3 comments about Mediterranean Design.

1. I felt that I did not get my money's worth with this. I wanted to see more pictures of Mediterranean design located in the Mediterranean not the USA



2. More countries line the Mediterranean than any other body of water, and MEDITERRANEAN DESIGN thus reaches into the cultures of Spain, Italy, Greece, France and others to incorporate a wide range of architectural styles. When it transplants to the U.S. and blends with local needs here, it can be truly astonishing, as MEDITERRANEAN DESIGN teaches in a survey of Mediterranean living spaces both at home and abroad. Full page color photos of home interiors accompany detailed historical notes and descriptions which include period changes and trends. A gorgeous, inspirational survey.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. "The stonework is hand chiseled and laid in an organized pattern, with wide chinking and wooden accents. Wood-framed windows deep-set in very thick walls purposely shade the rooms from the hot Mediterranean sun yet swing open easily to direct the sea breeze throughout." ~ pg. 108, Stone Casitas
   
   Luxurious designs are displayed in all their glory throughout this beautiful collection of inspired ideas. From the incredible spa-like pools in creative shapes (including stars) to the sapphire blue tiles in a Moroccan-style bathroom, the pictures are breathtaking. Dreamy outdoor settings filled with sunflowers and fountains look like scenes from a novel you would want to live in and the terrace with a tented roof garden is so romantic!
   
   Sunlit walls surround an outdoor seating area and sheer orange curtains allows light to filter into a room with ancient walls. Light plays with color and texture throughout the book and makes this fascinating.
   
   Villa Rockledge has an enviable reading room with a cozy chair upholstered in a crimson fabric that is mirrored in the carpet, but with less complexity. The room seems especially comforting and may give you some ideas for your own reading room/library.
   
   The walls of the rooms throughout are almost as interesting as the furnishings. In one room a lime-washed pumpkin walls glows in the light of candles, a chandelier and a fireplace. An outdoor room seems to glow with hints of lavender blue as sunlight filters in onto the stone pillars and tiled floor. The stonework in the Ada Hotel in Turkey is fascinating and create the feeling that you are living inside a castle.
   
   Every page of this book is a masterpiece! It is rare to feel such longing to dissolve into the pages of a book and to wander through intoxicatingly designed rooms, covered verandas and courtyards. The aquamarine seating area that matches the color of the water in a pool is a must-see. You can truly imagine spending much more time outside with such beauty. Unlike many architecture books of exclusive homes, this one showcases a few hotels you could actually visit!
   
   ~The Rebecca Review

No comments about Follies of Europe: Architectural Extravaganzas.

5 comments about Landscape as Spirit: Creating a Contemplative Garden.

1. This book is not Landscape as "Spirit" but Landscape as "Symbolism". Which is ok but that is not why I purchased this book. I wanted a book that taught or "pointed" towards how to create or how a Zen garden is created. To see what the inner Zen world looks like when projected outward into a Zen garden.
   
   The book starts out with the idea that a garden designed from the Zen perspective is a Mandela. Then the Mandela is created using elements in the garden to symbolize Heaven, Earth and Man. Then the book goes on to say that one level down, the garden can be created using garden elements to symbolize Earth, Fire, Water, Fire, Air and Space. For me this "Spirit" theory was very incoherent. A Zen Master experiences "The Tao" and reacts intuitively. This Spirit theory seemed to contradict Zen teachings. In fact the arrangement of stones in many of the photographs and plans are "too" ordered; too balanced and unnatural; unintuitive.
   
   Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful book with many beautiful "details" to learn from. But good eastern minded landscaping "responds" to the site NOT created things like miniature mountains, miniature trees that represent fire, perfectly placed stones, perfectly placed plants in between perfectly placed stones and so on and so on???
   
   Nature and Zen are natural not contrived. Zen is natural or consists of "a suchness" or an experience of "The garden IS" not something that reflects levels of symbolic hierarchy.



2. This is a great book that one can return to time after time. It presents landscaping principals in the context of the garden as a place for reflexion and meditation. As gorgeous as the photos are, I find the text even more meaningful.



