2 comments about Architecture: World's Greatest Buildings, History and Styles, Architects (EYEWITNESS COMPANION GUIDES).

1. Ultra helpful!!! I bought some for xmas presents and everybody was really happy! In particular, I think this book is the best! If you like Architecture or like to travel or simple you enjoy beatiful photos, Buy it!!!



2. For my neice who has recently become interested in architecture, this is the perfectbook. It not only provides a world perspective of architecture, the actually pictures are great. Fantastic buy!

5 comments about Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships.

1. It was very fast to get the product and I experience a very good seller!



2. To truly get the most out of this book, you need one of Rowena's dwindling number of students still left at Pratt teaching to stand over your shoulder. The exercises in this book can all produce amazing results in terms of beautiful abstract relationships but to "know" what is right or wrong with an object using this visual language really takes someone showing you what is wrong with a transition or how this proportion is too similar to that one or how this spacial relationship is not quite right. In the end, you need to know what is wrong in order to really be able to see what is right and it takes someone to show these things to you over and over again. The book is an excellent companion and record of Rowena's interesting and effective exercises, but it's difficult to use as a guide for someone not dialogging with one of her former students and even that is challenging because each one delivers her gospel of 3D a little differently.



3. This book is a nice window into a professional display of techniques and exercises that garner superior forms and shapes. I bought this book for an industrial design class, it was not mandatory, but completley necessary and helpful. i highly recommend it.



4. This is a technical book that is an attempt to teach what RRK developed over a lifetime obsession with visual compositions. She did one thing, over and over, refining it over a long and productive career at Pratt, in Brooklyn. As such, I believe that it would best be used in the classroom, rather than as a simple read for those who want to understand modern design. Being ignorent about issues in studio design - really doing it, rather than observing it like I do - I got a lot out of it. But I will need to refer to it and read through many more times to truly absorb the exercises. For what it is, the book is a masterpiece as an exercise in visual thinking and the method left its imprint on many of the greatest American designers from before WWII to the 1980s.

   Recommended, but for designers rather than design critics.




5. I agree with one of the reviewers in that the rules presented in this text should not be applied loosely and expected to produce "a beautiful design". As far as industrial design goes it still is not even so great. HOWEVER what it does teach is basic 3-dimensional design. There are lessons in here that anyone who works in a 3-d medium (interior, industrial, fashion, sculpture, etc) should be fluent in. I did the exercises and it has allowed me to get such a tighter grasp on my work and understand all the subtle effects I can produce in it. It is also invaluable to me as a reference guide. Study this book in order to help develop your sense of 3 dimensional structure and compositions but not as a base for design education (only because design incorporates much more than "beauty").

5 comments about Siteless: 1001 Building Forms.

1. I am not an architect but I am fascinated by the multiple varieties of shapes in this book. I can literally dive into this imaginative world.
   The architectural context seems to give the work some kind of
   justification, which is not needed. It is a fine piece of art all by
   itself.
   It makes a good present as well, as the price is very reasonable, and can be a source of inspiration not only for architects but also for artists (I personally intend to offer it to a friend who is a wood sculptor). I think this book is an appealing work for all kinds of creative people.



2. This is a book that reflects the disease that afflicts modern architecture these days. Out of "boredom" with the field we are given a bunch of random meaningless forms which proudly state they have no relationship to site, community, or humanity. How clever. Even the genesis of form based on nature would be more interesting than this visual equivalent of navel gazing. Maybe this reflects the utter detachment from the real world that current modernist architects have attained. In an age where we, the human beings, could certainly use better visions for the built environment, we are offered some idle, ego-driven, abstract puttering. Anyone who needs this book as form-giver, shouldn't be practicing architecture, or attempting to learn it.



3. It's a very interesting little pamphlet, and amusing to flip to any page and see what's there.
   That being said, the forms don't communicate that much, and it requires an iron attention span to "read" for more than about 5 minutes.



4. The book filled with hundreds of small sketches, the title of each sketch is pretty mindless..
   It did not have the depth and sophistication one would like to explore when looking at this tiny sketches. All in black and white.
   I don't care who the author is, but to draw that many sketches, I think he owes more narrative to the readers how this 'manifestos' could define architecture.
   So, it is pretty much ideas without explanation.. that's it pretty much it.
   good thing is, the book is not expensive..But I'd not buy this book for more than 7 bucks.



