and built healthy powerful and sacred places as all dwellings should be !



3. For a number of years, Yoshio and Eiko Komatsu have been travelling the world taking high quality photographs of traditionally built homes. At first view, many of the photographs while though pleasant are not especially remarkable. However, what makes these many photos special is that they are combined together to tell a story about houses are traditionally built around the world.
   
   The photographs are gathered together in short chapters dealing with building techniques. For example, the first three chapters are entitled, "Hand Coiling or Coursing Wet Earth", "Earthen Blocks", and "Compacted Earth". Along with a cursory explanations of the building technique are numerous color pictures from around the world illustrating the different techniques.
   
   What makes this such a great book is the sheer number of interesting photographs of vernacular architecture. In a sense, this book is a momument to the creativity and artistic talent of the world's people. These photos stimulate the imagination.
   
   Finally, keep in mind this is a photo collection and not an academic text on vernacular architecture. This is not a book on how to build by hand but a creative homage to what people can make with locally available materials and ancient know how. Highly recommended.



4. As books go this one makes it to my top ten. People are always using the word venacular out of context, this book puts it right back. The pictures in this book speak a thousand words. Use whats local, works with materials found around you. I live on an Island on the West coast, lots of rain. There are so many people on this Island building 'green houses' with straw bales. There are so many people who are going to have mouldy homes!!! Venacular learn the word. Live in a home made of the materials around you! Buy this book, and learn.



5. Owning quite a few Vernacular Building type books, I would say that this rates up there with the best of them. I will not say it is the best though, the reason being is that all of these types of books have their own unique photos that you won't find any where else.
   
   This is a very well produced, easy to read book. It is broken up into 18 sections, with lots of full colour photos from around the world. Each photo also comes with a short explanation.
   
   With 469 pages of beautiful photographs not only showing the architecture, but also the people living in these dwellings, this book is a must have for your Vernacular Library.
   
   Hmmm... I'm looking at the book right now and see that the glue has not done it's job and the binding is falling apart!!! Beware!

3 comments about Cinema Houston: From Nickelodeon to Megaplex (Roger Fullington Series in Architecture).

1. Very informative, and enjoyable, for those who grew up going to the Metropolitan, Loew's, and the Majestic, like I did. Wonderful memories!



2. ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE DELICIOUS BOOKS FOR THE TRUE THEATRE/CINEMA COLLECTOR/AFFICIANDO. WELL WRITTEN AND EASY READING. WORTH THE PURCHASE.



3. Welling has done a great service in preserving memories of the Cinema and the architecture of its theaters. The book focuses on Houston, Texas as it travels from the silent movie houses, through the golden age, megaplex, and on to the home theater. If you ever lived in Houston, you will find many memories among its pages. If you spent your formative years elsewhere, you may find that your home town shares this history.

No comments about In Residence: McInturff Architects (House Design Series II).

2 comments about Library Design.

1. I've just loved the book, but it could have some technical details, like plans and sections of the buildings...



2. Plain and simple, this book is a rip off!,
   1> NO Information on Library design
   2> NO directory of library suppliers and distributors as stated!
   Only thing in this book are pictures of libraries from around the world
   with a few lines in English(captions)

1 comments about Outhouses.

1. Showcasing the work of photographers Nick Cedar, William G. Simmonds and Jim Umhoefer, Outhouses by Holly L. Bollinger is a photographic and historical reflection upon the role that the once-necessary outhouse has played in the human past. Once thought of as a place of unpleasant odors and lack of comfort, they are now esteemed as hallmarks of the simple life, and a bygone age when America's ancestors lived closer to the land. In addition to more than 100 full color photographs of a wide variety of outdoor privies nestled amid breathtaking scenery, Outhouses includes a written overview of what life was like before indoor plumbing, with poems, songs, and humorous tidbits about the outhouse's place in American folklore. A one-of-a-kind presentation of an oft-overlooked aspect of pioneer and pre-industrial daily life.

2 comments about Mixed-Use Development Handbook (Development Handbook series).

1. Excellent overview. If you're involved with Mixed-Use Development in any way, buy this book as a great reference! Shawn C, CCIM



2. 1. The book gives useful knowledge for beginners but if you have more than 2 years of industry experience you can forget it.
   
   2. Cases are limited to serveral and lack of Asian perspective.
   
   3. A great text book for new comers to real estate development.

No comments about New Tent Architecture.

1 comments about Insulating Concrete Forms Construction : Demand, Evaluation, & Technical Practice.

1. I am having a house designed to use ICF construction, but I wanted to come up to speed on the construction methods used. This book was a good source to get that knowledge. I covers many specifics about ICF as well as general concrete construction methods.

No comments about Stair Design.

4 comments about The Cape Cod Cottage.

1. living ih holland, this kind of design was completely unknown to myself,very adequate for expanding. i was hoping to see more floorplans. george from holland.



2. The author returns to his origins, geographically and aesthetically; he knows the hype about "the new" and "the old," he's neither cynical nor sentimental. Just the facts and the photos: the worn stepping stone at the door, the picket fence like the hem of a dress, the decorative pane reserved for the entrance door, the low doorways, wood that resembles trees. A threatened species, these cottages, remnants of a modest past, pre-vulgar. This plain beauty, seized by these gentle photos--like catching a butterfly without rubbing the dust off its wings.



3. The text in this book (called simply "Essay" by Professor Morgan) is only ten pages! The photographs, half archival and half taken by the author, are exquisite in their simplicity, though I craved a little more information than just location and date. (I wanted to know why Professor Morgan chose to include a particular house or show a particular detail: was it typical? atypical? a good example of what can be done with a Cape Cod cottage to improve it? an example of how the ideal has been corrupted?). While the Essay is clearly an appreciation of the Cape Cod cottage (with an occassional delicious dig on the current popularity of mega-mansions and hard-to-heat great halls), Morgan doesn't oversell us on the Cape's merits. There is enough discussion of history, philosophy (including references to Zen Buddhism), and social influences to be provocative, but not so much as to be cloying, "soap-boxy," or patronizing. And he does provide a bibliography for anyone who wants to explore this topic more deeply. This book will appeal to people with a general interest in architecture or the concept of "home," and to people who grew up in a Cape Cod style house or who own one (and might be thinking of expanding or altering it in some way). The photographs reward repeated viewing.



4. This is an amazing study, highly recommended. A North American will quickly recognize the houses of his/her childhood in this study. By discussing the influence of the Cape Cod Cottege in North American architecture, Professor Morgan covers allot of ground - within the US and to to some extent within the psyche of the nomadic American. One sees in this history (as written and photographed) evidence of an innate American desire for community togetherness and for the cozy, simple, independent lifestyle of the 'American Dream'. This book is as much about the 'Cape Cod Cottege' as it is about the independent lifestyle that has been part of the typically enthusiastic, positivistic, and pragmatic American outlook. Many readers will associate these buildings with their grandparents' homes, with childhood, with their roots - wherever they have lived in the US.