3. This book is remarkable in at least three regards. First, it is so finely produced that we, as readers, can actually feel our way into the gardens it is showing us. Second, the principles of garden-making it offers us are profound, simple and flexible: we can see how the Mosko gardens emerge from them, and how our own might too. Third, and most unusual, it is deeply spiritual, coming from years of meditative practice in the Zen and Tibetan tradtions, as well as in unnamed native traditions of spirit. In the deepest sense this book is beauty as instruction.



4. this book's title, if the picture of the cover is real, is different from the Amazon title. who proof's this stuff?



5. This gorgeously made and printed book will inspire ANY gardener or person who enjoys gardens. The photos take you into a world of amazing gardens. I'm not a garden nut, but I love a beautiful book and this one is on my coffee table. The writing is clear, creative, and very informative. This book is an excellent gift to anyone who loves architecture, design, or landscapes.

1 comments about Schaum's Outline of Computer Architecture.

1. Quite frankly, I was surprised at the usefulness of this Schaum's outline. I didn't think that the Schaum's outline format would work for a subject like computer architecture, but it does. All aspects of computer architecture are covered from computer arithmetic to processor design to memory systems to the advanced topic of multiprocessing. The format of the outline is a little different from the Schaum's usual formula. Each chapter consists of an "Objectives" section, followed by an introduction, followed by the various subsections of that chapter. There are examples and exercises on instruction set design, program design, block diagrams, and quite a few mathematical problems. This book is probably best suited to the advanced undergraduate or for self-study of the subject. If you are a graduate student that is using Hennessy's "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" the level of difficulty of the mathematical problems in that book is not matched by this one, and you should look for another source. Otherwise I recommend this guide for most students of computer architecture.

5 comments about An Architectural Guidebook to Los Angeles.

1. If you want a book to LEARN about architecture in LA, then look elsewhere. But if you want to FIND architecture in LA, there is no better resource than this book. This is just a big fat list & map guide book and as such, functions brilliantly. I haven't seen this latest issue but previous ones had lived in my car the last 8 years I lived in LA. Almost anywhere I went, this guide would show me great homes and buildings hidden away and in plain sight that I never would have found otherwise. I happily burned many tanks of gas with this book in one hand and my steering wheel in the other. I left my copy with a friend when we left the area but if we were ever move back, I'd buy fresh copy right away.



2. Not AIA sponsored but in familiar AIA format, this guide is about as good as one can expect for such an incredibly vast urban area. There's lots of modernism, which is a good thing in this case since Los Angeles contains perhaps the best ensemble of high-quality modernism in the world. The entries are very short, sometimes as short as one sentence. Only about one building in five comes with a small black & white photograph. Covers all of Los Angeles County, but nothing from Orange, Ventura, Riverside or San Bernardino counties. Some important slivers of Riverside county would be a good addition.
   
   While more than a few people believe Los Angeles is nothing but a formless sprawl with little interesting architecture, this guide proves otherwise. The real key to Los Angeles is that its architectural features are scattered all over the basin rather than in one dense location, but they're out there for you to discover. This guide will help you find them. Bring it along with a full tank of gas.
   
   Another revised edition that fills out Long Beach, Shaw, Monrovia, Pomona and Claremont would be nice.



3. The book goes deep into detailing each of the buildings...It was definetely a good purchase. However,maybe just for architects, not listings of cool design bars or clubs, restaurants, etc. more the hardcore stuff like neutra, Lautner, case study, Eric Owen Moss, etc. but a lot of info. a very good source of information Very satisfy with my purchase. Spent 5 days in L.A. and got a lot covered thanks to this one.



4. This book is a major disappointment, it is hardly thorough and tries to cover to much ground and in doing so really does not cover anything. The book has very few pictures, which is so odd in guide of this kind, all you get is short discriptions of each building and I guess from this you are suppose to glean the image of the building, uh o.k. This really is the worst city architecture guide I have come across, I usually love these guides, I have reviewed several and have given them high marks, I love L.A., I think that is why I am so disappointed in this particular book. I had expected so much more, L.A. has so many interesting buildings, it's a shame that it does not have an architectural guide to match. Hopefully someday someone will write a guide deserving of the title of this book; the city of angels desevers better, heck Buffalo deserves better than this.



