No comments about Greening Your Home.

No comments about Living Outside Inside.

3 comments about Discovering the Vernacular Landscape.

1. the book arrived quiclky and I'm happy with it nevertheless it as some underlined sentences (used books are usually like this) but it's quite ok.



2. I was attracted by the title of this book; there's so much to be learned by observing the suburban or rural landscape, which most of us drive through without really noticing or reflecting upon it. Someday a wonderful book will be written on this topic, but this is not it. Instead, John Jackson presents us with a series of 'musings,' for lack of a better word, about the vernacular landscape. At times, the writing takes on a stream-of-consciousness quality that leans too heavily toward personal reflection. Topics include the grid-road network of the US midwest, placement of county courthouses within town plans, the history of the 'box house,' evolution of the Arts & Crafts style of architecture, and the author's experiences in the US Army in Europe during WWII. Intertwined among these topics are passages in which the author reflects upon the notion of 'landscape' and what it means to him.



3. This is a rather interesting book. The perspective it takes on history is unique. The basic premise is that you can learn a great deal about a society by the way they talk about and treat the land around them. I must admit, it made me look at my surroundings differently. It is a bit slow in places, and after a while I started to loose interest. However, overall I would say that this collection of essays is rather good. You should check it out if you have any interest in the field of landscape studies.

1 comments about 'scape: The International Magazine of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism (Scape).

1. This is a great journal for professionals, or the aspiring urban planners and landscape architects. It covers environmental design from an international perspective with extensive essays, interviews in a well though out academic manner; without the ubiquitous adverts. This periodical can be enjoyed by any one from professionals to backyard gardeners, just about anyone whom is devoted to environmental conservation and sustainability.
   A. Thomas

No comments about Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape.

3 comments about Modern Japanese House.

1. this book has nice pix of interesting, inspiring houses with some usable ideas



2. The book is a very complete review of modern japanese houses, divided in very accurate categories. Naomi Pollock is very clear in explaining the evolution of each subject and she describes each house in a superb way. The photographs are gorgeous.Excellent quality, very recommendable, it's worthy paying for a book like this.
   Cecilia Domenech



3. This beautiful book is obviously a must-read for architects and designers; it more than fulfills their expectations as to tge ingenuity and esthetic genius of the new wave of Japanese home-builders. That is not what inspired me to write this, my first on-line book review. Rather, it is the book's essays on current changes in Japanese culture, life-styles, and domestic paraphenalia that make it, surprisingly, a treat for anyone interested in cintemporary Asia.
   Rutherford Poats, New York
   rudpoats@aol.com

2 comments about Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development.

1. This book is almost as much about the language used to criticize architecture than architecture itself. It is very dense and hard to read.



2. I have placed about 8 orders the same day as this product and this came the fastest. thanks!

3 comments about The Royal Palaces of Tudor England: Architecture and Court Life, 1460-1547 (Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in Britis).

1. This book is very extensive on the history of the Tudor palaces, it has great information and great pictures. A must buy for your collection of Tudor history.



2. I grew up in England and have visited many historical buildings from the Tudor period. If you are fascinated by the Tudor dynasty, especially Henry VIII, and the buildings and living conditions of the Tudor monarchs, this book will satisfy your thirst for knowledge. I thought that I had a fairly good knowledge about the Tudor period until I bought this book. Simon Thurley is an expert in this field and it shows. The book contains maps of the palaces, pictures of parts of excavated palaces that I have never seen before, and many, many paintings of the palaces how they "used to look". Many of these fine buildings have been lost to modernization and demolishment, but their images live on in this book. Excellent job Dr. Thurley!!



3. Dr. Thurley has done a great job with this reference book. A great addition to anyone's personal reference library on Tudor history.

1 comments about Collective Intelligence in Design (Architectural Design).

1. Architectural Design is a magazine in book form that consistently pusheds the state of the art in design, nominally in architectural, but in reality all kinds of design. In this issue the general subject is taking advantage of the communications capability of the internet for collective or collaborative design efforts. A lot of the discussion is not specific to architecture, but is on the general developments in social, economic and political organization in the form of peer-to-peer networks and communities.
   
   The articles here typically represent the absolute state of the art as it exists today. As such, they serve only as an inkling of what might be there in the future. Examples: Working with Wiki - Wiki from the Hawaiian word for quick - are on line platforms where anyone can make entries without supervision. The Grid - a worldwide collection of computers of (generally) extremely high performance that allow huge problems to be approached. At this time the Grid is quite small, only a handful of supercomputer centers, but it promises to change many of the ways we have approached computing.

2 comments about The Renewable City: A comprehensive guide to an urban revolution.

1. This book asks the relevant questions for today's urban and regional planning and is a rich resource for answers. The following excerpt from page 70 summarizes the approach:
   
   Present climate change may appear slow to some, but many of its effects are felt increasingly directly. Global-warming triggered events have become more violent and prevalent. Local, state or national leadership can no longer afford to wait for so-called *threshold events* to change policy in a crisis response (Glantz 2005). Cities and their communities are critical and integral elements of global and national economic systems: everything is at stake. Leading decisionmakers and communities alike must not harbour any illusions about an easily projected, linear future, nor about being able to successfully adapt incrementally or in an *ad hoc*, unplanned fashion. Climate change has progressed to such an extent that urban futures are likely to be discontinuous. This risk is clear, present and sizeable, creating powerful incentives to secure sustainable means of urban adaptation and mitigation. But while both cooredinated and autonomous action at global, national, state and local level is called for, it is only slowly forthcoming and insufficiently proclaimed as a global imperative.



2. The Renewable City - A Comprehensive Guide to an Urban Revolution - Peter Droege - Wiley Academy 2006 - ISBN: 0470019263 - Paperback and ISBN: 0470019255 Hardback.
   
   The author combines an encyclopaedic knowledge with a lucid writing style that places this book in the Meadows, Carsons and Lovins class as one who can turn around mindsets but also provide a vision ahead.
   
   
   he author states that it is a guidebook on three major urban efficiency issues as in reforming wasteful forms of mobility and transport; reducing stationary energy consumption and achieving urban thermal improvements by design. It is also a book for a revolution in the making. The problem is to solve the use of oil, gas and coal employed in an extremely short lived moment in history, but with today's global urban civilization almost entirely dependent upon it, and with its immense attendant security, sustainability and health problems. This is an enormous task of undoing several generations of planning priorities arising out of eras gripped by visions of limitless growth and fossil fuel energy availability.
   
   Clearly, in the sphere of planning, energy must return to centre stage to fully gain the pre-eminentposition it deserves, but the adoption of renewable and efficient infrastructure and not the counting of emissions, is the end goal of Renewable City planning. The key to success is to disaggregate long-term aims into operational tangible goals.
   
   This book is a magnificent resource for students, practitioners and concerned citizens. It belongs on one's desk as a constant reference source and, in these times, not on the shelves.
   [...]