2 comments about Design For Life: The Architecture of Sim Van der Ryn.

1. The small town I live in is going through a boom period. There are new housing developments all over and in all price ranges. And the houses really suck. From little boxes at the low price end to McMansions at the high end, there is absolutely no originality, no thought of energy or water conservation. (I live in a desert climate, all of these houses have thick lucious grass lawns that have to be watered every day.)
   
   I'm thinking of a new house, smaller, since the kids are gone, but with some special features for my hobbies. It is really refreshing to see a book like this one that takes into account what can be done. The book is sort of a cross between an autobiography and an idea book. The autobiographical emphasis is on how events in his life shaped the ideas he has transposed into buildings.
   
   I don't aee any of the buildings described in the book as being exactly what I want, but I see lots of parts of various buildings that when combined together come pretty close. All in all, I found more of what I wanted in this book than in any other idea book I've seen.



2. Anyone who has a true desire to understand the essence of green building and sustainable architecture simply must have Sim Van der Ryn's new book "Design for Life." It is a poetic response to a market hungry to understand authentic ecological design and sensitive building practices. "Design for Life" is a treasury that catalogs the life, architecture, and philosophy of Sim Van der Ryn, a pioneering ecological architect. This book is a delightful piece of writing by Sim Van der Ryn and is to be experienced, not just read.
   
   Sim Van der Ryn buries this jewel in the text on page 127: "The heart of ecological design is not efficiency or sustainability. It is the embodiment of the animating spirit, the soul of the living world as embodied in each of us waiting to be reborn and expressed in what we design."
   
   "Design for Life" chronicles Sim's childhood inspirations after World War II, the trials and successes at Berkeley in the 1960's, his experiments in sustainable home construction and self-supporting communities, and his environmentally responsive style of architecture. Woven throughout the 175 pages are poignant stories, watercolors illustrating thought processes, and 200 rich color photos.
   
   Sim is the real deal, he is an architect even a builder could love. He lived it, breathed it; designed it, built it, improved it, and analyzed it. His stories convey a deep sense of reverence for building structures with meaning. The book will float you down a lazy river through a kaleidoscope of experiences that leave you in awe of the pioneering efforts of one individual with vision and a dedication to be true to himself. He did not intentionally create the new genre of green architecture. A universal intelligence flowed through Sim and his architecture was the fruits.
   
   Sim Van der Ryn is best known for a spectacular rammed earth guitar house and the ever-impressive Real Goods corporate headquarters. He also co-authored a landmark book with Peter Calthorpe in 1986, "Sustainable Communities," a book that was early to recognize the intelligence of planned villages.

1 comments about The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form through History.

1. When I ordered this book I'd already knew that it's good, but it surprised me! It is different of the other books about urbanism history. Kostof have always a special point of view in his works. Here he shows the history of the city from a different angle, someway from the inside to outside. It don't analise the city from its form (from the outside), but from the elements that fills it. The street, the public space and other city elements tells about the city more than you think, because it is a mirror of the city and citizen culture. This book give to you a new point of view of the city. A must have to any architect and entusiast.

1 comments about The Japanese Spa: A Guide to Japan's Finest Ryokan and Onsen.

1. THE JAPANESE SPA: A GUIDE TO JAPAN'S FINEST RYOKAN AND ONSEN provides a color survey of lovely Japanese spas. Perfect for inspiration to any who either wish to visit Japan or model a home redecoration after Japanese tradition.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch

No comments about Chinese Bridges: Living Architecture from China's Past.

No comments about Hotel and Restaurant Design No. 2.

1 comments about The Genius of Robert Adam: His Interiors.

1. This is a gorgeous book; the photos are first rate (always in color) and appropriate to content. The only factor detracting form the book's general excellence is a text that is sometimes disjointed and with references to pictures or illustrations not included in the book. Were that not so, the book would rate an A+.

1 comments about Islamic Architecture: Form, Function, and Meaning.

1. This is an excellent book about Islamic Architecture. It offers a comprehensive coverage of building typologies, their influences, and the context (historical and geographic) within which these types can be found. However, I cannot use it as a textbook alone. I need to complement the content with other sources that talk about cultural context as both determinants and modifiers of the built form. I complement the book with George Michell's "Architecture of the Islamic World", the work of AlSayyad, Rapport, and many of the published work of the Aga Khan program.

3 comments about The Games we Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games.

1. Board games as we understand them in the 21st century, really began in the early nineteenth. Before then, children were really considered to be junior adults: time not spent in school was for work on the farm, or in a factory. Of course there was chess, checkers (draughts) or games like Go, and Senet. But these were primarily played by adults. With growing prosperity, and corresponding disposable income and spare time, came a realization of the value of play for children. This play could be used for socialization: instill values, increase literacy, and develop dexterity, without the kids knowing it. Since board games had this mission, as well as entertainment they make a unique window into the social history of the Victorian Era.
   
