2 comments about Typographic Systems of Design.

1. There are many typography and design books out there - but this book is rare in that it actually SHOWS whats its talking about. After all we are in a visual field, how much sense does it make to not get a grasp on how this stuff actually looks. As a graphic design student, this is really the only book my teacher assigned that i actually care at all about.



2. This book examines interesting ideas about alternative type layout and design. It is missing an introductory chapter that examines the traditional grid system and offers guidelines about how to break the rules, but for experienced designers this book offers a solid argument on breaking the grid, backed up with good historical references on how the grid has been broken in the past. It would be nice if Elam had addressed the reasons behind why designers are looking for alternative ways to work with type. This is strictly a reference book, with little or no discussion on the conceptual ideas behind breaking the grid. Tons of interesting illustrations and historic layouts back up the samples, also a nice touch, the tissue overlays that "map" out the different strategies. Overall, a good book for your typographic library and an excellent student reference.

1 comments about Italian Country Living.

1. The seller says I will receive a credit, and allowed me to return the book. It is a nice book, not exceptional; good addition to references.

5 comments about Robert Polidori: Havana.

1. There are two principal cities in the world where time seems to stand still. One is Pripyat' Ukraine which was abandoned following the Chernobyl disaster in April, 198. In that unfortunate time literally all the people left within 24 hours. The other is Havana whose middle and upper classes departed over several decades following the Cuban Revolution mainly to live in the United States.
   
   Unlike Pripyat' where vegetation and wildlife replaced human inhabitants, the City of Havana lives on despite its painful decay.
   
   Robert Polidori's Havana depicts several days in the life of the city in the early years of the new century. Probably by chance, the period he photographed represented simultaneously the zenith and nadir of the Revolution. His camera details the architectural heritage of the colonial era set among the blockish facades of Socialist reality. Even as neglect defaces these urban jewels, a certain spirit shines through recalling a city whose exiles in Florida still yearn to return.
   
   As we enter the last days of the Cuban experiment in our hemisphere, the Havana so lovingly pictured here will not endure. Buildings and homes will be restored naturally enough. But the spirit of the urban caretakers of this legacy might have been lost forever if not for Polidori's lens. This is an amazing and dreamy work that belongs to a city and people whose heritage stayed behind.



2. Polidori's work is not just about the places he photographs. This book is something to recommend to people with no understanding of Havana or it's history as well as those that do know the city. He has captured an eerie world, ghostly and abandoned, yet clinging to life. It's a dark tropical dream. If you find peeling paint and dark hallways strangely inspiring, you will treasure this collection of work from a masterful photographer with a great appreciation for decay and its warmth as well as sadness. Look at these photographs and enjoy their mysteries.



3. Being Cuban American and having visited Havana numerous times as well as having the opportunity to actually see firsthand, many of these grand interiors Polidori so eloquently displays for all to page through and imagine the events that have transpired in these interiors. The joys, the struggles, the rise and fall of a culture with all it's social graces. This book captures what I captured with my own eyes passing through those marvelous mansions of Cuba's golden age. Havana is truly a Paris of the Caribbean, although decayed and damaged, she is still beautiful, graceful and inspirational to all who visit her. Thus the term "Havana-itis", a disease thought to befall visitors who fall instantly in love with the grand ole dame. I believe there is still hope for her to be restored to her rightful brilliance one day, If only the current government would allow it.



4. Visceral images of a unique city, in which splendor and squalor are juxtaposed, and the past is suspended within the present, decaying yet enduring. Robert Polidori has captured the beauty and melancholy of Havana, gazing unflinchingly at the ruins and the people who inhabit them. When the boycott is finally lifted, all this will be swept away by a tide of new development, so try to see it now and use this wonderful book as an introduction and a lasting memento. (Michael Webb is the book reviewer for LA Architect magazine.)



5. These photos are breathtakingly spectacular. As soon as I saw this book, I had to buy it. It was the first time I'd ever seen anything that captures exactly what being in Cuba feels like: as if you were witnessing the beautiful ruins of a decaying Roman empire. It's the most spectacular, cinematic misery you could ever experience. And I'm glad that someone like Robert Polidori has captured it so faithfully before it all crumbles to the ground (or gets built over with hideous concrete Spanish hotels).

5 comments about Architectural Drafting and Design.