5. This book makes a compelling opening written statement, laying out his process. Then what follows is a set of 3d 'parti' drawings, siteless, scaleless architectural 'units', drawn with a scrupulous knowledge of Jacob Chernikov's scrupulously minimal style. Each drawing is an intense, little HAND DRAWN architectural configuration, a pure expression of gestural thought, and the resulting wellspring of direct architectural applications they suggest will be a tempting crutch for a student. Any of these vivid diagrams can jar the architectural imagination, to scale these ideas, site them, and lay out the future of architecture. Not bad for a little book. Packs a great punch. A secret weapon if you're stuck, but maybe it could inspire you to your own path, and your own encylopedia of invention. So good you might want to avoid looking at it, if you want to feel original.

3 comments about The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, and Others.

1. I enjoyed this book and return to it often. The beautiful photos offer one a glimpse into the way it was (and should still be) along with excellent descriptions and floor plans of many of the houses. The only thing I would have loved to have is more current pictures of the best kept houses, along with more biographical information on some of the lesser known architects in the book, such as Christ-Janer, whose houses truly piqued my interest and left me wanting more. I took this book with me to New Canaan and it was very helpful in my meanderings through the town. If you live in the NYC area or plan to visit, I wholeheartedly encourage you to buy this book, take a day to drive to New Canaan, drive around the town, and take a tour of Philip Johnson's Glass House (buy tickets in advance).



2. William Earls reveals an interesting fact in his introduction: that a small group of brilliant young architects uniquely designed houses for themselves and others in this conservative small town in the post-war years. The book details thirty-seven modern houses though it has to be said that nine were demolished. Each house starts on a spread with photos, floor plan and a brief description.
   
   This should have been an interesting editorial concept but I thought it had all the signs of a quickie production not helped by a rather bland design. The distribution of pages to each house varies quite a lot (most likely depending on what images were available). Philip Johnson's Glass House estate gets sixteen pages, Frank Lloyd Wright's Rayford House gets six pages but Marcel Breuer's demolished Mills house gets a spread with one photo. The book's title refers to the Harvard Five and they have the most houses but twelve architects are actually featured.
   
   Many of these houses are standing and occupied but there is no contemporary reference to them. The author rightly says that private homes are not open to the public but surely it would have been worthwhile to contact the owners and ask them what they thought of the house and were there any technical problems in living in a 'modern' house that is now some decades old. Some owners would probably have agreed to allow a photo of their house so the reader can see its contemporary look.
   
   Because the screen size is only 133dpi so many of the photos are grey and also much of the cropping does not bring out the best in these buildings. I wish more thought had gone into the design. Some photos have nearly unreadable text on them, captions are sometimes white out of a photo while others are placed (correctly) underneath the image.
   
   Certainly this is an interesting idea for a book but I don't think it really comes off.
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



3. New Canaan was a household name according to a 1953 issue of House and Garden magazine: it referred to five architects who designed houses for themselves and their clients in New Canaan, Connecticut. An introductory essay provides the history, recounting how the town became the figurehead of a new modern movement in housing experimentation: chapters which follow analyze the structures and works of Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes. Black and white interior and exterior photos abound.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

No comments about 2006 International Building Code: Code & Commentary, Volume 2 (International Building Code Commentary).

No comments about Responsive Environments: architecture, art and design (V&A Contemporaries).

5 comments about ManSpace: A Primal Guide to Marking Your Territory.

1. This book is very enjoyable. I purchased it for my husband. He likes it a lot. It has tons of photos and interesting stories about each man's space. The only complaint is that many of the man spaces belong to men with money to spend. Still, it is a very good book.



2. ManSpace is a call to action for men: a call to build a 'personal space' outside of the usual woman-controlled home, where you can keep your stuff without fear of its being converted to a 'more useful' nursery or sewing room. MANSPACE: A PRIMAL GUIDE TO MARKING YOUR TERRITORY can be a recording studio, a workshop, or more. Men are invited to view sample houses and homes which reflect 'manspaces', from music rooms to campy man-oriented gadget-filled abodes. Samples from all types of 'manspaces' appear in full color and offer inspiration, insights and a range of options, making MANSPACE perfect for any general-interest lending collection.



