No comments about Fireplaces.

No comments about Inquiry into the Picturesque.

1 comments about Door Design.

1. Kinda dissapointed....
   
   You don't feel the idea that unifies all projects selected. Some of the door chosen are almost banal.

2 comments about Historic Arts & Crafts Homes of Great Britain.

1. The "Historic" part of the title must be taken seriously. All of the houses are very big and open to the public. This is not a book for anyone wanting to duplicate Arts & Crafts style. There are much better books for that purpose. The book is fine, but a minor glitch occurs on pages 134-135. The same painting shown in two photographs shows that one of the photos is mirror-image.



2. This is a beautifully illustrated book depicting ten magnificant houses from the Arts & Crafts period in Great Britain. These homes dating from the late 1800's and early 1900's reflect a time that seems quintessentially England. You almost expect to find Sherlock Holmes or perhaps Lord Peter Wimsey to come around the corner.
   
   The homes are architectually impressive, but this book is mainly on the interior style and decorations. In many cases, such as Red House, the architect designed everything about the house from the structure itself down to the dining room table and the candlesticks and glasses to put on it.
   
   Needless to say, these houses were not built for the common ordinary people, but were the country homes of the very well to do. Most of them were not royalty but successful businessmen. Just to think of cleaning them now seems like a great deal of effort.
   
   As an added benefit, all of these homes are open to the public, and information is given as to how to visit.

No comments about Did Someone Say Participate?: An Atlas of Spatial Practice.

2 comments about Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection.

1. I had hoped that Kellert would explore all the different ways that Biophilia might interact with the environmental design process with a view to uncovering new possibilities both in the built AND conceptual stages. Unfortunately the book just slowly scoops an uninspired selection of well-trodden sustainable practices into the Biophilia fold. I'm afraid I feel that the book is written too much in the cautious, repetitive & tautological style of Academic Sociology and is unable to take any vigorous conceptual jumps into new territory. The point of such leaps is to make connections with reasonably well-founded research in another field with a view to invigorating understanding (and design) on both sides of the jump. Kellert's association with Edward O. Wilson had led me to expect such daring, which drives every wonderful page of the latter's masterful "Consilience". Hildebrand's "origins of architectural pleasure" does at least bravely gather together many fields of study to create a new benchmark for linking basic epigenetic rules of human nature with architecture. I am hoping for a book that looks around for ways that architecture may explore the positive (rather than remedial) use of human nature in design. Maybe Kellert can write volume two in a more consistently pioneering form.



2. I truly enjoyed this book. One thing that frustrates me about new environmental standards for buildings, like LEED, is the fact that designers and builders are not taking more cues from natural systems when they are planning the actual construction of these buildings.
   
   Kellert's book shows how to take green building to a new level--how we as designers and builders can bring nature into the design process, using simple things like natural lighting, finish details insired by flora and fauna. You don't have to be an architect or designer or planner to read this book, either; it's really straightforward and readable, and I found it genuinely inspiring.
   
   I only wish that more people considered how we can respect nature through our constructed environment, instead of only being concerned about how to protect open space or save endagered species or things like that.
   
   If you read one book about architecture this year, read this!

1 comments about Hugh Newell Jacobsen, Architect.

1. This book chronicles the work of Hugh Newell Jacobson until 1988. This brilliant American architect is in my opinion very underrated, as this seems to be the only book dedicated exclusively to his work.

   The many plans and photographs clearly illustrate the key elements of his design philosophy. Among these are his use of simple, often symmetric plan forms, steep angled roofs and pergolas that are expressed as roof windows whenever they occur in the interior. His mastery of lighting design and the consistency of his detailing is evident in many photographs.

   The book is well printed on high quality paper. Unfortunately some of the pictures seem to be scans of photographs from earlier publications, and when these occur as full page photos they are not sharp.

   One wonders why this book has not been updated with this 2003 edition. Quite a number of the projects are indicated as due for completion in 1988, yet I have seen photographs of several of them in their completed state in other publications. It is furthermore a pity that the projects are not dated; one has to go to the Chronology at the back of the book to find the dates. It would also have been nice if the pictures at the Chronology where printed with the projects' main texts as some of these pictures are vital to the understanding of some of the projects.

   These criticisms aside, this book is highly recommended, especially at the reduced price.

2 comments about If You Lived Here : The City in Art, Theory, and Social Activism : A Project by Martha Rosler (Discussions in Contemporary Culture , No 6).

1. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in questions of urbanism and housing in advanced societies, from architecture to urban planning to homelessness.
   It is especially useful for the discussion of some of the ways that artists, architects, activists, and planners have responded to successive city and housing crises. It offers theoretical and historical documents but also art projects and transcripts of public forums.
   I found it very helpful in thinking about the issues and in suggesting ways to address similar questions.



2. Economically privlidged white males who edit books like this (i. e., Brian Wallis, who edits many such compiliations) need to recognize that it is Difference, not seperation from white male patriarchal paradigms, which constructs the most significant art work today. Somehow, white males always make it seem like it's about themselves....

No comments about Strategies for Sustainable Architecture.

4 comments about Japan the Art of Living.

1. If you are looking for examples of the zen and minimalist aspects of Japanese style, then this is the wrong book for you.

   Pluses:
   Some of the pictures are interesting, and I liked many of the cultural aspects of the book.

   Minuses:
   Some of the pictures reminded me of the elaborate and glitzy decor of some Westernized Asian restaurants.

   Recommendation:
   If you are interested in all aspects of Japanese style, this book might interest you. Everyone else should avoid buying this book.




2. i have thouroughy enjoyed it thank u very much it really made my day to see that other people have the same in terests as me n my colleagues



3. Regardless if you want to have a Japanese Tea Room, a Japanese touch, or just like looking at great photographs of Interior Design, you should buy this book.

   I normally don't like books which take elements from one Style, in this case Japanese, and then adapt it for Western use, but here it works very well, thanks to superb and tasteful examples. The authors are also very up-front about it, as the sub-title which does not appear on the cover is "A Sourcebook of Japanese Style for the Western Home".

   In hundreds of excellent photographs we are shown in sections with such titles as: "Light and Space", "Traditional Furniture" and "Japanese Textiles" just how easy it is to give rooms and areas of your home a Japanese touch or feel. I personally like the Style very much because it is subdued, almost austere, yet elegant, and makes much use of natural materials. The book is full of really clever examples of what one can do with space, and the best part is, that for the most part it can be done without great expense. The list of sources of where to buy materials at the end of the book is unfortunately out of date. The copy of the book I have was published in 1990, but many sources should be readily available on the Internet.

   Along with the excellent book "Japanese Style" by Suzanne Slesin, et.al. (at the time of writing out of print), "Japan: The Art of Living" is all you'll need to go Japanese. And lastly before I forget, the price is right.




4. As a an architecture student and in an architecture firm working guy I found this book very helpfull. I like japanese architecture and this book has taught me a way to design interiors in japanese-western way.