1. Just the book I was looking for. The price was right delivery was fast.
   I would buy from Amazon again.



2. item was received in a time manner and in great condition at a cheaper price
   thanks, would like to do business again in the future



3. I bought it used (1996 edition)at a bargain rate, in top condition. I'm changing from mechanical to architectural design and the book is priceless for me. It has all the basics, and lots of details. The book is a textbook with assignments and tests. Saves going to class. The focus is on design rather than CAD.



4. I have this book. This book is a poor atempt at up dateing a drafting book to a CAD world. The CAD parts of this book are small and short. They were added to an existing book to bring it into the 1980-90's. The seems to be witten by a school teacher not a practiceing Architect with very little background into what is done in a small Architectal firm. I have not looked at the new addition but here is what it needs, a total rework of the existing material to bring it up to the year 2000, along with a CD-ROM that includes all the question at least one or two full sets of house plans. First a stock set of plan would allow the teacher to due a room addition project, change to a set of stock plans. a second set of plans be unfinished just the outline of the house, and a door and window schedule with blocks of all the windows, other drawing could be started also. It's not worth the ..., when there are up to date books for far less money. A stock set of plan would allow the teacher to due a room addition project, change a set of stock plans. a second set of plans could be unfinished just the outline of the house, and a door and window schedule with blocks of all the windows.



5. This text has the ability to encourage the student in architectural drawings because of its excellent use of architectural designs and actual color photographs which back up the drawings. Clear examples are used to make the drawings come alive to the student. The text is challenging but understandable to the college student. It is creativly written in a clear and concise way. Great work, Mr. Jefferis!

No comments about The Royal Palaces of London.

4 comments about Small Houses: Contemporary Residential Architecture.

1. A good book with some nice case studies. Not a bad addition to my reference library. I'm giving it 3 stars only because a good 1/4 of the featured homes are not that great and seemed out of place in this book.



2. This book has some good material to get the creative juices going. It is a nice collection of interesting designs that give a pretty good sampling of what innovative contemporary residences can look like. I would have liked to see more technical information and details.



3. These are houses for very rich people who never have to worry about the resale value of their house. The first chapter was very interesting, a brief review of housing history. I enjoyed seeing the workman's cottage with the unheard-of luxury of a plumbed bath - set flush to the kitchen floor and kept covered when not in use. I wonder how many people forgot and fell into it the middle of the night?
   
   This book will be of no help at all if your interest in building a small house is motivated by economy or a desire to minimize the adverse environment impact of the construction. That said, there are a few really good ideas and some astonishingly lovely houses. The Irish "boat house" would be a great place to watch a storm come in, with its glass wall. But I'm not sure why it needs a kitchen and a bath. And the chalet/cabin with a whole-wall "shutter" to cover its large glass picture window is clever. I liked the straw mats hanging as a sunshade off the broad eaves of the clay house in West Africa - it made the house look as if it belonged there, and made the space between the wall and the shade into more useful space.
   
   But the tiny tiny cube house on top of the elevator shaft was just plain weird.
   
   Kind of fun, not very practical.



4. The introductory chapter, a brief history of architect-designed small houses (large expensive houses usually get this treatment), was the best part for me, as the author is very knowledgeable. Here he describes the groundskeepers' homes on large estates, and the later workers' cottages built by large companies, that started this category. The rest, however, is the standard thou-shalt-covet-thy-neighbor's-house pictures of very recent, attention-grabbing, expensive, glass-crazy fashion statements.

2 comments about Blubberland: The Dangers of Happiness.

1. this book is genius. materialism is what is killing us. has been for so long. she so succinctly put into words what i have so often felt is wrong with the world. this book is so necessary and screams THE TRUTH. Better than a gazillion self-help books on how to be happy. like the music from Tommy, these pricey deals don't teach us, their freedom doesn't reach us, enlightenment escapes us. this book is a treasure. thank you so much for writing this down in your intelligent and witty way. Clancy OHaraSeamus and Emer



2. This is the first book by an architect that I've enjoyed reading. There are two reasons Blubberland is so good:
   
   One, it's about the philosophy of excess as much as biology and psychology. The second reason the book is fascinating are the examples taken from Farrelly's society (Australia, both white and Aboriginal). Stories and examples that are so culture-specific emphasize the universality of the problems the book deals with.
   
   Farrelly quotes thinkers from Immanuel Kant ("the beautiful is the symbol of the morally good") to Lily Tomlin ("the thing about the rat race is, even if you win, you're still a rat"). The book is very funny and very serious.
   