3. An excellent book, long overdue. I highly recommend; you will enjoy.



4. This book makes a great gift for the man who has everything. Great ideas for men to carve out their own space in a home usually decorated by women.



5. A cool book to get ideas from. Fun to read. A lot of cats in the book obviously have much more disposable income than the average joe looking for a place to call their own but it has some cool ideas. Worth checking out!

1 comments about Isms: Understanding Architecture.

1. Here's a book that probably appears on few reading lists in architecture schools. I'm sure that it's too concise and too concrete to be liked by "serious" architectural historians and theoreticians. That said, I know that my own education in architecture would have been greatly enhanced had I found this earlier in my academic career. It's no replacement for the readings I have been assigned, for it doesn't provide anything on, say, modernism half as engaging as what we might get from Peter Eisenman or Colin Rowe. But Eisenman and Rowe don't exactly ease newcomers into the discourse. Jeremy Melvin (himself a perfectly capable historian) is willing to sacrifice depth in this book and lend his readers a helping hand.
   
   This book is a friendly little guidebook, no more, no less. Its hokey iconography is a little annoying, its colors a little garish, but the terse summarization of complicated ideas is admirable, and the book impressively accessible.

5 comments about The Tropical Garden.

1. Photographs and descriptions of some of the loveliest gardens in Asia, both traditional and contempory, are featured in this magnificent exposition. The introduction presents a brief history of the interchange of ideas between the tropics of Asia and the exploring nations of Europe as to garden design. The featured gardens are grouped into Religious and Royal, Botanical, Colonial, and Contemporary. A final chapter on garden features showcases a number of path and walkway designs as well as ornamental sculpture, pavilions, fences, stairways, and water elements. Bibliography, index. For additional cultivation information on many of these plants, see Ornamental Plants & Flowers of Tropical Mexico.



2. Warren and Tettoni pair up again with luscious footage in The Tropical Garden. For those world travelers in whom Bali has inspired a love of tropical flowers, plants, and gardens, this book will bring back the warmth and splendor of the perpetual latitudes of summer. It contains 291 full-color illustrations of the flamboyant diversity of tropical flora in hotel, royal, religious, botanical, museum, palace, water, presidential, and colonial gardens from Bali to Java to Hawaii, Rangoon, Bangkok, Singapore, and Malaysia. Warren's text and Tettoni's photographs show us a paradise of fruitful blooms and eternal abundance, with delightful coverage of well-styled Balinese gardens in Sanur and the posh Four Seasons Resort at Jimbaran Bay. Brilliant, rebellious, downtrodden French artist Paul Gaugin described an equivalent utopia in an 1890 letter penned from Tahiti: "Out there at least, with winterless skies overhead and wonderfully fertile ground underfoot, Tahitians only have to lift their arms to gather their food. . . . Whereas in Europe men and women satisfy their needs only after ceaseless toil, contending all the while with convulsions of cold and hunger, prey to poverty. The Tahitians, blessed inhabitants of Oceania's unknown paradise, know only the sweet things life has to offer. For them, life is singing and loving." Gaugin could just as well have been describing the tropical treasure that is Bali--lying succulent and verdant under the benevolent, life-giving equatorial sun.



3. Lots of photos, could have been bigger and show more detail.
   Lots of plants, but the ususal varities, not very exciting.
   I live in Hawaii and most of this stuff is at Home Depot.
   Charming tsxt but not helpful to the serious gardener.

   Nice coffee table book, will keep the rings off the table top.




4. A beautiful book. I love the photographs. Very illustrtive and also I liked the first chapter on history. A book you can see again and again. Very relaxing.



5. You will find in this books the kind of articles you read in decoration magazines. Pictures are big but don't expect any artistic originality. A useful book if you plan to plant a tropical garden in your backyard.

1 comments about Victorian Style: Classic Rooms Of North American Homes.

1. I purchased this book to give me ideas on which type of pattern/material I should use to reupholster a Victorian settee frame I recently bought. After looking through the breathtaking photos on these glossy pages, I know exactly which material to go with. And of course, from viewing this book I have a desire to purchase other victorian pieces to accompany the settee. It's a step back in time that must be seen.
   
   This is a wonderful book. Also, this book was like brand new although it is used. Just wish there were more pages.