5. The long-awaited fifth edition of an LA guide that's often called "the bible" is a major disappointment. Robert Winter is a perceptive scholar of Victoriana and arts and crafts, but he sensibly left modernism to his collaborator, the late David Gebhard. Now he has attempted to do it all, by providing entries on key buildings of the 1990s that he neither likes nor understands, and the result is embarrassing. Gehry, Maltzan, Mayne, Moss, Pei, and Yazdani will be surprised to find themselves bundled together under the label "Neo-Expressionism (Postmodernism)." Disney Hall, which is pictured on the cover, is described in terms of what happened ten years ago (plus cloddish public reactions to the first pictures of the model); there's not a sentence on the completed building. Other adventurous work is dismissed as "very strange." A long-winded entry on the Getty reads like a chatty letter to a friend; most are absurdly brief. The revisions add almost nothing, and are woefully incomplete; the publisher is guilty of gross negligence for not wielding an editorial pencil. Earlier selections have been edited, but the William Cameron Menzies house in Beverly Hills is still there, even though it was demolished three editions ago, along with Gehry's Venice restaurant, Rebecca's. The original 97 percent of the guide remains invaluable and engaging. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)

No comments about Finnish Summer Houses.

No comments about The Nature & Art of Workmanship.

4 comments about Provencal Escapes: Inspirational Homes In Provence And The Cote D'azur.

1. This book has given me many ideas for my own provencal escape in the country and takes me to a place in my mind that makes me feel calm.
   This is a special book.



2. A nice inspiration source for charming, rustic country french design. I wanted more out of the book though - perhaps photos of full rooms rather than vignettes of tables and kitchen counters. It makes it hard to get a sense of design style without a full room effect in my opinion. The book does ooze charm and if you have other books on this style and just want a little extra something this would be ok. If however you really need a good book to learn all about french country style I would not suggest this one.



3. This book oozes with charm! The homes featured in this book are very old and beautifully brought back to life by its owners while respecting the history and integrity of these buildings. The title "Provencal Escapes" is appropriate since this book lets you escape into a dreamy and ancient world of Provence. The photos are gorgeous and you feel that you are actually walking through some of these homes. This book is a must for any fan of Provence or just of beautiful escapes. I highly recommend it!



4. This magnificant book consists of photographic studies of some 22 homes in the Provence and Cote d'Azur regions of France. These homes are primarily older (as much as 300 years) that have been seriously redecorated to make them into jewels of plesant styling.
   
   For the most part, the redecoration of the homes has been to retain (or return to) the styling of the time they were built. Magnificant old beams show off well with modern appliances and decorations. The traditional outside of the houses hides the modern interiors. The original builders could not have imagined things we take for granted such as electricity that now has been fitted into their houses.
   
   Redoing an old house is easily as expensive as modern construction, so these houses have not been done for cost savings but for other reasons like living in a part of history.
   
   While this book concentrates on this region of France, many of the techniques used in these houses could well be applied to houses in the United States where old houses be they farm or city center can be made into something unique and wonderful.

No comments about Cabinets, Shelves & Home Storage Solutions: 24 Storage Projects Plus Ideas for Organizing Your Home.

5 comments about The Complete Yurt Handbook.

1. Excellent pictures. Good overall introduction to Yurts. Quick read. Not a lot of stupid info.



2. One of the best books I've found with concise building instructions. It also gives the historical context and more period method of construction as well. Great book for a beginner, which I am.



3. This book is an invaluable source of information on the history, building and use of the portable felt structures called Gers. Well researched and clearly written, the book covers all the detailed procedures needed for building one of these structures including authentic plans for a variety of sizes. There is a good glossary of terms and many helpful suggestions for the sourcing of materials.



4. None of the chatter, just good info on how to build yurts and gers. Forget the other larger books. Simple and to the point. Most of the drawings are freehand and not cad, but nothing is lost in the process.



5. It's amazing how much information is in this rather small book. You could keep it in your pocket as you built your own functional yurt. The writing is to the point and very informative. I've checked out many books on building yurts and this is the best. High points of this book for me: clear patterns, listing of materials and tools needed, time estimates for building, vocabulary of yurt parts, basic history of the people who use yurts, their various regions, and yurt variations. Get this book if you really want to build a yurt and do it right.