5 comments about 1001 All Time Best Selling Home Plans.

1. The plans are so small you cant even see the room sizes on most of them.



2. I had looked at soooo many house plans and thought I was never going to find a plan I liked. I bought this book as a last resort. Well, let me tell everyone...it is an awesome book. Not only did I find the plan I wanted, I called and ordered it. The girl was very helpful and explained all the ins and outs of buying this plan. I would recommend the book and the company highly.



3. I realize there are one thousand plans in this book, but many are so small on the page I couldn't really make out the names of the various rooms. Maybe I'm getting old, but I'd rather have 200 plans that are big enough to adequately review than 1001 plans that are too small to see.



4. If you are looking for a book just to give you some ideas on different home designs, then this book might be useful.
   If however, your thinking of actually purchasing plans from this book, DON'T!!!
   The companies represented are not exactly full of integrity and do not fulfill their promises of what you will recieve for your money.
   The plans that I have seen are not nearly complete enough to be of any realistic use.
   The best way I could describe this whole operation is to call it a "Dairy Farm", looking for ways to entice you to spend a large amount of money only to discover you have to spend a good deal more to get what they already promised you in your original purchase. It's a very flaky set-up, and you will find their representatives less than helpful.



5. This book was cumbersome to say the least. When looking for a plan I narrowed down my wants to 1) Garage not facing the street 2) 3800 sq feet and up 3) Master Suite very large. After that I found several plans, and pondered them down to my dream house. Then I ordered the plan, spent $1200 and got absolutely nothing useful. These plans are not as advertised. One cannot actually build a house from the prints that are bought. My many phone calls were not returned, the company rep angrily argued with my contractor, my money was not returned and I was lightly threatened. Overall, the plans are nice to look at with a magnifying glass, but performance of promises is nil. I know that my dream house was dashed by this book.

1 comments about Geoffrey Bawa: The Complete Works.

1. The book is excellent in detailing G. Bawa's works. The illustrations and pictures are also very elaborate and are a great credit to the author. I love the book.

No comments about Spacecraft: Fleeting Architecture and Hideouts.

1 comments about Plain Modern: The Architecture of Brian MacKay-Lyons (New Voices in Architecture).

1. So much architecture these days is known primarily because it is the same general thing repeated endlessly. Sort of like the houses made of ticky-tacky in Daly City. Then once in a while you find a book like this one which features a series of buildings, that truly stand out.
   
   Located mostly in Nova Scotia, the architecture of Mr. MacKay-Lyons stands out as truly distinctive. Mostly of small rather inexpensive residences that are very difficult to make dramatic, here are examples of beautiful buildings. Further, most of them are small, and that means inexpensive. As he puts it, they do not have the big debt philosophy. You live in a tarpaper shack until you can afford siding.
   
   Besides houses, there are various commercial builings included from a dramatic theater, a Canadian embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh, office buildings and university buildings.
   
   Finally, for several years he has hosted a gathering of interested people in building a structure on land he owns just to explore the limits of what can be done. These projects, called Ghost, are illustrated to give form to some of their ideas.
   
   Splendid book.

2 comments about Designing the Sustainable School.

1. The book was a little pricey for my budget - but turned out to be well worth the expense! The range of school designs and locales provide great examples and were extremely helpful to me as I am working on a dissertation about school design. Finding up to date school design information - especially high performance school design, is quite difficult. This book made that so much easier. I also recommend the Prakash Nair Design Patterns for schools book.



2. Good for architects and for clients.
   
   1)Architects:
   This book is an excellent resource for sustainable architecture in general in addition to sustainable school design. It looks at 40+ buildings from around the world and in various architectural styles, discussing natural lighting, innovative HVAC systems, rainwater capturing and re-use, siting, natural ventilation, solar heating and cooling and many other systems. The buildings range from a community built clay brick building in rural Africa to modern high design.
   A great resource when designing your own project (house, school, whatever building type) in terms of brainstorming how to incorporate sustainable design systems. Also excellent for taking the next research step of comparing a variety of approaches to each individual system, and the book ends with a list of websites for further info. A valuable and inspiring find!
   
   2) Clients:
   A very helpful review of a wide variety of sustainable systems, it covers buildings of all budgets and styles. There is a list of the architects of each of the buildings, but the book can also be used for getting some useful background to help in working with an architect of your choosing.

No comments about Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence.

No comments about Store Windows No. 15 (Store Windows).

5 comments about Entourage.

1. A must-have book for anyone practicing or learning the art of hand drafting and rendering for architecture or interior design. Included are line drawings of many different types of people in many different positions, scales and perspectives that can be copied and inserted into one's own drawings. The pages are perforated and can be torn out for copying, reducing, and enlarging.



2. Entourage is an excellent resource for students and professionals in any design field. The tracing files are organized for quick and easy use. Some of the images are a little dated, but overall it is a must have!



3. As others have stated here, this book is a great resource for entourage, but most of the imagery is from the 1970s and early 1980s.



4. This book has pretty much been the standard in its genre since the 1970s, but that doesn't mean designers want to use people, vehicles, and other objects that still belong in that decade. The vast majority of images in this book are utterly useless because they are so terribly out of date.



5. I am a 1st year landscape design student and this book has been a great help in my studies.I found this book on amazon for 30 dollars less on amazon than I would of had to pay at the bookstore.

1 comments about Pamphlet Architecture 28: Augmented Landscapes (Pamphlet Architecture).

1. I am pleased I added this title to my growing Pamphlet Architecture collection.
   
   In the best of meanings - this book is one that must be read from cover to cover to gain a very precious in-sight to the work of Laura Allen and Mark Smout. Immaculate drawings with detailed modelling combine with clear informative text that describes propositions that are at once both architectonic in mechanised terms whilst exhibiting kinetic and static sculptural intensities.
   
   Another small book that will give plentiful food for thought.

No comments about UnStudio: The Floating Space (Basic Architecture).