   Probably more than anything else, Farrelly talks about the concepts of Truth and Beauty.
   
   I think Truth and Beauty (along with Love) should be synonyms. We shouldn't try to define these things so precisely that it's even POSSIBLE to distinguish them from each other.
   
   A lot of our problems come from our primate nature, which evolved to put us on a " 'hedonic treadmill,' a constant round of wanting and getting, fuelled by dissatisfaction and disappointment."
   
   Farrelly agrees with economist Fred Hirsch, that we suffer from "the 'tyranny of small decisions.' " Too much choice.
   
   Perhaps our main fault is our self-absorption. (But are we biologically capable of being any other way?) Farrelly points out that "extreme fear of death, and the longing for it, are generally regarded as classic narcissistic traits." Maybe that's why (at least in the U.S) we have both color-coded terror alerts and apocalyptic fantasies on TV and in the movies.
   
   We want to live AND we want to die. And we're doing a good job of ensuring the later on a planetary scale.
   
   So, can we climb out of the narcissistic pit we've dug for ourselves? Farrelly quotes Iris Murdoch: "Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real." Back to those three ideas again - - Truth, Beauty, and Love.
   
   I also found what Farrelly said about art thought-provoking. She mentions the subject of the documentary film Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? (Documentary), and discusses how art has changed since conceptual (as opposed to realistic or descriptive) art became the dominant form in the West. Warhol vs. Carravagio, to use two painters Farrelly mentions.
   
   Finally, Farrelly can't avoid the conclusion that Beauty doesn't necessarily come from Freedom. "The sad and prickly truth is that cities cannot be effectively planned, much less made beautiful, by democratic government."
   
   "From Mykonos to Paris, beautiful, traditional towns . . . were produced under condtions that we would consider intolerably oppressive, with little or no personal choice . . . as to material, style, colour or decoration."
   
   At the conclusion of Blubberland, Elizabeth Farrelly writes her own apocalyptic scenario, leaving the ending open. It all depends on whether we can learn "to transcend our primate selves and find some more altruistic mode" of being.
   
   
   
   
   
   

5 comments about Ancient Rome: Monuments Past and Present.

1. This is a wonderful book. It really fleshes out the remains of Rome's ancient monuments



2. We're planning a trip to Rome and like to prepare by reading about places we'll be seeing. This gives a very good explanation of the Roman building remains in an interesting manner.



3. Great book
   love to see rome then and now
   makes history come alive



4. This book uses overlays to show what Ancient Rome looked like when everything was new and in good shape. Then, you can flip the overlay and see how things look now. I always wondered how things looked then and wished I had a time machine to go back to those days. This book is the second-best thing to a time machine. The artists have done a great job of reconstructing the famous buildings, forums and temples. The book is well worth the money and is less expensive from Amazon than buying it in Rome.



5. This is a great book but way too expensive. I could have bought the exact book in Rome for less than half the price from a vendor at the Colosseum but decided to wait until I got home.

5 comments about 10 X 10 _ 2 100 Architects 10 Critics.

1. The publishers did a fine job on the quality of this book. Although 10x10 was not at all what I was looking for others may find it useful. I found that it had extremely contemporary design throughout, current and old. Its focus was more on the very soul and defenition of contemporary that is shown in form. I am not a designer or architecht, but am sure that type of person would get more from the book than I did. Basically I was looking for a collection of ideas that could some how be implemented into other forms, but I was not successful. All I could see was page after page of a revolving theme that I now know does not appeal to me in its purest form..



2. Im an architecture student at the University of Florida and this book, including 10x10 are a must have. Simple as that. Full of pictures and small captions describing projects. Great for a student in design courses.



3. As a web designer, going through this book of beauifully designed homes and buildings give me layout and design ideas. Full color with large pictures and descriptions, I would reccomend this book for starting architects.



4. I am currently a design student - and this is an indispensible resource for recent and fairly obscure architecture. Has full rich photos and a wealth of information inside. Great selection of buildings as well. The photos can be used for ideas on detailing to spacial organization. I highly recommend this to anyone who needs to get a fresh breath of air and clean out the cobwebs. Everytime I close it I am ready to design.



5. I was thrilled when I received this book. Being an architect myself, I appreciated the excellent photos and disussion of the featured persons in my profession. A wonderful book that will be a worthwhile read for anyone with an admiration or even mild curiosity in the subject. Highly recommend.

No comments about Building Systems for Interior Designers.