   "The Games We Played" does an excellent job of showing the changes wrought in American society reflected in board games. The rise of urbanization, development of a transportation infrastructure, and the nascent consumerism all are described via the illustrations. This is not an in depth social history, but association of major nineteenth century events, and how they affected games is pointed out. The illustrations alone are almost worth the price of the book, as they are practically works of art (in an era before lithographs, game art was hand painted by factory workers). The only weak areas of the book are the two chapters about travel; neither is more than a few pages, and the narrative is not of the level of the others in this work. Overall, if one has any interest in games, or social history this is worth considering.



2. Board game have long been a family passtime, and this history of the board game will intrigue any who enjoy games. Bright full-page color photos of vintage board and table games accompany descriptions of their themes and history. Games are organized around themes - chapters survey a surprising one hundred of popular American games, drawn from over five hundred given to the New York Historical Society by Arthur and Ellen Liman, flea market devotees who amassed a large collection. Highly recommended for collectors and game enthusiasts alike: The Games We Played is a perfect gift pick for the Christmas season!



3. Board games seem to have a monopoly on our entertaining
   pastimes: Their sales have doubled in the last year alone! And if
   your idea of a great game is Chutes & Ladders or Risk, they go to
   jail and do not pass go. Margaret K. Hofer's nifty volume brings
   together more than 100 eye-popping examples of rare and popular
   board games, organized by theme, such as sports, courtship and
   travel. The late 19th century and early 20th century games here are drawn from more than 500 such gems from The New York
   Historical Society's tremendous collection. What's most fascinating (besides the glorious color photos) is being reminded
   that as much as times change, some things (like games) don't. Take "The Elite Conversation Cards," manufactured in 1887. Think of it as a vintage "20 Questions" or a host of other games that can be found at Toys R Us .... courting couples "break the ice" with cards that ask such deep, thought-provoking questions
   such as "Are you inclined to boss the house?" and "Have you ever
   been in love?" Pass the dice, please.

No comments about Design Hotels Yearbook 2007.

1 comments about Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural Salvages (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art).

1. When we lived in England, we were constantly visiting old homes, stately mansions, and castles, and were always impressed by how deep the history went, especially in the oldest, darkest oak-paneled rooms. If those panels could talk, what a rich history going back perhaps six centuries they might tell, of what had happened in those rooms, what agreements signed, what assignations made, and so on. Some of those elaborate decorations were Jacobean, others were what might be called Jacobethan. I am only now learning that plenty were Jacobogus. John Harris is an architectural historian who let me in on this sordid secret (and the new word), in _Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural Salvages_ (Yale University Press), a documentation of a part of the antique and interior decorating worlds that does not otherwise get much attention. It's a story of centuries, money, and more than a little chicanery, and Harris has covered one room and one desecration after another. It is obvious that he has done copious research, and some of the text is mere listing of owners, rooms, and prices, as if he wanted to make sure that all the data got in. The patterns of the trade, and of deception within it, are fascinating, and the large-format, glossy book has hundreds of photographs well aligned with the text.
   
   Much of Harris's book concentrates on the movements of rooms and room parts over the later nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but the trade had gone on long before that. Paneling was easily removed, easily reinstalled, and easily shuffled to fit into rooms of various sizes. Interior wooden paneling over walls had the same job as tapestries, to help insulate the room and keep drafts out. There were fashions in carving paneling, with some of the oldest being carved to look as if it had folds of linen on it. Thereafter, more fanciful decoration took over in the Renaissance. The French versions, called _boiseries_, were flat, broad panels with raised floral or geometric decoration around the edges, often gilt. Fashions change, and when paneling was taken off, it might be used again for a servant's room or an attic, or it might be put in storage. It could then be pulled out decades or centuries later for the express purpose of giving a room an antiquarian look. Paneling and other wooden parts were often installed in American museums, and some such rooms are careful and get Harris's praise, but other museums seemed to go gaga over rooms without a sense of curatorial judgement. Some museums joined in a spending spree for entire rooms, thereupon finding them too entire to install in entirety, or install at all. Many of them stayed crated up, and some simply became lost (there are many rooms here that no one knows where they are).
   
   The presence who enters these pages more than any single individual is William Randolph Hearst. "So prolific was he as a magpie accumulator of salvages that it is difficult to evaluate his discrimination when the vast scale of his acquisition is considered. `Collecting' implies acquisition with a collection in mind, but so mind-blowing was the scale of his purchases, so diverse and unequal the quality, so grotesque the utter lack of self-discipline, that his motivation, beyond the lust of acquisition, is baffling." A compulsive buyer, he was lucky to have the services of his architect Julia Morgan, who incorporated much of it happily in San Simeon. Hearst gathered much more than he could ever use, or even ever unpack, and in 1941 it was catalogued for sale. Harris reproduces the nine pages having to do with "buildings and parts", and if you needed twelfth century Romanesque portals or a fifteenth century Venetian door knocker, you should have been at that sale. Harris's chapter on "The Great Accumulator" winds up this comprehensive tour of a specialized and peculiar topic. His lists of accumulations become entertaining as they are coupled with tales of lucre, deception, pride, and the folly of the rich.